SONIK GRAVITY X5 HT THREE-PIECE ROD RRP: £349.99
“The ultimate power is utterly immense and evident during the casting process”
How do you create a slim, three-piece rod, featuring a sensitive hollow tip, lightness, and enough grunt to blast your baited rig huge distances?
I have absolutely no idea, but I know a company that’s done exactly that.
Over the last couple of years, Northumberland-based Sonik has been busy creating some incredible shore blanks. The very good news for us shore anglers is that its latest outfit shows every indication of becoming a real winner.
The Gravity X5 HT has a total length of 15ft 4in, is rated to cast loads between 4-8oz and is the follow-up to Sonik’s extremely popular Gravity Surf HT model.
What immediately struck me is just how light it is… super-light weight. My attention soon diverted to the tip section, revealing how incredibly slim it is in diameter. Slim it may be, but when handling it I sensed an awful lot of power and speed.
Yet another tick in the box (for me, at least), was the fact that Sonik has focused on using hi-spec components, together with a super-lightweight, high-modulus carbon in the construction. What’s more the distinct lack of a pointless, bright luminous paint job is certainly a valuable lesson that many rod manufacturers should sit up and ultimately take notice of, in my opinion.
Cosmetically, the rod boasts Fuji ‘K’ style guides that are designed to be used in conjunction with braid as well as mono. There’s also a Fuji screw-winch DPS reel seat positioned permanently high on the butt section.
Each section has visible lines to enable a swift alignment when fitting the rod together, while a white tip is just the job for bite-spotting.
On the beach I teamed the rod with a fixed-spool reel that I’d loaded with 14lb mono and a tapered shock leader. I reckon you would get away with using a small, palmsized multiplier if you wished, but you will certainly benefit more from the former.
Sonik has positioned the blank under the ‘Continental’ category, but this outfit is pokey… in fact, it’s an absolute powerhouse of a rod.
Using a 5oz sinker, I opted for a lay-back style cast to start things off and went immediately into a hard punch. To say I was astonished at the outcome would be an understatement. This thing comes around so rapidly that by the time you release the sinker it’s all over in a flash. It’s like pulling the trigger!
The ultimate power is immense and easily evident during the casting process. The speed is incredible, too, and even better when you hit it sweetly. Fire the Gravity X5 HT powerfully towards the sky and you will relish its super-fast recovery, while watching your shock leader disappearing.
The fact I’d forgotten my casting glove (again!) was particularly annoying. I really wanted to push it harder and to its extremities because I know for certain that the blank definitely had more to offer me.
Even though this rod is packed with power, it boasts an incredible hollow tip. This works a treat when fishing at extreme distances from the beach. Bites are registered instantly, even from small whiting and dabs.
I was fishing from the beach at Trunch Lane, in Skegness, where the tide run can be rather strong, but the Gravity X5 HT handled it superbly. Once the breakout sinker has settled into the seabed, the tip bent beautifully into the tide and at no time did it pull out the lead weight.
The evidence I have from using it definitely leads me to believe this blank will easily handle cod, rays and smoothhounds. I really can’t wait to try it in a proper fishing situation and to enjoy the fight from something more substantial.
Many shore anglers regard Continental rods as being rather specialist outfits, where only the likes of match anglers get the best from them. This new model from Sonik bears all the hallmarks of a true all-rounder... a rod with which you can target larger species feeding a long way from the shore or, at the other end of the scale, flick delicate baits in the edge for flatties and bass.
It offers the added bonus of being incredibly simple to master and cast, and I’m certain your distances will undoubtedly improve significantly too. It’s an absolutely fantastic shore rod – I’m just not sure the label of ‘Continental’ does it any justice.