Expert Fishing Tackle Reviews & Advice
Somewhere in a tackle shed right now, a decent rod is sitting on top of a reel that simply isn’t up to the job. It happens more than anyone likes to admit. You can buy the sharpest hooks, the toughest wire traces and a rod rated to launch a mackerel tail into the next postcode … Read more
The best pike fishing reel is one built to survive the exact moment a double-figure fish decides your afternoon is over: a smooth, high-capacity drag, a body that won’t flex under sustained pressure, and a free spool or baitrunner facility that lets a taking fish run without feeling the rod at all. It’s not about … Read more
There’s a particular kind of dread that comes with your first proper pike session: standing in the tackle shop, staring at a wall of rods, wondering whether the £250 carbon blank is genuinely necessary or whether someone’s just trying to relieve you of your Christmas money. Here’s the honest answer: it isn’t necessary, not for … Read more
There’s a particular kind of madness to pike deadbaiting. You set your bait, clip the bobbin, pour a flask of tea, and wait. Then the bobbin rockets off the ground and all that patience detonates into pure, heart-hammering chaos. The whole experience depends on a rod that can handle two completely opposite demands: casting a … Read more
It sounds almost absurdly simple, doesn’t it? One foot of carbon fibre. Thirty centimetres. The difference between a 7ft and an 8ft pike lure rod is, on paper, barely enough to matter. And yet, in practice, that single foot influences everything — how far your lure travels, how accurately it lands, how much control you … Read more
There’s a moment every pike angler knows. You’ve worked a heavy swimbait through a reeded bay on a grey November morning, the kind of damp, windswept morning that makes the rest of the world wonder why you’re not still in bed. Then — bang. Something enormous accelerates out of the gloom and swallows your lure … Read more
There’s a persistent myth in angling circles — the idea that you need to spend north of £150 to own a rod worthy of going after pike. Rubbish, frankly. The best pike rod under £100 can absolutely hold its own on a grey November morning on the Fens, a misty Scottish loch, or a windswept … Read more
Pike don’t do half-measures. One moment the water is flat and peaceful — somewhere between a Norfolk drain and the grey sky above it — and the next, something prehistoric has erupted from the depths and is pulling line like it has a personal grudge. The best pike fishing rods are the difference between landing … Read more
Picture this: you’re settled on the banks of the River Severn at dawn, the mist rising off the water as barbel start their morning feed. Your rod suddenly arches over violently, tip bouncing as a double-figure specimen tears off downstream. This is where the right barbel rod makes all the difference between landing your personal … Read more