In market for a new second hand set I think so wondering what everyone uses these days is it still torrix and free spirit leading the way or is there something else I'm missing

In reply to Post #1
Have a look at the Greys as well, I picked up a very decent second hand set for a fraction of the new price, hadn't been abused and lovely casting rods, also nice for playing fish with the 3lb T/C, any of the GT range are decent for the money?

In reply to Post #2
Harrison or century for me hands down

In reply to Post #1
Free Spirit for me.....
11 footers.

In reply to Post #1
Century for my 12ft sessions either Armalites or NGs, though I've just recently purchased some avid 10fts that will spend most of the time living in the car for short sessions

In reply to Post #1
Harrison for me, I'm stuck in my ways. Was Ballista until last year, now Torrix. Read the other day that Harrison have a new rod on the way too, may be worth a nosey.

Unless I have to cast miles I am still using a set of 3lb esp vertex.... Old as the hills but I have never found anything with a better action.

greys plus you get lifetime warranty.

I use Terry Hearn mk3 3.25 40mm rings, lovely rods.

Custom century fbs for majority of my fishing on my 40 acre syndicate, and also have a set of 13ft Harrison treb lights for distance fishing home and mainly abroad on bigger lakes...

In reply to Post #1
Use Free Spirit Hi S ives 13ft for long range work and Harrision aviator Flex for everything else

Edit: Both Built by Kev Clayton - wouldn't go else where

In reply to Post #1
Treb lights for most of the time 13ft kev clayton

Old chimeras for local stuff 12ft had forever

Balistas 13ft for the trent barbel work in progress

Some free spirit 2lb ers for small stuff 12ft

My lads chubb carp rods if it's a quickly or somewhere let's say off grid

Think I need a clear out....

In reply to Post #12
Cotswold pace compact 10ft I mainly fish margins and snags and the odd mid range open water and these rods are spot on

In reply to Post #1
I use mainly sub £100 rods, soniks, esp, shimano, greys. I do mainly stalking so most of the time the rods are on the floor, if i had more expensive rods their expense would limit the situations ln which i would use them.

I'm using 12ft 2.75lb Century NG's and Rod Hutchinson 3.25lb The Ones.

Got The Ones for £50 each from when I worked at Gladwells, use them for most of my fishing now. The NG's seem to have been promoted to pike fishing.

ESP Tectrix 2.75lb (custom handles) and a lesser used set of the same in 3.25lb (standard build) . Also have a set of Chub 11' smallwater 2.25lb and set of old school 11' Shimano's 1.75lb (rebuilt)

In reply to Post #8
Not in the same league as Harrison or Century mate.

In reply to Post #8
Greys lifetime warranty ain't worth the paper it's written on the way they discontinue rods and bring out a new model every 2 or 3 years

In reply to Post #18
True. The warranty is hype. However, for the money they're not bad rods.
I've got a set of original prodigys and isoflex. Good playing action not distance broomsticks.
My current favourite rods are 13ft Rod Hutchinson Dream makers in 3lbt.c. Lovely action and perfect for where I'm fishing.

Original 2.25 tc daiwa powermesh x's for most of my fishing and original 3.5 tc daiwa infinity x's for big waters and abroad.

Daz

In reply to Post #1
13ft Harrison treb lites for anything over 80yds

9ft sonik xtractors for everything else

Ive used century and free spirit in the past (i liked century but the build quality on the free spirit hi-s was poor - even the guides werent straight) even dabbled with Nash once (disastrous tat ) but for a really quality blank with excellent build quality off of the shelf it will always be harrison for me

In reply to Post #21
13ft Harrison treb lites for anything over 8yds

Not the strongest caster then?

Also use Treb Lites for long stuff, Century for shorter stuff.

Currently using Harrison Acurix 2.75 for the UK and Free Spirit XS for France.

In reply to Post #8
😂 until you try to use it, you'll find out that because they bring out new rods every 3 years they hold little or no spare parts for the older ones, the guarantee isn't worth a ✊💦

In reply to Post #22


I've a set of Custom Cotswold R1 FTs that i just use for everything. Saves having to store different sets, and if im honest does everything i need - nice tip for playing fish, even under my rod tips, and enough grunt lower down if i move waters and have to fish at 100 yards plus.

