Gone Fishing
Codling were showing in great numbers during the time of the test, so going fishing would be a lot of fun and It would give me a genuine insight into how the rod performed in the situation it was designed for. I used a 6oz sinker with a huge lugworm and crab cocktail as the bait. So in reality there must have been at least 8oz of weigh for the rod to cast. I blasted it out, almost to the horizon, and set it in the rest to wait for a bite. A few minutes passed, followed by three good tugs
on the rod tip and then the typical slack line bitew from a cod. I picked up the rod and lifted into a good fish.
The rod coped extremely well nwith the weight of the fish. It also allowed me to turn the fish away from any snags with relative ease. When the fish was finally beached it turned out to be a good codling of about 3lb. I went on to catch a few more codling of similar size and decided to put a smaller bait out there to try and entice a whiting or a dab to see what the bite detection would be like from a small fish at range.
I cast the bait to around 150 yards and watched the tip closely. After a few minutes there were signs of a fish nibbling at the bait. Admittedly, I was quite surprised as the rod is very powerful in the tip, but nevertheless a small whiting of about 6oz soon came through the surf.
Barney’s first impressions
When the rod arrived it had crossed my mind that that Terry had sent the wrong rod, because it had the appearance of a light beach rod, almost like a bass blank.
I was quite surprised at how slim and light the blank was as I had imagined a thicker diameter rod, which would be heavy due to the high amounts of carbon needed to produce the power. The burgandy-coloured blank is slightly transparent and you can see all the cross-weave carbon through the finish.
The build is quite phenomenal too, with gold and black whipping securing nine Fuji BNHG rings. There’s also reflective tape between the top two guides.
The grips are made from a rubberised adhesive tape, which is stippled to provide the best possible grip in the wettest conditions.
The Longbeach re-named Response was reviewed in Total Sea Fishing Magazine,
read on to find out what they said about it.
Top tournament caster Barney Wright reckons the new fishing rod from Reelsport, aptly named the Longbeach
“ is one of the best rods he’s ever used”.
This is What they said about the Longbeach/Response.
Having already reviewed the popular VFM sport from the Terry Wood Reelsport range of rods, which turned out to be a real winner. I was quite excited to see what the latest top of the range tool would be like. If the performance of the budget priced VFM was anything to go by, then the new 13ft 6in Longbeach should be nothing less than incredible.
The blank is manufactured by Century to the exact design specifications that Terry wanted. And the finished product is a rod that is ideally suited to all shore fishing situations.
On Test
Without doubt, this rod was going to get a long and hard test. If it performed anything like it looked then it would be perfect. The rod is designed to cast leads of 5oz and 6oz with bait, so first up was the 5oz lead. The casting style I chose was a fishing pendulum, and after several cast I was extremely happy with the rods performance. The Longbeach has an amazingly fast recovery, so much so that it actually did most of the work for me.
The 5oz lead flew out to sea effortlessly. In fact, because of the incredible distances I was achieving I had to stop the lead mid-flight by thumbing the spool. This meant that I did not have so much line to wind in- I was simply too tired reeling back over 200 yards of line after every cast.
Next up was the heavier 6oz lead, and to cut a long story short the rod performed perfectly. I could not fault it In any way because no matter how much effort I put into the cast, the rod handled it with ease. “ It was a pure delight to use!”
Final Thoughts
The Longbeach has proved its worth to me and it is certainly one of the finest rods I have cast and fished with. This is a rod that I can gladly recommend as a true all-rounder. “Superb” is the best word I can use to sum it up.
It retails at £275 and for me it is worth every penny. If you get the opportunity to try the Longbeach then I am sure that you will agree with me.
