Tackle Review : HTO Rockfish UL 0.5-7g LRF rod

I first heard of this rod a few months ago on the lure forum as a couple of members were testing it, formerly known as TronixPro Rockfish UL it has since been re branded HTO Rockfish UL. It instantly grabbed my attention as it was a budget model LRF rod and they are few and far between! So when we were asked if we would like to review the rod we jumped at the chance!

First off the rod specifications.

Length : 6'11"
Casting range : 0.5 - 7g
Solid carbon tip

The first thing that struck us was the overall look of the rod is very good indeed. The red ,black and silver whippings and overall finish were neat and tidy and the join where the carbon tip meets the matt black carbon blank is nice and neat too.The abbreviated handle is a similar length to my Graphiteleader Corto and is very comfortable as well as looking good in a low profile sort of way . There is no fore grip as such but the reel seat is set up so that its easy to rest your finger on the blank in order to feel bites.The rings are good quality and tough enough to handle saltwater and rocks. The carbon tip is ultra fine and finished in  a nice visible white but it is a very fine diameter tip, ultra sensitive but also delicate too so it will require a bit of care when transporting!The rod definitely looks the part so it was onto seeing how it performed. 

We tried the rod in various different scenarios with both fluorocarbon and braid as a mainline. Our first run through with it was exploring some vertical presentations, bouncing lures down into gullies and next to large boulders. The ultra fine tip worked as an excellent visual bite indicator, registering the tiny bites of blennies and sea scorpions very well indeed and bending right over when they grabbed the lure and made off with it.

Next test was casting and seeing how it registered bites at distance, this we did down at St Abbs  with flounder as our target species. It really does cast little jig heads as well as any of my more expensive LRF rods, which was great for getting to the resident flounder. The rod allows you to feel the contours of the bottom well allowing you to differentiate between rock , sand and weed and when the bites come they are transmitted directly to the hand with the fine tip also giving a great visual indication. There were a few flounders where we got to observe the take and we found that they were able to suck the lure into there mouth while we still had tension on the line. This allows the fish to inhale the bait with confidence as there is hardly any resistance, however we could still feel these bites and I don't think any were missed ! Once the fish were hooked the action of the rod came into play, it has a regular fast action when working the lures but a nice soft action when playing a fish. It certainly has more of a through action when compared to my some of our other LRF rods , this however makes playing fish rather pleasant as the through action cushions the light line very well from head shakes and sudden dives and controls the fish in a soft but firm manner.

A lot of flounders were caught on the rod from 0.5lb to 1.25lb and it was great at registering bites and playing the fish in, I also "swung in" all the fish to land them and the rod coped well with it. I would stress however that due to the ultra fine tip it would be preferable to have used a drop net and I would advocate the use of one just to keep that tip safe. It is also a great little trout rod too and before the season had ended I managed to have a quick session fishing soft plastics for trout. The rod casts and works the 1g jig heads well but came into its own for hooking and landing the trout, where the soft action really worked at keeping the trout hooked no mater how they tore about in the current!

Overall I have to say that there is nothing that compares to this rod in it price range. It is a genuine little LRF rod designed for the sea and it does what many much more expensive rods do at a fraction of the price. I think its a great little rod and the highest praise I can give it is that when I recently broke my GraphiteLeader Corto EX tip section, I went to my rod holdall to grab the TronixPro only to remember that Scott had taken it to Jersey. I was gutted! The rod would have done everything my Corto would have and would have kept me fishing.

That being said it won't replace my Corto but it will stay in my rod bag for friends to use and as my spare LRF rod. It certainly is an excellent rod for those that want to sample the joys of Light Rock Fishing but it also doubles as a great rod for trout and perch and there is simply nothing else that comes close in this price range.

Tronix have also informed me that they will be making a "deluxe" version of the rod with Fuji fittings and a slight redesign of the handle, they have done such a good job with this one I for one cant wait to see what the new model is like!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

St Abbs : Wrasse at last!

