ON TEST
ZZIPLEX TRC
Zziplex TRC Peter Thain assessed the latest tournament rod from Zziplex. he Zziplex TRC marks the beginning of a new era in rod design. Produced as a tribute to the founder of Zziplex, the late Terry Carroll, it’s been designed as an all-out tournament rod. Given Terry’s background in casting, it was only right that a rod named after him should be first and foremost a field rod. The TRC, like all the Zziplex tournament rods, is there to showcase the cutting edge of high-performance design. This technology is then used to make the exceptional fishing rods that the company is rightly famous for. There are no plans to change this format, and no reason to do so. Why fix what isn’t broken? Lee Isham, who’s been Terry’s right-hand man for close to 18 years, is now solely in control of design and manufacturing at the Zziplex plant. Taught by Terry, his credentials aren’t even up
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for question. In fact, I can’t think of anyone more suited to the task of carrying on the Zziplex tradition of quality and performance. The TRC is the first solo production design by Lee, so how does his new baby rank in terms of performance? Well, if it’s all-out distance you’re after, you only need to look at what it’s delivered so far. Almost everyone who has cast the TRC has been wowed by its performance. Steve Lewis knocked out a monster 289m cast at Kent (that’s 316 yards in old money), while Andy Copping has just won UKSF GP3, taking first place in the 150g, 125g and 100g categories, all with the TRC of course. With it already proven on the field, there seemed little point in me dragging it down to a tournament just to find out the obvious. The obvious being that it’s a damn fine distance tool! Instead, I decided to test
it for both performance and feedback over multiple practice sessions while casting out to sea. Doing this would allow me to make many more casts and understand how the rod performs far more quickly than tramping up and down a field with it. So, first impressions? Well it’s long, very long. At 14 feet and six inches plus a reducer, it means you have a maximum casting length close to 15 feet if you mount the reel on the reducer. All this length doesn’t carry a heavy-weight penalty, though, and it’s considerably lighter than any of the serious competition at similar lengths. As expected, it’s pretty stiff, and needs to be to deliver the goods over grass. Comparing it with my Zeteque, the butt has about the same power, while the lower and mid tip have slightly more give. The extreme tip is firmer, which is a definite plus point because it makes lead control and power
input much easier. All this adds up to a rod action that’s powerful without losing the plot completely. Given Steve’s excellent 289m cast, it made sense to ask him for his ring spacings in order to get a head start on the testing process. So far I haven’t needed to adjust these spacings at all, and they seem very well suited to the action of the blank. With the guides taped in place, I hit the shore to make my first series of casts. Early doubts, about whether I could move a rod that long with sufficient speed to get the best from it, proved correct. With the reel on the reducer, the rod was in control of me, and threw me all over the place. To be honest it came as no real surprise, because at that length it’s way longer than
The mid section feeds the power nicely into the butt and provides plenty of feedback regarding what’s happening during the cast.
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