Hi Mark , hope things are good for you . thought i'd drop you a line, just to let you know that the rods you built for me ( Torrix Specialists ) are still doing the bizz and to send a picture of my new barbel pb, at 14lb 12ounce it is a very large summer barbel for the Hampshire Avon and as you can imagine I'm made up. The rods have acounted for numerouse doubles, carp up high teens on surface tactics and not to mention chub, I've had six over 6lb so far this season ( 2011-2012 ) including a nice fish of 6lb 8 , which i caught twice. Lol

Paul

Mark,

Thought you might like to see my new carp pb that I caught on one of the superb Chimera Specialist No2 rods you recently built for me.

I had fished for tench for four hours. The swim was stuffed full of fish with liners occuring every few minutes. Somehow I conspired to lose three fish, getting one screaming run whilst at the top of a tree!

When the liners dried up I thought I'd take a look at a bar at the other end of this, my 'secret' lake (located on the edge of a golf course where no-one else fishes). Sure enough there was a carp present - one of maybe eight fish in this deep, 1 acre lake. I catapulted out a few pouches of corn and went back to pack up, the tench fishing over.

Having moved my tackle and tied up a new rig, baited with a stack of corn, I sneaked into position only to see about five carp were now milling over the bar. The ripple was making it difficult to see where the fish were and, after quarter of an hour, I decided to risk a cast, first catting in some more corn.

I put the rod on the floor, baitrunner on lose, and rolled a cigarette. I only had to wait about four minutes before it simply tore off. An eight minute scrap ensued but the Chimera was taking no prisoners!

These rods really are the best I have ever owned by miles. Thanks for doing such a great job.

The fish tipped the scales at 21lb 8oz, beating my old best by almost 4lb.

Cheers,

Greg Whitehead, Angling Times

Mark

This is the 14lb 14oz barbel that I caught from the River Nene this autumn past ( 2008 ). I beat it with one of the pair of barbel Flood/Big River rods that you made me. The rods are superb and will cast a six ounce groundbait feeder no trouble at all. They also stop barbel in their tracks as this fish quickly discovered - I must have had it in the net less than five minutes (fish to catch them, not to lose them!). I've never been able to put so much pressure on a fish that I've had to bring the left hand to play above the reel because my right wrist couldn't take the pressure on its own. Keep up the good work mate and I'm sure I'll find an excuse to buy something else from your arsenal soon!

Greg Whitehead, Angling Times