Live test: Drennan Red Range combination rods

Multi-purpose rods were once hopeless at everything but this latest pair from Drennan will help you fish many tactics with style and success

DRENNAN RED RANGE CARP FEEDER/CARP WAGGLER & METHOD FEEDER/PELLET WAGGLER RODS RRP: Both models £89.95

DRENNAN’S introductory Red Range rods are comfortably affordable, wellappointed and perfectly designed for the job in hand. That said, I was somewhat perplexed when the two latest family members – the Combo Method Feeder/Pellet Waggler and Combo Carp Feeder/Carp Waggler rods – arrived on my desk. At first glance the pair, finished in Drennan’s striking trademark burgundy, looked just like Tweedledum and Tweedledee – identical twins. What’s more, it wasn’t that many years ago that combination rods graced only the sports pages of your mum’s Kays or Grattan catalogues. Such ‘one rod does it all’ tools were hideously heavy, multi-sectioned and multi-handled affairs, claiming to be suitable for everything from fly-fishing for trout to boat fishing for pike. In reality they were useless right across the board. Thankfully, such horrors are well behind us. Modern-day combo outfits are mainly well thought-out, intelligently designed and fully usable for all their stated applications. Most importantly, they are affordably angler-friendly, and all these praises can indeed be heaped on the Red Range Combo pairing. As you’d expect from Drennan, both rods are very nicely furnished with lined guides throughout, secure screw-down reel seats, hook keeper rings, and a single push-in glass quiver tip – 3oz for the Carp Feeder and 4oz for the Carp Method. These rods are clearly targeting novice and junior anglers with limited tackle knowledge,