HARRISON ADVANCED RODS CHIMERA BARBEL
Two-piece, 11ft 6ins, 2lb Test Curve
Price: £ 149.99

The Chimera is a man’s barbel rod, a rod with no betters and few equals when it comes to taming big barbel that feed in, or close to, snags. This is not a rod for the faint-hearted but for the angler who wants to fish 10lb or heavier lines and is determined to beat any barbel, of whatever size, no matter where it takes the bait.


But who could blame anyone for thinking the Chimera (pronounced Kimera and means ‘fantasy’) Barbel rod is just a stiff pole with no finesse; a brute stick that hardly bends? Not this rod. This one has been designed from the material up to do a specific job without compromise.

You would buy this rod to catch big barbel from snaggy areas, or to fish very heavy floodwater. It is not a rod for general purpose barbel fishing in open water, although you could quite easily use it for that if you don’t mind being overgunned.

The Chimera looks different to many Harrison rods where we are used to seeing unground blanks. This one has a high gloss finish and a pattern in the weave of the carbon that makes it look very attractive. Top that with silver on black whippings and you have a rod with looks to kill for! The rest of the livery is 10 SIC rings, Fuji winch fitting and a combined cork and Duplon handle at a sensible 23 inch length; meaning the handle isn’t ridiculously long and forever getting in the way.


Interestingly the Duplon part of the handle where you actually grip by the reel is of a larger diameter than usual, and the theory behind this is a larger diameter grip lessens the chance of arm strain and tennis elbow.

However, the weave isn’t just cosmetic, for the blank is manufactured from two new types of carbon fabric, the details of which Dr Stephen Harrison is keeping very much to himself.

Anyhow, enough of technicalities, what’s the nitty-gritty of the rod?

I’ve caught a lot of barbel on this rod so far this season, three of them into double figures and two of them from very dense snags. I changed to this rod after losing a big barbel on a rod that I had every confidence in prior to hooking the beast that broke 12lb because the rod was bottomed out and had no more shock-absorber capacity to offer.


I vowed that it would never happen again, and since fishing with Chimeras it hasn’t. The rod has a sweet, all-through action but without compromising on power. You just know that when you hook a barbel on the Chimera it isn’t going to get away, at least not through lack of controllable power in the rod.

And it has no problem at all when it comes to lobbing out 5 to 6oz of lead into a raging flood, or a big PVA bag of feed to the far bank.

The overall length at 11’6″ is 6 inches shorter than the usual barbel rod, which means you can control the power of the rod much better, although there is a slight disadvantage when it comes to reaching out to keep a barbel out of snags along your own bank.

FISHINGmagic VERDICT

I’ve yet to use a better barbel rod for snag and floodwater fishing. I thought the rod I was sent was so good it wasn’t long before I bought another one to go with it.

At £ 150 it isn’t a cheap rod, but then the Chimera isn’t a cheap rod in any sense of the word. If you like quality without compromise, this is it.

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