Well September/early October has turned into a dire period,
through a combination of work/weather/a nasty infection and having a new
kitchen and bathroom installed at home I have only managed two sessions in the
last 6 weeks. On the first I landed one schooly before losing two decent fish,
the first of which was an absolute cracker. This fish hit my lure on the
surface before I started retrieving so I got a good look at it as it smashed into my
lure before it dived and took me to ground.
The second trip was total disaster, as having driven for 70
miles and walked another 30 minutes to the mark on the first cast there was a
gunshot like crack and the tip of my Megabass exploded into 4 sections! I’ve
never seen a break like this with the rod breaking at multiple points
simultaneously...bizarre
I then walked 30 minutes back to the car and drove the 70
miles home pretty pissed off!
Still to be fair to the retailer, they refunded my money
with no quibbles (they did not have a replacement in stock) and I managed to
secure a replacement from an alternative source.
So onto this Saturday morning and with a window of weather and family opportunity and armed with a new replacement Megabass XO Shadow 96ML I headed down to Dorset. Unusually there was someone on my chosen spot but I started of further into the bay and 1st cast…fish on, nailing my Sammy. This was the start of my best session of the year, as over the next two hours I landed a further 10 bass + numerous mackerel, most of which came on my new favourite lure, the Shoreline Shiner R50+.
No great size with the average fish being around 1.5lb and
the biggest around 2.5lbs but still good fun with all the fish in fat fighting
condition and stuffed to the gills with small sprats which they were feeding
on.
With still plenty of time before I needed to leave, and the
best part of the tide still to come I was looking forward to having a real
red-letter day as they were still feeding hard when I heard another gunshot
like crack. This time the rod seemed to be OK but on closer inspection I saw
the blank had cracked about 6 inches up from the spigot on the tip section….so
that was that, game over. I packed up
and headed home. I suppose I should be pleased as I managed a few fish before
the rod went but I have to say I’m distinctly unimpressed having this model of
rod break on me twice now, when casting lures not particularly hard and well
under the stated 35g max weight.
So another rod to go through the hassle of returning, I
shan’t be getting another one of these though. This time I will take a refund
and look for another brand/model as, much as I liked the Megabass, I have now
lost total confidence in the quality of them.
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