Harris Angling Lure Pro Rods

You don't get much for fifty quid as far as rods are concerned these days, so Harris Angling's Lure Pro range looked a good bet when I was on the look-out for a two-piece baitcaster I could stash in the car boot.

Add a landing net, a box of lures and a few bits and bobs, and you're tooled up for all those times when you've got an hour to kill near the water. Or that was the theory, anyway.

I wasn't disappointed either when the rod arrived and we went to work on the river.

Slot the sections together and you soon forget it's a two-piece rod. Rated to cast from 7 - 42g, it's light and whippy enough to flick spoons and medium-sized plugs like jointed Rapalas around.

Hook into a fish, like I do from time to time, and it's a delight. I've teamed mine up with a 5501 ABU multiplier, which feels like a match made in Heaven to fish with. Niggles, well one or two.

The handle's a bit on the short side for casting two-handed. There again if it was six inches longer, it would be a 7ft rod, which wouldn't fit in the boot as easily.

Chris Harris, from Harris Angling, said: "Our customers are always telling us they want a single-handed rod, but with space for an occasional second hand.

"Like the extra-long cast or when you need to change hands for landing a fish in an awkward position, so handle length is always a bit of a compromise - we can't please everyone."

In fairness, the build quality's awesome for £50. Low-profile rings are nicely whipped and finished, you get a cork handle either side of the trigger grip and the over-fit joint between the sections is generously whipped.

A few casts, handle excepted, and you literally find yourself forgetting the rod and working the lure - until something green and nasty takes a shine to it.

As far as this rod's concerned, the other niggle is a minor one. The keeper ring's too small for anything over a size two treble and mine's nearly rusted through after two months' use.

But in fairness, you don't buy a rod for the keeper ring and you can safely tuck a lure or trace swivel into one of the rod rings or the reel cage, so as niggles go it's a minor one.

The one piece 6ft rod I was sent to review is rated the same as far as casting weight's concerned, but the blank's slightly thicker with a stiffer action and it's definitely a punchier rod.

Step the reel up a size and it feels okay with larger lures, which push the envelope a bit when it comes to the stated casting weight.

While I doubt you could flick much around in the 7g lower end of the scale with it, it's got enough backbone for Bulldawg-sized lures at a pinch and feels stiff enough to work them as opposed to playing them in.

I must admit the niggleometer went a bit higher with the one-piece rod. I'd have preferred all-cork to the composite half cork-half duplon handle, the latter part of which sometimes defied attempts to get a good grip on after a few casts, once reel spray and fish slime had moistened it.

Chris Harris says they're looking at replacing it with cork all the way through.

And why single leg rings, which soon get knocked out of kilter anyway if you carry your rods made-up and they're in and out of the car between waters..?

"Funnily enough they were put on deliberately because if knocked they can easily be bent back into shape, which three-legged rings cannot," said Chris.

"Some people like single-leg rings for this reason."

The one-piece sample I was sent did not have a keeper ring. No big deal if you're happy tucking the lure or trace swivel into a rod ring or the reel cage when you're transporting the rod.

Both rods are light, well-finished and feel good to fish with. You could easily pay twice as much for something only marginally better and at the end of the day £50 saved on a rod is another £50 in the fishing kitty.

The two-piece rod gets my vote because it's a livelier tool to fish with and past experiences with one or two bait fishing rods have shown you can only bend single-leg rings back into shape so many times.

Check them out at Harris Angling