Joe Carass gets his mitts on the all

Up close
Pre-bushed and ready to go straight
out of the bag – perfect!
ainly
Breaking down on a top six is cert
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pole
any
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THE PERFECT
ALL-ROUNDER?
A stunning net of fish
on a stunning pole!
£1,09
9
Joe Carass gets his mitts on the all-new Preston Innovations Response
M50 pole as he takes it for a day’s deep-water roach fishing.
Y
ou may recall a few issues ago I wrote a
glowing review of the fantastic Preston
Innovations Response M90. It is a pole
that has really pushed Preston to the
very forefront of the market, with its incredible
performance and superb kit package. In short,
the M90 has got everything that you could ask
of it!
But what of the rest of the Response range? I
decided to get the M50 sent in to have a look at.
The M50 is the least expensive of the new range
of poles from Preston, but for just over £1,000
it is still far from cheap. I do find the statement
“One of the best budget poles on the market”
on the website a little amusing, to be honest –
since when has a £1,099 pole been classed as
budget? Still, I’m not going to let that affect what
I think of the pole.
The battleground for my day with the M50
was to be the deep Mill Farm Fishery, in
Gilmorton, Leicestershire. This is a stunning
venue that is absolutely rammed with quality
78 | Match Fishing
silver fish and at 20 feet it would be the ideal
test for this pole; breaking down on a top six and
striking hard to set the hook was sure to be a
massive test for this pole’s strength.
The pole itself is supplied with a wonderful
spares pack. You get the full 16m pole, as you
would expect, plus two match top-two kits,
four Roller Pulla kits, a Kupping Kit and three
Mini Extensions. All of this carbon is supplied
in a bespoke Response holdall and all kits and
sections are supplied in protective tubes.
The kits are pre-bushed and the match kits
take an orange Preston PTFE internal, which is
ideal for elastics up to a No8 or 8 Dura Hollo. The
Roller Pulla Kits have a blue internal, which will
handle all but the thickest of elastics. I decided to
thread one of the match kits up with a single No6
elastic set ‘pingy’, which I felt would be the way
forward in this deep swim.
The pole was already ticking a lot of boxes,
from what I could see. The package was about as
user-friendly as you can get, and I could get up
and running straightaway, which I think is how all
poles need to be nowadays.
I was expecting some great fishing so I
decided to really attack the swim. A mix of
groundbait and heavy soil was prepared before
10 ‘babies heads’ were accurately cupped in at
11.5 metres. There was absolutely no problem
cupping in these heavy feed-laden balls to the
spot and the pole took the strain with ease.
Fishing at this distance allowed me to fit one
of the short mini extensions supplied with the
pole. These fit from section No5 right up to the
larger butt sections and really do help prevent
section damage. While this type of extension is
nothing new, they are a brilliant addition to the
package.
To cope with the deep swim I opted for a 3g
pencil float, which I hoped would settle quickly
and also offer minimal resistance when striking.
A simple bulk and three No8 droppers was as
complicated as the rig got. It took an hour for the
fish to find the bait but once they did, my word
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