In reply to Post #22
post amended! Although the xtractors are only 9ft long!

normal fishing upto 90 yards ish Century NG 2.75lb

anything over that distance my range rods AKN12h 2.75lb come out

A pair of free spirit specialist gold 1.5lb t/c for commercials/light work.

Custom century c2 2.75's for the remainder. With a lone NG 2.75lb to use as an extra rod on occasion.

Also have an ESP floater mk2 for summer wandering.

In reply to Post #28
Harrison Aviator Plus for distance 100-- yards +

12' Sonik Gravity X for all my general fishing up to 100 yards.


I recenlty bought some Nash Scopes for my current syndicate water due to lots of trees and tight swims and they have been awesome for this type of fishing. I also find I am using these more and more.

In reply to Post #28
F.S Specialist Gold's for me too.Bought them on a whim and glad I did. Only downside is cork handles. Yuk

In reply to Post #30
Harrison Ballista.
Just getting back into the sport after a very long absence, went straight for the ballistas as had them before and absolutely loved the action of these blanks when playing fish.

Century NG 3 1/2 for majority of my fishing. Although I have a set of AkNs 2 3/4s that I use sometimes and a set of 2 1/4 AKNs for smaller waters.

I use ESP paragon plus 3.25lb for all my normal fishing
I use a Wychwood floater rod with a shimmy baitrunner for floater fishing, and I have a couple of 10ft JRC rods for stalking or small lakes
I do have a set of three cork handle 3.5lb tc xtractors but to be honest I never really found personally any benefit for where I was fishing with them so probably will get re-homed

In reply to Post #33
Paragon Pluses great rods for the money
Y

In reply to Post #34
I love them, especially winding them up as they cast really well

I use a set of free spirit hi s 12ft 3lb tc for most situations and recently picked a lovely set of original century 12ft 3.5tc sp's which are lovely long distance rods. I had the 3lb tc versions back in the day but were rubbish in comparison! Hell of a rod for the money I paid off the bay and in great nick.

Still using Sonic Gravity X 12ft 3lb Tc, and I don't see me changing anytime soon, pure joy to use, even the Reel position is spot on from factory build.

Not had any issues at all with them, could not say the same for what the replaced – ceramic Inserts dropping out of the eyes for fun, bit of damp weather and all the whippings turned white.

In reply to Post #37
What brand of rod were the ceramics falling out of Defiant.one?

In reply to Post #38
Harrison aviator plus in 13ft - 95% of the time as most of my fishing is 100 yds plus.
Also got a set of Terry Hearn 12.9” 3.25tc classics which i use Occasionally on smaller waters or closer range work. Lovely rods.

In reply to Post #37
I had a set of those (Gravity X) and God knows why but I only had to think about casting out and the line would frap around the butt ring, got rid and replaced with Torrix 12.6

In reply to Post #39
Aviator 12.6 plus,👍😎

In reply to Post #38
Century NG's There was three of us on the bank at one point all using the same ,trying to figure out who's Rods where the worst.

In reply to Post #42
9ft 2.75lb scopes for most of my fishing and 10ft 3.25lb free spirit s lites for my larger waters.

In reply to Post #42
Never had any ceramics falling out of mine that are 15 year's old, my blanks did start to turn white after rain but that was well after 10 year's of use,(not the only manufacturer with this problem) I rebuilt all 4 of them 2 year's ago back to good as new now

In reply to Post #44
I even got an American Style Fridge so I could place them behind it so the heat exchanger could suck all the moisture out of them for the next trip. You must have been luckily, as the Rod builder I used told me he was sick of seeing them, Kagan or Keegan rings?

In reply to Post #45
There was a lot of s lite type guides that used to lose their liners there was frequent posts on forums, kigan did do some but there were other makes that weren't as good as the kigan imo.

Quite a few years ago now kigan changed the design of the frame (3d) which secures the liner a lot better, ive never had an issue with these but did suffer problems with older s lite type guides

In reply to Post #45
I'm pretty sure sure century use their own SIC rings ,not Kagan were yours custom builds by any chance

In reply to Post #47
Defiantly factory builds, as they came direct trade to me.

In reply to Post #48
Like you say then I've just been lucky with mine makes a nice change for me ..

In reply to Post #41
Spoke to Kev today he reckons they are outselling the 13ft version now.I love my 13fters though,I won't change these anytime soon