Saturday, 17 February 2018

Morethan acceptable

The sea trout season started last week, on a Sunday as it happens. As such , I had to to wait till today to get my fix, it's been months since I crunched some shingle under my boots! My Century HPR stayed in the car on this occasion as I had a new rod to play with today. I recently picked up a brand new Daiwa Morethan AGS 88M Shooting Commander for Savage Gear money off of eBay. It would need to be some rod to take the place of the Century for my sea trout fishing so I was keen to see what I made of it.

 The first spot I that tried a seal popped up within minutes so I moved about 100 yards away. It wasn't active and stayed where it was, it looked like it was sleeping, probably on a full belly. I did have few light knocks, these were transmitted down the blank much better than I would have imagined. This would have been greatly improved if the fore-grip was an inch shorter. I found not being able to put my forefinger on the blank annoying. That aside,it was certainly sending the 18g D360 line thru out some distance and I had to hold back as I could empty the braid spool on my Daiwa 2500. The AGS is 8inches shorter than my Century and it did take me a short while to sort my casting out, both rods are very different ,certainly a nice rod to fish with though.

 The best way I can describe the subtle takes you get from seat trout sometimes is that it's almost like a vibration. I felt this and on the third stop the fish took the lure, almost under the rod tip.
The usual thrashy close range scrap ensued with the fish  lodging itself in some bladder wrack but that was this years account opened at least.

After a move the sun came out, and when it did, it helped me spot some fish following the lure. Putting stops in the retrieve made no difference and after changing lures a few times I tried a teaser below the lure.

This got me two small sea trout in four casts, nice when it works like that!
This is the set up, oval split ring to the treble, heavy fluro from the hook eye to fly. 
It looks industrial, it can tangle and don't even think about it with suspended weed in the water. It will do your head in. It is however effective with a sparsely tied fly. I vary the length of this section, today it was about 8 inches of 19 BS pound Seaguar Ace Hard.
 It has to be pretty stiff and abrasion resistant or you just spend more time sorting tangles and worrying about it breaking.

Having had one last move I was walking between some trees with my net across my back from my shoulder to my hip. I'm never far away from some bawbaggery and today was no different. I clearly misjudged the gap in the trees, my net got caught on both sides, it gave a crack and broke into several pieces. I swore and told myself that I needed a new net anyway, at the same time, keep the new rod out the trees....
I had one other fish before the seals took over, four of them this time, out gunned by the locals I headed back to my car. Hopefully on Sunday I'll get my first Pike of the year.
In truth, I bought the rod for use on my kayak and also as a back up to my HPR for shore bass fishing. I think it will be great for that. The rods poky and with a casting rate of 7-40g I suspected it would be too heavy for my sea trout fishing and I was correct, in all but the most extreme conditions. These rods are known to be fragile, the guides cost a packet to replace if you break one, would I pay the RRP for one? No I wouldn't.

In terms of what it cost me it was great value, roll on summer and the start of my bass fishing.


  • Rod- Daiwa Morethan AGS 7-40g
  • Reel- Daiwa Exceler  2500HA
  • Braid -Sufix 832 0.14
  • Leader- Seaguar Red Label 10pound fluro/ connection Riverge 2mm ring
  • Lures -Magic Minnow D360 UV sinking wedding, black/silver and Hansen Herring black/red, white/red. 




2 comments:

Luremaniac! said...

Get in! I almost became the owner of one of them but decided to get my APIA instead.. Cool rods and the best way to christen it!
Tight lines

Martin said...

For up there on the rocks, on a regular basis, think those carbon rings could be a problem. As I was blanking today, I was thinking about yesterday.Something about those AGS rings, very different feeling, maybe not just hype? I think on a rod for a less harsh environment, I might consider them on a build, if I ever had a rod built that is.