John Keane
Well-known member
Stick it on eBay Keith, share the pain around.
Worst Tackle buys
- Thread starter steve2
- Start date
Stick it on eBay Keith, share the pain around.
David Rogers 3
Well-known member
I once bought some "natural wood carp controllers" on the recommendation of someone on a forum who was clearly just giving a favourable review to his mate who was making them. The carp on a club pool that I'd been catching on mixers were starting to get suspicious of standard controllers, so I thought I'd give them a try. They were completely useless - the slightest breeze causing them to skate across the surface, making a massive bow-wave that scared me, let alone the fish...
steve2
Well-known member
I have a Mitchell predator reel size 200 I use for lure fishing what I like is the quick change spool system. The free spool system just doesn't seem to work.
Put it on ebay Keith,I got a good price for what I consider a pile of poo....
John Keane
Well-known member
Ditto with the 3000!
flightliner
Well-known member
Agree with the Drennan 4000 fs reel. A really bad decision to buy on my part. Used it once then got rid!!
At the risk of upsetting a few people I've just remembered the 14' Acolyte ultra lying in an upstairs room, untouched for about three years. Never missed so many bites on the waggler when using this rod (although it's really a foot too long for that IMO) and too soft in the middle for stick-float fishing. I'd genuinely forgotten I owned it.
markcw
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How come you didnt like the tourney ?
I have the G50 , and I think it's a brilliant pole, I was thinking of getting the tourney pro .I also had the flagship MiddyZX65-2 at the same time, This was a £1950 pole compared to £1300 for G50. I thought the G50 was more responsive and better balanced even though the Middy felt slightly stiffer and stronger. I just could not get on with the Middy so I sold it, Funny enough,the lad who bought it thinks it's best pole he has had,
Each to their own I suppose
Keith M
Well-known member
When Fox came on the scene not many years after making their supermarket trollies; back in the late 1970s; and they bought out their original ‘Low Seat’, I bought one and it collapsed because the welding came apart on its folding front legs, so I wrote them a letter with a photograph of the faulty legs expecting them to send me a replacement.
I didn’t receive a reply and 2 weeks afterwards I sent yet another polite letter containing photos of the faulty welding, which also resulted in no reply after another 2 or 3 weeks.
I was getting a bit peeved off by now with this very bad customer service and I sent a third letter but addressed it this time to the managing director informing him of the poor customer service that I had received (or had not received), and also telling him that my local tackleshop owner had told me that he’d also returned several Low Chairs recently because of the faulty welding on the legs.
A few days later I received a rude letter from the MD calling me a liar and stating that their customer service was one of the best, and that the customer service dept had told him that they’d sent me a postage label and some packaging so that I could send my broken legs back when I had sent my very first letter.
What a joke, I never did receive that label and packaging that the MD said their customer service had sent me, and I have never bought another piece of fishing tackle from Fox to this day; apart from just a few hooks and a few other very small items; even though this happened when they were first delving into the fishing tackle market. (once bitten and all that).
Lets hope that since then their customer service has got a lot better and there MD has now learnt how to talk to his or her paying customers.
Keith
I didn’t receive a reply and 2 weeks afterwards I sent yet another polite letter containing photos of the faulty welding, which also resulted in no reply after another 2 or 3 weeks.
I was getting a bit peeved off by now with this very bad customer service and I sent a third letter but addressed it this time to the managing director informing him of the poor customer service that I had received (or had not received), and also telling him that my local tackleshop owner had told me that he’d also returned several Low Chairs recently because of the faulty welding on the legs.
A few days later I received a rude letter from the MD calling me a liar and stating that their customer service was one of the best, and that the customer service dept had told him that they’d sent me a postage label and some packaging so that I could send my broken legs back when I had sent my very first letter.
What a joke, I never did receive that label and packaging that the MD said their customer service had sent me, and I have never bought another piece of fishing tackle from Fox to this day; apart from just a few hooks and a few other very small items; even though this happened when they were first delving into the fishing tackle market. (once bitten and all that).
