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Sometimes, being right sucks !


Ken L

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You may recall that I wasn't very impressed with my new Greys travel rod.

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=66028

 

Well, there was water on the river last week so I've not used it again till now.

I took it out on the river this afternoon and fished for a couple of hours with spinners upto 13g and swimbaits upto 24g. To be honest, I struggled with just three chub from the rather cold river and all of them comming in 15 minutes from a single peg.

 

I then moved upstream a ways and clipped on a 4" "Riplin' Redfin" plug and started working that arround the near bank. I got a hit as a pike of about 3lb grabbed the lure from his hiding place next to some reeds.

A little tap of a strike (He was close and I was using braided line) and I silutaniously hooked the fish and snapped the rod clean in two in that suspect third section. After a couple of minutes of messing about with my stump of a rod, I landed, unhooked and returned the fish.

 

My first thought was that I'd somehow let the joint get loose and had blown the carbon by striking whilst the joint was only haf pushed in, but when I retrived the broken section from the river, it turned out to be fractionally less than 6" long. The ferrule is only about three and a half inches long, so for all intents and purposes, it snapped mid section.

 

Needless to say, I'm not happy and it will be going back.

Species caught in 2020: Barbel. European Eel. Bleak. Perch. Pike.

Species caught in 2019: Pike. Bream. Tench. Chub. Common Carp. European Eel. Barbel. Bleak. Dace.

Species caught in 2018: Perch. Bream. Rainbow Trout. Brown Trout. Chub. Roach. Carp. European Eel.

Species caught in 2017: Siamese carp. Striped catfish. Rohu. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Black Minnow Shark. Perch. Chub. Brown Trout. Pike. Bream. Roach. Rudd. Bleak. Common Carp.

Species caught in 2016: Siamese carp. Jullien's golden carp. Striped catfish. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Alligator gar. Rohu. Black Minnow Shark. Roach, Bream, Perch, Ballan Wrasse. Rudd. Common Carp. Pike. Zander. Chub. Bleak.

Species caught in 2015: Brown Trout. Roach. Bream. Terrapin. Eel. Barbel. Pike. Chub.

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Funny, had a Greys fly rod snap, first cast out, a few years back. It was a clean break, and they were willing to send me another, after I had sent it back. Did that, got a new rod back, new model actually, and want to know what happened in the first session out? Yep, same thing, clean break. Was so peeved that I put the other section on the bank and jumped on it. They eventually did give me my money back, which was all I could ask for, but I won't be going there again.

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Lifetime guarantee with Greys...use it mate.

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I have been using a Greys beachcaster for 3 yrs now and a Greyfex spin for 12 months and only had pleasure with them (fingers crossed for the future).

I can only go off my own experience using Greys rods and I have found them to be great.

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Yep, everybody seems to love them and I went by the reputation.

At the moment, I'm debating whether to go back to the vendor (Harris) or directly to the manufacturer.

The fact that the rod bent right through to the butt section under even a light loading would indicate that the problem is a fundamental design flaw rather than a duff third section and makes me inclined to go directly to Greys. Afterall, what good is a new section if I've still got a rod that's not fit for purpose ?

These guys have an enviable reputation to uphold and I'd rather see a British company getting things right and offering anglers what they need than have no choice other than to buy from a big corperation.

Species caught in 2020: Barbel. European Eel. Bleak. Perch. Pike.

Species caught in 2019: Pike. Bream. Tench. Chub. Common Carp. European Eel. Barbel. Bleak. Dace.

Species caught in 2018: Perch. Bream. Rainbow Trout. Brown Trout. Chub. Roach. Carp. European Eel.

Species caught in 2017: Siamese carp. Striped catfish. Rohu. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Black Minnow Shark. Perch. Chub. Brown Trout. Pike. Bream. Roach. Rudd. Bleak. Common Carp.

Species caught in 2016: Siamese carp. Jullien's golden carp. Striped catfish. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Alligator gar. Rohu. Black Minnow Shark. Roach, Bream, Perch, Ballan Wrasse. Rudd. Common Carp. Pike. Zander. Chub. Bleak.

Species caught in 2015: Brown Trout. Roach. Bream. Terrapin. Eel. Barbel. Pike. Chub.

