Browning’s Brutale pole takes no prisoners...

Despite the name, this pole is no mere thug

BROWNING’S 6m-long Brutale margin pole is the toughest member of the Hyper Carp family. All are built to cope with the stresses and strains of tackling French ‘Carpdrome’ venues where the playing and landing of 20lb-plus carp on the strongest of tackle and heaviest of elastics is the name of the game. The four-section Brutale, as its name suggests, is a proper ‘take no prisoners’ weapon, quite capable of taming the largest carp under any conditions, in any swim. The ultra-strong pole comes ready to fish with no cutting back of the tip section required, while an unlimited elastic rating gives you some idea of its fish-stopping qualities.

For those of you that may already own a longer or higher spec Browning Hyper Carp pole, however, it’s fully section-compatible with all five of its family members.

It’s difficult to know just where to live-test a pole of this ilk – double-figure carp are more of a happy coincidence that turn up late on in matches than a regular occurrence, unless you’re a boilie-bashing bivvy dweller.

If you fall into that category, of course, you are hardly likely to be even vaguely interested in the merits of this pole, other than to use it with great big baiting spoon attached to the end for carpet feeding the margins!

One of the best big-fish waters I know of is the Oaks strip lake on

the Decoy complex. The lakebed is paved with elastic-stretching brutes averaging over 8lb, and each one you hook seems to be even angrier about it than its predecessor.

Big baits always sort out the better fish, so lowered gently into the margin went two cubes of gravy-dripping catmeat on a size 12 hook. Surely a ditch-pig of a carp would oblige?

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the thick-bristled float disappeared and out flowed yards and yards of size 14 hollow elastic.

The pole, which to be fair isn’t at all brutal, just dead strong, is surprisingly light at just 285g, and comes up nicely on the stiff side of rigid. It is neither clumsy, bendy, nor top-heavy when it comes to playing fish.

The section walls, of course, are as tough as a gendarme’s riot shield, as are the super-resilient reinforced carbon joints – but the Brutale is definitely not over the top in any department.

Price: £149