Carpathia has arrived, and as promised I’ll attempt to put down a few words with reference to my first thoughts, but you’ll have to bear with me, words aren’t coming very easily right now, there just aren’t enough superlatives to describe what I’ve just unwrapped.
The colour struck me first, the most perfect dark cane, without being too dark, like sun tanned honey. Then, as I slide more from the beautifully crafted bag, I marvelled at just how slender the rod is, slim yet sturdy. I admired the whippings, the glass like finish, and realised that everything said about this super talented rob builder is true.
But the idea of this rod goes much deeper than mere aesthetics, of course it has to look nice, and believe me when I assure you that this rod oozes class. But the action is ultra important, built to stop carp in their tracks, to fill the gap other cane carp rods leave, to attempt challenge today’s modern carp rods in performance yet retain that elegant look and feel that comes with a rod of built cane. Can we really have our cake and eat it?
As soon as I put the 2 pieces together I could pretty much ascertain that this was it, what I’d been looking for, what the traditional carp angler had been looking for. As far as I can tell from waggling it (all traditional anglers worth their salt can get a good feel for a rod from that very first waggle), it is just as Andrew said it would be, slender, steely, yet a forgiving tip and plenty of reserve power in the butt.
One of its most impressive features is that it doesn't feel unwieldy, floppy or heavy as other carp rods of this length sometimes tend to do. The balance is just right.
Our friendship is still in its infancy, I’ve only been acquainted with Carpathia for around half an hour, just time to put her together, have a waggle, drool over her beauty queen looks and put her away (hung upside down of course) until the weekend.
As you can see from the photo below, for a fairly heavy auctioned rod, of considerable length, there is very little droop, if any. This weekend I’ll be trying to catch carp from a local water during a 24 hour session, fish up to 20lbs are possible so a good test could well be on the cards.
I’ll report back further once I’ve caught some fish on Carpathia, and let me tell you, I simply cannot wait!!
The colour struck me first, the most perfect dark cane, without being too dark, like sun tanned honey. Then, as I slide more from the beautifully crafted bag, I marvelled at just how slender the rod is, slim yet sturdy. I admired the whippings, the glass like finish, and realised that everything said about this super talented rob builder is true.
But the idea of this rod goes much deeper than mere aesthetics, of course it has to look nice, and believe me when I assure you that this rod oozes class. But the action is ultra important, built to stop carp in their tracks, to fill the gap other cane carp rods leave, to attempt challenge today’s modern carp rods in performance yet retain that elegant look and feel that comes with a rod of built cane. Can we really have our cake and eat it?
As soon as I put the 2 pieces together I could pretty much ascertain that this was it, what I’d been looking for, what the traditional carp angler had been looking for. As far as I can tell from waggling it (all traditional anglers worth their salt can get a good feel for a rod from that very first waggle), it is just as Andrew said it would be, slender, steely, yet a forgiving tip and plenty of reserve power in the butt.
One of its most impressive features is that it doesn't feel unwieldy, floppy or heavy as other carp rods of this length sometimes tend to do. The balance is just right.
Our friendship is still in its infancy, I’ve only been acquainted with Carpathia for around half an hour, just time to put her together, have a waggle, drool over her beauty queen looks and put her away (hung upside down of course) until the weekend.
As you can see from the photo below, for a fairly heavy auctioned rod, of considerable length, there is very little droop, if any. This weekend I’ll be trying to catch carp from a local water during a 24 hour session, fish up to 20lbs are possible so a good test could well be on the cards.
I’ll report back further once I’ve caught some fish on Carpathia, and let me tell you, I simply cannot wait!!
My word that looks a work of art Stu, can see that taming a few carp and being an absolute joy to use in the process.
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