A LOT OF ROD
The Shakespeare Agility 2 boat rod put to the test
The Shakespeare Agility 2 boat rod.
Although the recommended retail price for Shakespeare’s 20lb-class Agility 2 boat rod is £44.99, a quick search on Google will show you that most tackle shops are selling it for less than £30, which is a real bargain. In fact, the cheapest I found it was just £28.99.
Featuring a supple tip, with power coming in quickly into the butt section, the 20lb-class version that I had for testing is really quite impressive. It’s the sort of rod that lends itself to all manner of fishing situations, but is more suited to its original design of fishing big baits downtide for species such as tope, rays, smoothhounds, cod and such like.
You can happily use this Agility for other situations though, like working artificials over wrecks and reefs for bass, cod and pollack, or when drifting sandbanks for turbot. I also spent a day using it with an underwater camera carrying 10oz of lead weight and it coped admirably, even in a two-knot tide.
WELL BUILT
Measuring 7ft long, there are 10 guides (including tip) along the length of the blank, which is great to see on a cheaper rod. All too often I see short boat rods without enough guides, especially on the tip section. What tends to happen in such cases is the line starts to touch the blank when the tip is under load – which is no good for your mainline, or indeed the rod.
No such problems with this blank though, and even when I snagged up on a reef and gave it some real stick to see just how far she would go, the line was still guided along the right path with no signs of it being where it shouldn’t be.
As far as aesthetics go, I rather like the metallic silver whippings set against the blue blank, and the blue EVA foregrip really helps set off the rod.
This is a real little powerhouse of a blank, and there is even a gimbal fitting underneath the butt cap, so you would have no problems using it for some heavy-duty fishing fun. The spigot is solid, and I’d quite happily drop the butt into a butt pad to do battle with a blue shark or angry conger eel for some heart-thumping sport. I really feel the rod can take it after heaving into 100,000 tonnes of reef during testing.
CONCLUSION
I’m pleasantly impressed with this rod. If you’re after a budget boat rod that you can use for wreck fishing, drifting for turbot, or general downtide use, then look no further. The Agility 2 ticks all the right boxes. ■