After my PB flounder capture at St Abbs I have been desperate to get back and try for wrasse. I have seen other people catching them there but have never managed to get one myself. So when I found myself with a work free day and was given the green light by my family I jumped at the chance! I arrived at the harbour at about 10am and the tide was just starting to flood. The conditions were quite pleasant with calm seas, clear skies and sunshine but again with a gusty north westerly wind. On the drive down all I could think of was wrasse, however now I was standing at the harbour I just couldn't resist the lure of the flounders! Besides I think the wrasse would feed better with a bit more movement in the tide. I still had the drop shot rig on the rod so taking the easy option I decided to see if the flounder would respond to it. The rig was a straight forward drop shot rig comprising of a 7g lead, 18" up from that via a palomar knot was a #6 offset worm hook rigged with a section of red Gulp! Sandworm. I was somewhat dubious about how effective it would be as the lure would not be hard on the bottom, which is usually the way I fish for flounders. Technique wise it was just a question of casting out into the harbour, then very slowly retrieving whilst shaking the rod tip. Five minutes later I was into the first flounder of the session which after racing towards me at high speed was landed to a chorus of surprised gasps from the crowd of tourists who were watching me. It was a nice chunky flounder and fought quite hard for its size after a quick measure and photo I popped it back. I then followed it up with another two flounders both a good size, proving that flounders like drop shotted Gulp! Sandworm!

First flounder of the session, after only five minutes of fishing!

The next flounder was a very chunky one!

This one was hiding amongst the weed before it came up to hit the lure.

At this point I decided to have a play with a new rod we had got hold of. The rod is a TronixPro Rockfish UL and I was keen to see how much feel I could get from it as it has a solid carbon tip. I rigged up a 3.5g #8 Cultiva jighead with a Berkley Gulp! 1" Minnow and began casting across the sand. It felt good as I retrieved the little jig across sea bed, I could feel it trundling across the sand, bumping into little pebbles, I was surprised at how sensitive it was especially for a so called budget rod. The flounder fishing went slightly crazy at this point for as I watched the lure trundling across the bottom I could see some good sized flounders following it. One of them sped up its stalking of the lure and grabbed hold! I struck and after a spirited fight manged to land another fine St Abbs flounder. After a quick picture I released the fish and began to target the other flounders I could see mooching around on the sand.

One of the many flounder I caught with the new rod.

The next hour and a half was brilliant with a further eleven flounders landed the biggest probably about 1.5lbs and the smallest 0.5lbs with  five long spined sea scorpions thrown in for good measure. It really was a bit of a red letter day and a most excellent test of this rod, which I really enjoyed using.

Red Power Isome fooled this flounder...

While Gulp! Sandworm did for this sea scorpion!

I decided to tear myself away from the flattie bashing and continue my so far fruitless search for a St Abbs wrasse. I went back to using my Graphiteleader Corto EX as it has a bit more backbone and length than the TronixPro Rockfish UL. I rigged up the same drop shot rig I had earlier used to great success on the flounders, again the lure was a section of Gulp! Sandworm. I began to search the thick kelp at the back of the harbour. There was a huge shoal of coalies that kept running past the wall and I amused myself by catching a few of them as I worked along the wall. It was really quite an impressive size of shoal although it made it quite difficult to get through them to try for wrasse. I must have been on about ten coalfish when reeling in another coalie I looked down and suddenly saw I had hooked a small ballan wrasse! This promptly gave a flick of its paddle tail and freed itself from the hook, gleefully darting back into the kelp. It was disappointing but promising all the same in as much as at least the wrasse were there! I carried on working along the wall and about five minutes later felt the sharp bites of a wrasse. I allowed the tentative pecks to turn into a full blown bite as the fish grabbed the lure. I set the hook and saw the unmistakable shape of a wrasse as it turned and dived for the kelp. I raised the rod putting pressure on the fish and quickly brought it out of the danger zone. It tried its best to dive back a couple more times but my rod although very light is deceptively powerful and when it goes into a fighting curve really saps the strength of the fish. I had to walk back along the wall a bit to where I could just about reach down with a 3.5 meter landing net and after a couple of dodgy attempts finally landed my first wrasse from St Abbs!

Success! At last a St Abbs wrasse lays in the net!

I absolutely can't get enough of catching wrasse!

The huge tail on this wrasse really gave it some power!

It was a beautiful fish with a great big paddle tail and weighed just under one and a half pounds. A few pictures and I quickly released it with a big smile on my face! I worked my way back along the wall bouncing the lure through the weed. I caught a few more coalfish before I saw the shoal suddenly erupt as a large cod smashed through the shoal launching itself clear of the water before belly flopping back with a mighty splash. Crazy, I nearly jumped out of my skin, I certainly wasn't expecting airborne cod! I tried a bit around where the fish had leapt but it wasn't interested ,so I decided to try the harbour mouth quickly before I had to leave. The moved yielded one more fish in the shape of a decent sized coalfish which are always a good tussle on the ultra light gear.

The biggest of the many coalfish caught, locally known as "Podleys"

I went home really pleased as not only had I caught a St Abbs ballan at last but I had also had a rather spectacular flounder session too! I cant wait to get back and do it all again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.