INDIANANGLER

Has anybody used the Shimano Exage series of mini telescopic travel rods ? With a transport length of about 30cms, they appear to be just ideal for packing in a small bag during air travel. Question is would a rod rated medium light (casting weight 5-20gm) be suitable for our waters for "general, fun fishing". Would they stand the strain if a larger fish is hooked ? What lenght should one opt for - 7/8/9 ft ? Any reviews/advise on these rods would be welcome.

Dear Hawkeye,

I know some of the more heavy Shimano Exage travel rods, but until now I didn't come up with the very light telescopic rod you mentioned. I think I should tell you about my experience with a similar very light telescopic travel rod. My rod was/is perfect for catching trout and all kind of smaller species. Really a nice tool & I got the feeling that it should be suitable for bigger species as well. To try it out I took my rod to a tank holding loads of sturgeon between 10-30 pounds. Here it is very easy to hook into a big fish and as the water is free of snags I hoped to be in a good chance of landing them too.

To make it short: the rod didn't break, but I didn't manage to catch a single fish. I got plenty of takes, but managed to hook only very few of them as the rod was too soft for a proper strike. Those fish that I hooked managed to tear off at high speed and I wasn't able to stop them with the flimpsy rod. It bent into a circle but I had no chance to change the swimming direction of the fish in any way. As the rod action was used to it's maxinum it had no longer any abilities to feather up any of the hard pulls, and so the line (I was using braided line of 0.10mm... a strong high quality line compared to it's diameter) either broke or the hook pulled out.

My advise: Buy such rod if you want to use it for carnatic carp, small and medium size rohu or mirgal and murral, but don't try it out for the big ones. It is not the right tool therefore.

Another point: If too light tackle is in use for big fish it generally takes very long until a fish can get landed. This isn't good for the fish! Sometimes in Europe very big Catfish get hooked by mistake on too light tackle. Some skilled fisherman manage to get them out after a two or three hours battle, but after such struggle the fish rarely stands a chance to survive. It is totally exhausted. If you're after mahseer you normally want/have to return your catch, so please consider to use strong enough tackle.

Dirk

Hi Hawkeye,

I like Shimano and I got last week EXAGE AX STC SPINNING rod, as universal "working horsy". But he's not telescopic, and I find it's better. The length is 2,70 m (transport length 56 cm, 6 sections), cast weight 15-40 g. The reel I think will be Shimano Ultegra 4000. I hope it will work this january in Goa!

Regards,

Alexey

I've recently taken delivery of the heavier of these rods http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog. ... get=browse
It looks a nice bit of kit and balances up well with a 4000 or 6000 size reel.
The proof of the pudding will come in January when I bring it out with me and I'll hold off on a revie till then.

Suggest you also take a look at the Rom Emersons 4 piece travel rod and also the Flex 5 piece .. I picked up both of them from The UK and they are worth the price . Around 130 pounds for both