TACKLE GUIDE
LIVE TEST
Drennan’s F1-Silver series will show up bites from fish you’d otherwise never even know were there!
A FEW weeks ago I tested out the new Drennan Acolyte Commercial rods (January 30 issue, in case you missed it). Mightily impressed I was, but that’s only half the story.
Four sister Commercial F1-Silvers rods have also been released, sharing the same stunningly thin blanks, top-end Fuji reel seats and full cork handles with Acolyte engraved butt caps. That, though, is where the similarities end!
Aside from being around 10 per cent softer-actioned than the Commercials, the F1-Silvers also have smaller, lighter guides and longer, slower-tapered tips – as a result, they look and feel like completely different rods. With no other excuse needed, I headed back out to put them through their paces.
Winter fishing can be tricky at the best of times, but catching fish on demand for the camera is even harder. Yes, testing the rod and seeing what it’s capable of is the priority, but if we didn’t get any supporting evidence, would anyone believe me?
Bearing this in mind, I headed to Blythe Waters, near Solihull. Once seen as a premier water, and host to a number of big events, it seems to have dropped off the radar. But now that it’s under new management, a huge amount of landscaping has taken place and, more importantly, big numbers of silverfish have been introduced, with some carp on the way.
I have to point out that we call our sport, ‘fishing’ and not ‘catching’. Just because the fish are there, it doesn’t mean they will feed! Using the lightest 0.5oz tip on the 10ft model – a tip which, incidentally, is provided with all four of the new rods – I could tell there were fish present. They weren’t exactly having a party down there, as all I saw on the ultra-sensitive tip was the tiniest and most sedate of movements.
With barely any tension in the line, it was as if a budget-priced magician was attempting to pull a very unconvincing telekinesis trick upon it.
Infuriating as it was, it was a clear demonstration as to how good those Acolyte tips are. With most rods on the market, I don’t think I’d even have known that there were any snoozing fish present.
Finally, after what seemed like an age, I managed to awaken one. The tip slowly pulled forward an inch before holding for a second.
I could almost hear the fish go ‘Oh no!’ as
