New Pole Dilemma: Part 1

I have recently been thinking about getting myself a new pole, so I thought that I would have a look at what is available to suite my needs. I Need a pole that I can fish comfortably at 13m that is well balanced, not too heavy, responsive and has enough match kits in the package, although I accept that I will probably need to buy some extra No 4 and 5 sections for river work.

The first thing I needed to do was have a look around the Internet and see what reviews I could find along with any info on weight, spares, price etc. After spending quite some time doing this I decided to draw up a shortlist of possible contenders with an open mind as to the make.

• Shimano Super Ultegra
• Sensas Power Match 56XL
• Daiwa Team Daiwa SR5
• MAP TKS 525
• MAP TKS 625
• Maver Competition 181

The next thing to do was to see how many of the poles I could try out locally without having to travel half way across the country, so I used my lunch break to pay a visit to Sheltons of Peterborough.
Sheltons are the only shop in Peterborough that have a decent range of poles set up for you to try so it was the obvious starting point for my quest. I started by setting up the seatbox and footplate to suit me so that I was comfortable and could rest the poles across my leg/s with my feet flat on the floor and then went about selecting poles from the rack. Most of the Poles were set up @ 13m and so I started with a couple of mid priced Mavers to use as the bench mark as they are normally quite well balanced and rigid and although both felt great poles that I could happily fish with all day the spares packages did not even get near to my requirements.
Next up I tried a pair of MAP poles the TKS 525 and TKS 425 both nice but TKS 525 was the better balanced and lighter of the pair and definitely one to consider. I then tried Daiwa's SR5 and for good measure their cheaper SR4 and as with the MAP poles the more expensive SR5 was slightly better and worthy of consideration. Well as these 2 stood out from the others I though it a good idea to put them side by side for another feel and after alternating them 3 time came to the a conclusion. The TKS 525 was just a little better balanced than the SR5 but the Daiwa did feel the stronger of the 2, with this in mind and the fact they are both within budget and have good kit packages with them I can honestly say I would be happy with either pole.
I do think I need to have a feel of them both at 14.5m and 16m before getting too carried away as this could show me what they are really made of.

Richard the shop manager came to see how I was getting on and we spent a few minutes talking about poles and the virtues of various makes and models and then he pointed out the good deal they had on the now discontinued Daiwa Tournament Pro.
I just had to have a feel before I went back to work and just as I thought it was a dream to hold but although massively discounted was more than I really wanted to spend at this time.

I will now try and locate a nearby dealer that has a couple more of my shortlisted poles set up to try before I commit my money and anyway I need something to write for part 2 of this article.

Please feel free to comment or share your opinions as it all helps in what I am sure you will agree is one of fishing's greatest dilemmas

Cheers for now 
Mark