The Caperlan Position 100 Match Rod

I felt a surge of power, and the rod tip went down hard. A sudden pull to the left, and I pulled the rod up, feeling the rod ‘lock up’ as I tried to get back some control.

I looked across to the other side of the bar to where Steve Burke was grinning back at me, holding down the rod tip and trying his best at pretending to be a thick lipped mullet. The pub regulars were staring across their glasses totally bemused, but we were having fun.

It was the first year 2000 get together of the Medway Mullet Group, and Steve had bought along a rod from Anglers’ Net. ‘What do you think?’ asked Steve, ‘Any good for mullet?’

‘Hmmm! I should think so.’ I answered cautiously.

‘OK’ said Steve, ‘try it for a while and let us have your review’.

And so I made the acquaintance of the Caperlan Position 100 Match rod, 3.9 metres of rigged carbon, designed to cast floats up to 200 grammes.

To be honest, I already had a general purpose float rod that I was quite happy with. ‘Old Faithful’ had been my companion for a good while, battling with large tench, chub, the odd carp and mullet. I also wondered just how much this new rod would stand up to the abuse my style of fishing demands. If any type of fishing is going to stretch a rod to the limits of its capabilities, mullet fishing certainly will. Was Steve completely mad presenting me with such a task?

I decided to fish the new rod alongside ‘Old Faithful’ to see how they compared.

To my mind, a rod has two purposes. It has to deliver and control the tackle at the business end, and it should help you fight the fish without any loss of sensitivity.

The first time I took it out was to try for early mullet in the Medway Estuary. I wanted to see how the new rod performed, casting a float a fair distance, in a difficult situation. So come early April, I was stood amongst some rocks at the water’s edge, facing an incoming tide, a fair chuck to a distant channel in the thick mud and a strong breeze in my face.

Neither rod could make the distance in those conditions, but the Caperlan was giving me yards over ‘Old Faithful’

I decided that I really needed to get my bait into the channel, and the only way to do that was to use a swim-feeder, packed with bread mash, to give me the distance. This wasn’t what the rod was designed for, but again if performed superbly, lobbing the heavily weighted swim-feeder with the accuracy needed.

Unfortunately, the tide was bringing in large pieces of sea-weed which caught on the line, dragging the swim-feeder away from the channel and making fishing impossible. Again the Caperlan proved its superiority, dragging in rafts of weed from the clutches of the strongly running tide with relative ease.

I wasn’t going to be able to test its fish handling qualities today, but it had one more feature to reveal. Coated in mud, and sun baked bread mash, leant against sharp rocks as a rod rest, how would it look after a clean-up?

I was surprised at how its ‘just new’ good looks came back after a simple wash in fresh water, and a rub down with a dry cloth.

It was going to be a while before I could really experience its fish handling qualities, but the sudden dip of a float, one bright sunny day, fishing from the pontoon pier at Chatham, had me firmly hooked into a 4lb 3oz mullet. I’ve heard the fight of a mullet described as like battling with a chub on steroids, a tench with turbo boosters attached, or a barbel hugging mid-water instead of the bottom. I’d add that mullet have a few very special tricks all of their own to boot.

This fish seemed determined to exceed expectations, tearing line from the centre-pin reel and fighting desperately to reach the stronger current further out.

Mullet have a habit of finding any weakness in the tackle or angler. Sudden, and unexpected rushes snap the fine line, demanded by the mullet’s tackle shyness, like cotton. The tip of the Caperlan bent obligingly, halting the initial surge before I even knew what was happening.

A strong dogged pull can see the angler dangerously conceding line, as the fish heads inexorably into a snag, or strong current. The Caperlan progressively took the strain, until there was no doubt that it was me in charge of the fight, not the fish.

And all the time, the rod transmitted each movement of the fish to my aching arm, allowing me to predict what it was going to do next and giving me the impression that the rod was a live part of my arm, not a dead stick between me and the fish.

Perch have also fallen to the versatile Decathlon rod

Since that fish was landed, I’ve had a few more. I’ve also had occasion to use the rod for waggler and stick-float fishing, occasional swim-feedering, and even with a small spinner for perch. In all of that time, I’ve never been let down by the rod’s performance or have found any need for a niggling modification.

‘Old Faithful’ now lives in happy retirement somewhere at the back of the tackle cupboard, and no, I’m not giving it back!

What I would be prepared to pay a few quid extra for is a selection of tips, so that the rod could also be used with very light hooklengths, or for proper feeder fishing for shy biting fish.

Tight Lines • Leon Roskilly

18/08/00