Lets hope that since then their customer service has got a lot better and there MD has now learnt how to talk to his or her paying customers.
Keith
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steve2
Well-known member
I remember having problems with the welds on Fox chairs so did my father in law. My father in law thought the welding was rubbish and rewelded them.
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
I bought an Okuma reel for one of my lads, It wasn’t a bait runner but a float reel. I’d heard good reports of them and I duly filled it with line and gave it a go. It was bloody horrible. I found it at the back of a cupboard yesterday, that was it’s only outing. I gave him one of my old shimano's to use in the end.
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I bought it in a bit of a rush after my Milo pole blew off the rests and damaged two sections. I would have replaced with the latest Milo model but they were in the process of ending their distribution arrangement with Keenets so spares at that time were uncertain. A quick scan of the magazines suggested the X to be the best around, so after an inspection in the shop it was duly purchased.
Unfortunately I was disappointed with it almost immediately. The balance wasn't anything special and the tip recovery was especially poor, particularly noticeable when trying to hook fish on top of the canal far shelf. It also had an annoying habit of the joints, usually 6, 7 or 8, coming apart while it was going over the roller. I soon got fed up of having to keep getting up off my box to put it back together.
I subsequently discovered that most users were cutting the No1 back to extremes or removing it all together to stiffen the tip up. I expect to cut back enough for the chosen elastic but not to have to discard the section completely.
On reflection it was probably more of an all-rounder to suit commercial venues rather than a roach/silvers type pole which I'd been used to using, hence its popularity.
It was quickly replaced with a Maver J51 that was much more appropriate for my fishing.
Blimey. You must have bought some really good allround & versatile stuff if the IM8 was BRIILIANT and then useless on two very different venues/methods.
I really LOVED my IM* Supersticks (single legged guides not very original models with twin legged) for silvers. I always thought the 14ft IM9 was too soft, too mellow and too slow in action.
markcw
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It was too powerful for the canal , and light floats, but on large waters such as Lymm Dam it was good, the pick up on the strike seemed a lot better, a few others said the same, sold theirs and bought the stick float version.I sold mine and bought one of the first Harrison GTI 13' spliced tip rods with sliding reel fittings, that was a more versatile rod, also bought the 12' version. I was offered the prototype canal rod they were in the process of, it had a shortened butt similar to Drennan crystalite, Not sure if Harrisons ended up making one because of patent issues or similar.
markcw
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I had heard Daiwa joints had a tendency to come adrift, luckily I didnt have that problem with my G50, I always give them a slight twist when putting pole together, In fact every now and the the number 6 and 7 stick together when unshipping playing a fish. A bit of candle wax on the joint cures it for a while, Keeping G50 because of number of spare sections and topkits and a new tourney pro extension I have for it. Plus at my age can I justify buying another pole, ?
One of my most expensive mistakes was to purchase a Fox Bivvy. The concept was sound but the products light weight aluminium poles were badly designed. The poles were designed to flex but the spigot which inserts into a boss would not flex under load the thin walled aluminium pole when crack at this point. Replacement poles were purchased these eventually cracked in the end I sold the thing with ground sheet and wrap for £80 having spent the hest part of £400
Steve King
Well-known member
One of my worst buys was a TGF Bivvy!
Impossible to put up so that the material was reasonably taut! It was a pram hood design and if you folded fully out, it was necessary to limbo dance to get in or out as the front hoop was 8" off the ground!! Putting it up with the Entrance in a more accessible position resulted in loose material and hoops which flapped around! Oh, and the spacer poles that were supposed to put some tension into the fabric had poor designed clips that kept falling off. In the end I sold it on the Bay of Thieves!
Impossible to put up so that the material was reasonably taut! It was a pram hood design and if you folded fully out, it was necessary to limbo dance to get in or out as the front hoop was 8" off the ground!! Putting it up with the Entrance in a more accessible position resulted in loose material and hoops which flapped around! Oh, and the spacer poles that were supposed to put some tension into the fabric had poor designed clips that kept falling off. In the end I sold it on the Bay of Thieves!
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