kingf000
Well-known member
I recently bought the above rod as a trotting rod because it was highly rated and advertised as weighing only 150g, though Drennan also said elsewhere that 150g was the average weight. I don't have a local tackle shop with a good range of trotting rods to try so bought on-line. When it arrived it weighted 160g on my scales. I checked the scales using standardised brass weights which confirmed that the scales were correctly calibrated. My question is - what is an acceptable variability within the 'average' weight? Should the rod have failed on a quality check?
I have bought many rods and blanks in the past and never had such a large weight difference from that advertised. I contacted Drennan and have heard nothing back. Yes, most of the extra weight is probably in the butt section and with the weight of the reel I probably wouldn't notice. However, the cork on the rod does seem to have a large amount of filler and as filler is more dense than cork, that probably explains the extra weight. Over time that filler is likely to fall out, which would lighten the rod, but leave big holes. I've tried the rod out on my local river trotting for chub and it felt far lighter than my current 14ft 210g rod, just a pity about the 10g.
As an aside, I raised this in the maggotdrowners forum and got a lot of replies defending Drennan. One of the administrators then admitted he was a Director at Drennan so I wonder whether that Forum is simply an extension of Drennan P.R.? Drennan are very secretive about where their rods are made, not in the UK and not in Mauritius where much of their tackle is made, and as the thread morphed onto that topic, the administrators closed the thread down! Not the first time a thread on where Drennan rods were made had been closed down.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Drennan. I use a lot of their products and been really pleased with them, it is just this one instance and more about whether the description is accurate rather than anything about the quality of the rod.
I have bought many rods and blanks in the past and never had such a large weight difference from that advertised. I contacted Drennan and have heard nothing back. Yes, most of the extra weight is probably in the butt section and with the weight of the reel I probably wouldn't notice. However, the cork on the rod does seem to have a large amount of filler and as filler is more dense than cork, that probably explains the extra weight. Over time that filler is likely to fall out, which would lighten the rod, but leave big holes. I've tried the rod out on my local river trotting for chub and it felt far lighter than my current 14ft 210g rod, just a pity about the 10g.
As an aside, I raised this in the maggotdrowners forum and got a lot of replies defending Drennan. One of the administrators then admitted he was a Director at Drennan so I wonder whether that Forum is simply an extension of Drennan P.R.? Drennan are very secretive about where their rods are made, not in the UK and not in Mauritius where much of their tackle is made, and as the thread morphed onto that topic, the administrators closed the thread down! Not the first time a thread on where Drennan rods were made had been closed down.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Drennan. I use a lot of their products and been really pleased with them, it is just this one instance and more about whether the description is accurate rather than anything about the quality of the rod.