The taper seems to be the bigger factor to me. Superfine carbon is asking for trouble in my car boot.
I’ve been thinking about this as something was nagging me, I knew my tips for different rods varied greatly in diameter for the equivalent rating so there’s clearly some room for manoeuvre in their design.
Which tip would you logically think was the 4oz tip out of these three…
The truth is the thicker one on the left and the thinner middle one are both 1.5oz, the thin tip on the right is 4oz so it’s got to be down to the wall thickness and not the taper and maybe meaning that carbon tips could be produced to be even more robust than glass given that carbon is stronger?
All the tips on the Hardy tip rods are interchangeable and the tip to the left is off the 13’ Extreme Feeder which is an animal of a rod when really pushed hard, longer white sight for the additional 3’ in length over the bomb rod and larger eyes to aid long distance casting with heavier lines/leaders which is what it is designed for but by some quirk I’ve found it makes a superb barbel rod too, especially on the big rivers.
The thinner middle tip is the same rating but comes from the 10' ultra-light bomb rod.
I’d forgotten I had the 4oz tip on the right despite using it twice in the last week on the 13’ feeder rod, it’s a bit of an anomaly in that it has the thinner taper and shorter sight tip with smaller eyes and so matches the tips for the bomb rod but has a rating more suitable to the feeder and was very useful on “the beast”.
I agree with Jerry on the Avon rod for barbel, usually my first choice but the stretch of river I’ve been fishing has a rocky marginal shelf which drops off quite steeply about two rod lengths out and the extra 18" length of the Extreme Feeder helps to keep the line clear when the rod’s high in the air on rests along with upping the mainline to 15lb Pro-Tough.
I did notice very slight movements on the quiver tip which I don’t think I would have with the Avon but they were of no consequence, I could always touch leger with the Avon if I wanted to get around it but it’s not a problem to be fair and knowing me I’d end up getting my finger yanked off when I inevitably dozed off