Abu Garcia Conlon Xodus BeachCaster review

Deciding on fishing equipment is important and often tricky because there are so many options to choose from. This review, by Simon Day, is the Abu Garcia Conlon Xodus BeachCaster Rod.

A very nice beach, pier and cliff rod.

Because 90% of my fishing is off of cliffs or piers I needed a rod that not only could cast well but was also fairly stiff to enable me to haul the fish onto piers and cliffs.

The model I bought was the 3 piece 12` 9" model and the new 2004 models come with a brand new "grip lock" for your reels. I tried many way of securing a reel to a rod and by far this is the best type for me. I also love the piece you see above that lets your finger grip the Lock for even greater hold.

The Grip Lok also lets you slide the reel to the position you want and not want the manufacture wants which is also a big plus! I tend to have the reel very low so this again was perfect for my needs.

The grip on the rod comes in the form of X-Weave which is my favorite type of grip because no matter how slippery your hands or the rod is the grip remains strong.

The rod is very comparable to the Penn Sidewinder but as I said it's stiffer which for my uses was a better choice.

If you're looking for a rod around the £130-£150 and use it mostly for rock, cliff and pier fishing you'll find this rod does a very good job. I liked it so much I bought two!

UPDATE - 26th October

One of the two rods I bought has had 2 inner rings come off the bottom two rings. I believe this was probably a duff rod because my other Abu Xodus is still going strong. Because I still really like this rod and I also think it may just have been a duff rod I am going to keep it at 5 stars and wait to see what happens. If anything changes I'll post my findings here.

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