The rod turned up in a reasonably tough material rod sock that resembled a crushed velvet effect on the outside and in two sections that are equal to one another at 4ft long each. Taking the rod out and you immediately notice it looks very nice with the grey carbon colour showing through and a diamond shape pattern running underneath similar to a snake skin, you have the graphics on the rod telling you Spin 10-50g 8FT and ICON with the designed in Great Britain. The rod guide whippings are a metallic royal blue edgings and flat black, covered in a high build gloss finish and are all nice and neat with no high build drips, run over excess showing anywhere. On holding the bottom section of the rod and looking at the reel area you have a nice neat EVA foam grip either side of the Fuji screw reel seat with the top of the grip shaped which your finger when spinning sits on nicely and is set off with a couple of nice looking gold bands. Just in front of the grip and on the underside there is a small foldable metal loop for you to put your lure hooks into for storing safely whilst moving or the lure is not in use. At the bottom there is rubber butt cap, standard and does it job well. The rod guides are just lined SIC guides but they are more than sufficient, moving up to the spigot the gloss finish goes all the way to the end of the section. The bottom half of the rod has the spigot which is a male section. Sliding the top half onto the bottom and it fits perfectly no wobble or gaps that you can get on cheaper rods at times and some spigot showing which looks like it gives some good amount of wear so should last if you look after the rod. Looking up the blank there are another six SIC guides and all with the same royal blue and black whippings and it is all very neat and tidy and nicely finished with a high gloss effect especially for a cheaper rod. One of the main things I notice about this sub £50 spinning rod is that it’s very light and yet still quite stiff thanks to its high modulus carbon blank which in effect for those that are not sure what it means is, Modulus is stiffness of a material so a high modulus material in this case a type of carbon fibre means it’s stiff but built with less materials, which is what gives it the light weight yet the strength its needs. Pairing it up with an Okuma Trio 4000 spinning reel, I took it for a spin locally at a mark and on casting out a 19 gram lure it launches lures really well the action is quick and whips that lure out in the last section.
The retrieve is great as it’s not all reel based the rod is sensitive and I was using braid so you can literally feel the action of the lures and the fish hits very well. I caught a few Schoolie bass on a white paddle tail lure I have which was 40 grams and flies out very very well achieving good distance easily!
The action of bringing in fish is great you can feel everything through the rod and it has a pleasing bend in the rod which was very responsive to the fish fighting way on the end which tires and tames them well. Although none of the fish were over 2 lb,.
From what I have seen it would be able to easily bring in much better fish as well the rod really is a joy to use especially as it’s so light and compact when jerking the lures its very easily done I like this rod so much it now stays in my car for those moments where I get a spare hour or so. If you are looking at getting into LRF or spinning then I would certainly recommend this rod my only change to this rod would be a personal preference and that would be to have some better Fuji guides that are a bit stronger in nature but maybe that is a bit harsh on my part as the rod is only £49.99 and is pretty much well thought out and perfect for any beginner to professional angler. So I personally believe you have a lot of rod here for what you are paying. It really is so light my 4 year old uses it for float fishing as well for small bass and mullet in the local harbours and he holds and uses it very well. Overall verdict 9/10.