On getting home with this rod it was a lets dive straight in and let’s see what we have here! So this rod is £389.00 on average in shops, it comes in a padded black rod sleeve with the name neatly embroidered on the outside.
Opening the Velcro flap you pull out two equal sections which in total reach a combined length of 13ft 4inches and looking at it this rod is a nice looking rod the tip seems quite soft at first flex but happy to see that there is tip tape under the high build which for me is a nice touch!
The mid seems to stiffen up quite quickly and then on the bottom half the rod appears quite slim, but don’t be fooled as it has a rating of casting 4-8 oz leads which surprises me.
The rod has the same wet look gloss of the competition match GT and again the same as the Match GT you have either side of the name and information on the butt section a gold/bronze metallic hue under/in the lacquer instead of blue like the Match GT Again it looks like another classy sleek rod by TronixPro.
So let’s take a look at it from the bottom up you have a standard rubber butt cap as expected with most rods which is snug and secure which leads onto Japanese shrink wrap covering the Japanese slim 40T blank with a sliding Fuji DPS reel seat over it. The shrink wrap goes a long way up giving you plenty of room no matter where you position a reel. When you hit the high build you again have the Fuji icon the makers name TronixPro and the gold/bronzed metallic hue, rolling the rod around you have the casting weight of 4-8Oz and the optimum weight being 150-170grams 5/6 oz.
Carrying on up you have the first Fuji KWAG guide followed by another section of Japanese shrink wrap at the end so you can easily separate the rod when taking it apart which is followed by a metal ferrule with TronixPro etched into it.
Moving on to the top section its starts with the male spigot and there is no metal work like on the Match GT but goes straight into more shrink wrap again for helping to separate the rod sections, moving on up you hit the cool looking weave of the carbon and the high build gives it a depth to which leads to eight more Fuji KWAG guides all in perfect alignment. Further up the rod you have a glass blended tip which is neatly wrapped in a mighty bright eclipse tape with high build over it. There are no overruns and the high build and all black whipping all look great! All in all... This rod looks the dogs danglies!
So taking it over to the field to test it with some basic casting with leads only I have heard you can get great casting potential out of this rod and is happy doing pendulum and I’m intrigued to see if it can match the Match GT I tested especially as that is over a foot longer. I’m not a blast it to the horizon type guy when I’m fishing I tend to fish features and a lot of them are in close but range can be a good tool to have in the arsenal at times especially if there is a lot of fresh water dump for instance in shore.
So going straight in at 5oz and giving it a not full whack to be honest as it’s so thin but it loads very well and you can access the power bands easily and it does launch the lead really well achieving a 130m. Ok so getting the brave pants on I load a 6oz and give it a proper pump and its slow enough loading that you can feel it load up which is great then going through and launching it the lead flys out to and past the 170M marker. after getting it all back I decide to use the Hatteras and although I got it slightly wrong not pulling my left hand into the body as much as i could have done I ended up at 193M which surpasses the Match GT! But that must be that I am able to compress this rod more than the Match GT, it’s not the rods fault so in all fairness the claim is correct and at 13.4 ft long is a great rod especially if you don’t have the power to compress larger rods which in turn gives distance to many more anglers than other rods will do.
The recovery on the rod tip when I slowed down the footage is very quick as well which helps send the line out smoothly. I did use 7 & 8 oz leads and the rod casts them just fine but the distance went down for me, but if you have a large tide and you need to use more lead it will happily help you out! So whilst out on fishing trips this rod is a dream to use as it is so light I used the Blackout on mixed, clean and light rough/reef grounds some of the sessions were dead unfortunately, but during those sessions it was large seas and storm weather and the rod handled the wind and sea well it sits very well in a large fast tide with the tip flexing a lot it allowed the leads to stay in place, I was using 7oz leads and when the light fell and the head lamp was on the tip glows up a satisfying white spiral and is very clear bright and easy to see. On pulling in fish it has been really quiet on the Bristol channel and all it saw was some dogs and small conger along with a lot of pouting from Chesil beach. With that being said the bite detection is absolutely fantastic you see every little nibble and it registers it well even with the smallest of pouting and I do mean small! On pulling in the fish the dogs were curled up in a fast tide and made themselves feel bigger than they were that really bent the rod tip over but as soon as it hits the mid section it stops that and the power of the rod comes into play and I’m sure that with a larger fish it would handle it easy enough and get it in without a fuss. I did snag up a couple of times in the light rough and using larger tougher gear the rod pulled it out the snags well which went down to the butt power band so I have no issues with it regarding handling specimen fish. I also used this rod with multiplier and fixed spool reels and it really doesn’t matter and all reels sit in the Fuji DPS seat well and you won’t have any issues. All in all this rod was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed using it as it is really light, it’s easy to cast and to get range with along with being satisfying to look at if that’s something that is important to you. Looking this rod over and knowing what I know now would I use this? Yes! I definitely would and I’m sure I will do a lot as this will also be staying in The Snag stable of rods which isn’t many as I have rods for specific jobs. I would give the rod a solid 9/10 the only downsides I see are it could match the match GT rod with a metal insert in the male end of the spigot to protect it better and make going together easier and I think the price is a little steep for the rod in all fairness they say this is also an all around rod ...Although it is a very good rod there are other rods in this category that are equal and some are better in my opinion only and I would class the Competition Match GT as the all rounder of a rod. TronixPro have again produced a really very good match rod here which if you buy you won’t be disappointed at all.
PROS: - 13.4ft easy to cast anywhere - Japanese shrink wrap - Fuji KWAG guides - Casts easily, you can load the rod and cast far! - Bite detection is superb! - Eclipse tip tape for night sessions and is protected by high build. - sliding reel seat. - Light rod to use
Cons: - Price at £389 I feel other rods are equal and some better within this price band. - Male spigot end no metal cap like the match GT
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