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Ken, I believe they buy the stuff in from China. One of our now seldom seen members works in H.M.Customs and did comment that they came into the UK valued at £12.00. Don't know if its true but it explains why you pay the first so many quid when you claim under a lifetime guarantee, you are actually paying for a new rod!

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Unfortunately Ken , you've just experienced the same problem as a lot of other anglers have when fishing with Greys rods, they just seem to snap suddenly and cleanly.

 

Bit of a shame as they had an envieable reputation based on years of good quality build and materials when their production was based in Alnwick Northumberland. It would seem that a lot of that reputation has been lost with the transfer of production to the far East indeed it has been mentioned more than once that some of the rods are seconds, sold as perfect A1's, such is the occurances of "sudden breakage syndrome", although whether that is true or provable is open to question.

 

If they really wanted to examine the rods and see why they break under load then why do they insist that you send back the bits in 4 inch sections as you have to under their lifetime guarantee scheme along with their "administrative" fee. A lifetime guarantee should be just that with no catchs or gimmicks and no fees to enable the guarantee to be effective and certainly should'nt mean you have to put your hand in your pocket to rectify any design or production faults

 

Peters remark about the cost of the rods on entry to the UK have more than a ring of truth about it when you compare the figure shown with the admin fee for guarantees

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Well, this is what got sent out earlier tonight, via their web responce form.

 

GRX Travel Spin problem.

 

I recently bought this rod from Harris Angling and it has snapped on it's second outing.

 

My initial impressions of the rod are documented from posts #14 thru #19 here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=66028

 

Details of how I came to break it can be seen here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.p...mp;#entry670060

 

I haven't even sent off the guarantee yet !

 

My concern is that if I use the guarantee, I still end up with a rod that's simply not fit for what I bought it for because it's underpowered, has an inappropriate taper, has a butt that's to long and a downlocking reel seat (I should have seen this one from the photo) that stops me from feeling subtle hits.

 

This rod was going to go to India with me and I'm only glad that it broke here instead of when I was off travelling which would have left me lugging arround a broken rod, useless reel and terminal tackle.

 

Is there an alternative (and reliable) travel rod in your range that I might swap my 8' GRX Travel Spin for ?

Species caught in 2020: Barbel. European Eel. Bleak. Perch. Pike.

Species caught in 2019: Pike. Bream. Tench. Chub. Common Carp. European Eel. Barbel. Bleak. Dace.

Species caught in 2018: Perch. Bream. Rainbow Trout. Brown Trout. Chub. Roach. Carp. European Eel.

Species caught in 2017: Siamese carp. Striped catfish. Rohu. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Black Minnow Shark. Perch. Chub. Brown Trout. Pike. Bream. Roach. Rudd. Bleak. Common Carp.

Species caught in 2016: Siamese carp. Jullien's golden carp. Striped catfish. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Alligator gar. Rohu. Black Minnow Shark. Roach, Bream, Perch, Ballan Wrasse. Rudd. Common Carp. Pike. Zander. Chub. Bleak.

Species caught in 2015: Brown Trout. Roach. Bream. Terrapin. Eel. Barbel. Pike. Chub.

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Well, this is what got sent out earlier tonight, via their web responce form.

 

GRX Travel Spin problem.

 

I recently bought this rod from Harris Angling and it has snapped on it's second outing.

 

My initial impressions of the rod are documented from posts #14 thru #19 here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=66028

 

Details of how I came to break it can be seen here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.p...mp;#entry670060

 

I haven't even sent off the guarantee yet !

 

My concern is that if I use the guarantee, I still end up with a rod that's simply not fit for what I bought it for because it's underpowered, has an inappropriate taper, has a butt that's to long and a downlocking reel seat (I should have seen this one from the photo) that stops me from feeling subtle hits.

 

This rod was going to go to India with me and I'm only glad that it broke here instead of when I was off travelling which would have left me lugging arround a broken rod, useless reel and terminal tackle.

 

Is there an alternative (and reliable) travel rod in your range that I might swap my 8' GRX Travel Spin for ?

 

 

Probably not in their range, ask them to send you a 6 piece Shimano 8/9 foot exage travel rod around £50 inc P&P from Harris.

 

Landed several Salmon on mine inc. a 23lber

 

Colin

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