TACKLE GUIDE
Dan Webb tests out the Garbolino Essential Legend X-Light 10ft, a rod that is ‘just right’ for roach and skimmers
WHAT do you get when you combine the collective know-how of feeder international and former Feedermasters Champion Darren Cox, newly-crowned Masters Feeder World Champ Simon Fry and French international and national champion Michael Letscher?
If you said “three full keepnets”, you’d be right, but that wasn’t the answer I was looking for!
Essential Legend is the upgraded collection of top-end rods from Garbolino. The range consists of no fewer than 17 rods, covering every commercial, stillwater or river fishing method and scenario imaginable!
We’ll hopefully be taking a closer look at some of the waggler, pellet wag , Method and river-focused models a little later in the year, but a very seasonal place to start is with the X-Lights – three super-lightweight feeder rods in 10ft, 11ft and 12ft specs, and made to target all manner of silverfish.
At this point in the review I should probably be talking about how light, slim and beautifully actioned the X-Lights are – this, of course, is true, but what has intrigued me most about them is the inclusion of a couple of 1/8oz tips as well as a more standard quarter-ounce carbon. Yes, we are talking about a 0.125oz carbon and a 0.125oz glass tip – the lightest-rated tips I’ve ever seen on a rod!
The team of Garbolino experts know that, of all the situations where you can use a feeder, small silverfish require the most sensitive of tips, so this is what the company has delivered.
Carbon is the most common material for a quiver to be made from, seen as the ‘best’ and most expensive material. But although it’s light and fast to recover on the cast, leading to a crisp action, glass is more sensitive and forgiving – although it can make a rod feel a little clumsy.
Both X-Light tips require the same pressure to pull them around 90 degrees, but the glass tip will keep on bending past this point, making it especially useful for ‘off the rest ’ skimmer-type bites.
Back in the day, we’d call such a glass tip the ‘bream tip’. This is why the new X-Lights come with both options, so the angler can choose the right tip to suit the conditions and their own preferences.
The rod itself has the now common combination of cork handle with EVA grips. Although the lower grip is contoured, Garbolino hasn��
