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| Name: Andrew French |
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| E-mail: andrew.french@att.net |
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Experience:
Self-taught in the early 1990's on a fibreglass rod purchased at a garage sale for $3, I'm primarily a small-stream trout fisherman who's gradually added experiences and rods to include two fishing trips each to Colorado and the British West Indies, and one to Montana, northern California, Arizona, the Turks & Caicos and, now, Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. |
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Product Being Tested:
A 7-piece, 9'0", 8-weight March Brown "Hidden Water" travel rod. |
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Snapshot of your experience with products of this sort:
Because so may of my trips involve multiple planes and considerable driving round in the sorts of rusty, bedraggled, 4-wheel-drive vehicles one ends up with in the tropics, I own four travel rods: one 5-piece, 4-weight Winston, and three 4-piece rods, a 6-weight Sage,
8-weight Orvis and 9-weight G. Loomis. |
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Date of Test:
January 13-15, 2007 |
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Place of Test:
Chetumal Bay, Quintana Roo, Mexico, after bonefish. |
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Test Condition:
It was quite warm and sunny most of the time, although there were frequent small rainstorms of short duration and one-half day washed out. It was quite windy, averaging around 15 mph with gusts up to 40. |
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Relevant related equipment or products:
Because it was so windy, I stepped up a weight in the line and used a 9-weight on my large arbor Lamson, borrowed from its usual spot on my G. Loomis 9-weight. |
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Your experience with the product:
It was striking for me to hold in my hand a rod case that was only 17" long. I never quite understand why people even remark that it takes longer to rig a multiple piece rod, and this March Brown comes with a pair of white dots on each piece, corresponding to another set on each piece to which it connects, so the rod rigs quite quickly. I rigged and took it out on that first Friday we were in Xcalak, just to try it out. The wind that day was very strong -- 20 mph -- so it was hard to give it too much of a test, but it certainly cast better than my "old" 8-weight travel rod, now 10-years old, despite its having 7-pieces when the "old" rod had only four. |
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Qualities you liked about the product:
The small size meant that I could pack the rod in a piece of carry on luggage, so I knew that even if the airline lost my checked baggage, and it never found its way back to me in Xcalak, 5-6 hours by car from Cancun, I would be able to fish. I also very much liked the feel of the rod and how quickly I was able to set it up because of the white alignment dots. |
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Qualities you didn't liked about the product:
Highly ironically for a company that prides itself, in its literature and on its website at least, in quality control, one set of dots was out of line, so I had to correct it to get it lined up properly. Also, it broke, in the early afternoon of my first day on the water, just as my guide was reaching for the line. Admittedly, I probably shared in the responsibility by holding the rod at a pretty steep angle, but still.... I've landed a number of other bonefish without this happening. |
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Summary Comments
The rod was definitely more supple and cast with greater power than my old Orvis 4-piece, so I'll certainly use its replacement rod, as soon as it arrives, as my main 8-weight, and hope that the misalignment of the dots and its breaking were flukes. |
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