Gardner Tackle Carp Fishing Rods

The last time Gardner rods were on sale it was 2002. Tony Blair was Prime Minister, Gareth Gates and Will Young topped the charts, and Ronaldinho lobbed Seaman at the World Cup. It was a heck of a long time ago, but Gardner don’t rush things. They have searched high and low for the right supplier and perfect blank on which to craft these much-anticipated comeback releases.

Lewis Read and the team at the firm’s Surrey headquarters first identified there were very few exceptional rods available for £200 - most were either priced well below or well above - then set to work on finding the ultimate tool for the money.
Sourcing blanks with the perfect blend of quality, weight and the right ‘feel’ was an exhaustive process with no time limit. These rods are only hitting the market now because they fit Gardner’s strict criteria.

Chief among those desires was the need for a crisp, precise feel, and that’s exactly what these rods, which are manufactured exclusively for Gardner, have delivered. There’s no sense of sloppiness or floppiness to be found here.

There are just four rods in the range, but all bases are covered. The 10ft 3.25lb GTC (the C stands for Continental) is an ideal boat or stalking rod, while the 12ft 3lb 6oz GTD (that’s D for Distance) is the archetypal modern carp rod. Moving up a foot, the 13ft 3lb GTD+ (that’s + for… plus!) is aimed at anglers who want just a bit more reach when it comes to casting to extreme long-range. Finally, the GTA (Application) is 12ft 4.5lb and can be used for both light to heavy spod work and markering.

The builds have a minimalist look and the lightweight 3K-reinforced blanks deliver that essential crisp feeling through medium-fast actions with a fast tip recovery to aid accuracy as well as distance. That means they’re just as happy to be used to flick light leads about as they are to hurl helicopters to the horizon.

When it comes to playing fish they transmit plenty of feedback to the angler. They’re not rigid pokers, they are proper fishing rods that retain all the thrill of the fight.

Gardner are very open about the technical specifications of the rods. They are made using 36-ton Mitsubishi carbon fibre on low-resin blanks. There’s a 3K reinforced section just above the overfit joint on the tip section to aid responsiveness by reducing ‘unnecessary’ weight further up. Ultra-lightweight Minima guides are used throughout, including an anti-frap tip ring. The 12ft and 13ft models have six eyes with a 50mm butt ring, while the 10-footer has six eyes with a 40mm butt. All the rods have a high-gloss finish for looks and protection, plus 3K machined carbon DPS reel seats and minimalist black whipping (edged with silver on the reel-seat collar and carbon line clip).

That built-in line-friendly line clip is a great touch in itself. Unlike most on the market it is positioned a foot up the blank from the reel. This improves bite indication and offers a distance guide when paying out line or using a marker float.

All the fishing rods have a full EVA handle, while the Application model is full shrink wrap.

With these rods, Gardner identified a gap in the market, set out to fill it without compromise and agreed they wouldn’t put them on sale until they had found the best they could. It’s a refreshing ethos in a competitive market and, by the look and feel of these rods, they have absolutely smashed their demanding brief out of the park.