Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
MIDDY MUSCLE-TECH 300 10ft FEEDER ROD SRP: £79.99
THE UK feeder fishing revolution is showing no signs of slowing down with tackle companies releasing more and more kit on to the market that means the angler has never had it so good when it comes to choosing tackle. This is especially true where commercial fisheries are concerned with manufacturers looking to find that Holy Grail of the fishing rod, namely enough power to land big carp quickly spliced with the same degree finesse to make short to medium-range casting a joy and in the new Muscle-Tech 300, Middy reckons to have nailed it fair and square. That’s no surprise though, as the Derbyshire company were producing tip rods aimed at heavy duty carp work many years before the feeder bandwagon rolled into town and that
has continued into 2018 with its new steed, a compact two-piece 10ft feeder rod built for one job alone – landing massive carp! Designed for those bagging sessions when the carp are ravenous, the Muscle-Tech is an incredibly strong rod meaning that you’ll have total confidence when attached to a double at range, enabling you to really dictate the fight. That’s all well and good when a fish takes the bait but what about getting it to them in the first place? At 10ft long, the rod plainly isn’t going to cast a feeder to the wide blue yonder but then it’s not been built to do that. Instead, casts of up to 40 yards are the Muscle-Tech’s domain and on a commercial fishery that’s a comfortable throw into open water or up to an island or the other side of a typical match lake to plunder the margins. Achieving a smooth and accurate cast to the correct distance comes about by the rod having the right action – too sloppy and accuracy will suffer with more force being needed on the cast while if the rod is too stiff, you’ll not get the compression of the blank to land the feeder where you want it. All this means that a through action is essential and that’s a key feature of the Muscle-Tech. It packs what Middy call a Power Arc action with enough flex through the top half of the rod for maximum casting strength but steel in the lower half to crank in those carp. With a recommended casting weight up to 56g you’ll not be undergunned when a heavier feeder is needed for the job. As ever, the only way to really test a rod is to give it some hammer on a carp-filled lake and Decoy Lakes’ Horseshoe Lake was just the ticket. Reaching the far side would mean a cast of around 35 yards and with massive beds of lily pads and reeds, there were enough snags to see what the Muscle-Tech was really made of. Casting a 30g flatbed Method feeder tight to the rushes needed a mere flick of the rod,
“It has enough flex through the top half of the rod for maximum casting but steel in the lower half to crank in those carp”
nothing more, leaving me confident that if faced with a peg twice that width, I’d just about manage it using a heavier feeder. The first carp took about 10 seconds to find the wafter hookbait and battle commenced. Picking up the rod there’s initially a lot of bend down the blank as the MuscleTech begins to absorb the lunges and head-shakes of the fish but as I began to wind down and crank the carp in, this bend lessens as the power kicks in. As expected, the carp went for the lilies but by winding down and leaning into the fish, danger was averted. By pulling hard I could quite literally guide the fish to safety thanks to the power of the rod. It didn’t keep on bending and the full force of the strength locked into the 10ft of carbon soon had Mr Carp sloshing away at netting range. Job well done. Back out and another fish was on, this time a battling little F1, proving that the Muscle-Tech certainly isn’t just for catching big old carp. Obviously I needed to be a little less heavy on the playing with this smaller fish but, once again, the softness was there in those opening few seconds of the battle before the power took over. A procession of carp and F1s then came to the net in the next two hours, each cast landing right on the money and each fish failing to defeat the Muscle-Tech when it came to an underwater arm wrestle. Super stuff but the real challenge came late on when a much bigger fish was hooked. This one didn’t want to come in easily and tried to inspect every bit of vegetation in the swim. It didn’t get the chance though. If I wanted the fish to swim away from a lily bed, I simply wound down and pulled, the carp promptly following. It was possible to almost steer the fish exactly where I wanted it and after a few minutes, a lovely golden koi-common carp of around 8lb was in the pan. Super stuff! With a full cork handle, slim screw-up reel seat, hook retainer, MSC lined guides, choice of two push-in quivertips (light and medium grade) and a 10lb mainline and 8lb hooklength rating, the rod has all the luxurious hallmarks of something costing three or four times the asking price. The fishing rod Holy Grail? Well, just maybe Middy really have uncovered it…