Drennan Zircon 16m – First Impressions

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    • 28/11/2007 at 2:00 pm #30429

      Kingman

        Well, I finally got my hands on the Drennan Zircon yesterday following a nervous wait for the courier to arrive. I needn’t have worried as the pole arrived in possibly the strongest cardboard packaging tube ever manufactured. Even a truck could have run over it without so much as denting the packaging.

        A quick word of praise here for the tackle dealer, John of The Match Men in Nottingham. Great guy, friendly, excellent service, good advice and communications. I would recommend John to anyone looking to buy this pole and/or any other item of tackle mail order

        On to the pole, first impressions are excellent. Pole looks the part, all black with understated graphics. Finish is superb and the quality of workmanship looks first rate. Joints are all reinforced and the attention to detail in all areas is exactly what you have come to expect from Drennan (what other manufacturer would tempt you to spend £2k without a prior inspection!).

        The package is huge, 16m pole, 10 top kits + cupping kit, short number 3, and mini extension for 11.5, 13, 14.5 and 16m sections. Also included are cups, skid bungs, various other essentials, nose cones, spare bushes etc. and a very useful instruction and advice leaflet.

        All kits are pre-bushed ensuring you are fishing at the full 16m, not 15.5 once you have taken the number 1 section out of most other poles. Some people may not like the bushes that come as standard, but they are the smallest you will need, so you can always get the hacksaw out (as I did yesterday)

        All kits are numbered and named as are the sections themselves. Joints fit together snugly and the pole feels light and well balanced prior to elastication.

        There was some movement when undertaking the now essential thumb squeeze test on the 3rd, 4th and 5th sections. This makes me feel Drennan’s 16 rating is about right. This is a match pole not a big carp cruncher like say a Garbo G10.

        Any downsides? Well the supplied holdall is fairly low rent and offers no protection whatsoever and there are no tubes for the pole. This means I now need to go out and spend £25 on Tek-Neek tubes to avoid breaking the pole first time out. Also 13, 14.5 and 16m sections are parallel so the pole is in 3 bits not 2 which means an extra tube in your holdall, but at least this gives you something additional to carry all the top kits in! I personally would have sacrificed a top kit for a decent holdall and tubes, but as a manufacturer you can never please all of the people all of the time etc.

        Think that’s about it. I will be giving it an outing this weekend (suitable draw permitting!) so I will let you know how it copes in a match

        Feel free to PM me for any further detail, or speak to John at The Match Men for advice on getting hold of one.

        Cheers

        Andy

      • 28/11/2007 at 2:10 pm #68755

        TF_Dave Pellet

          Hi Andy

          good, detailed review there
          How are you thinking of elasticating it?

          Don’t get what you mean regarding the pole being in 3 bits, I thought all 16m poles came like that!
          (But then I’ve only owned 2 16m poles – handled a few, but only owned 2)

        • 28/11/2007 at 2:38 pm #68756

          Kingman

            Dave,

            My daiwa came all packed into a 14.5 mtr section with only the 16m section separate. Not really a problem, just a very slight inconvenience.

            Elastication? Well Ive put a 3 elastic and a 5 hydro in the match top 3 kits and a 9, 11, 13 and 15 Preston Hollo in the bungee kits. That will do for now.

            Not sure what to do wth the long top 3’s. i will probably cut them back for natural latex in sizes 6 – 16. the new Vespe stuff looks excellent

            Cheers

            Andy

          • 28/11/2007 at 2:47 pm #68757

            TF_Dave Pellet

              interesting, my last pole was a garbo antidote, and like all their 16m poles, you get the basic 13m pole with 2 extensions
              I thought it was an industry-wide standard

              not seen the vespe latex, I’ve got some garbo latex in mine, along with a small selection of hollows, tried to keep it as simple as possible

            • 28/11/2007 at 3:50 pm #68758

              TF_Dave Pellet

                Kingman, I’ve got my facts wrong

                only the Antidote & Prem Legion pack away into 3 seperate units, all the other Garbo 16m poles pack away into 2, as your daiwa did

              • 28/11/2007 at 11:27 pm #68759

                TF_bwfcjohn
                Participant

                  I will look forward to your report once you put the Zircon through its paces. I am looking for a new pole and am considering the Zircon as well as a Tourny Pro.

                • 29/11/2007 at 9:26 am #68760

                  TF_RMNDIL

                    Andy, I’m very pleased you’ve chosen a Zircon. It is a fabulous pole but I’m a little surprised you bought it without seeing it first. Only time will tell if it suits your requirements.

                    Carriers can break those transit tubes. We had one a few years ago which was completely flat from end to end where they’d driven right along it !!!!

                    I just wanted to pass on our reasoning on a couple of things you have mentioned. We produce the pole at 16m and it is 13m all in one with the 14.5m and 16m butt sections separately. As it has 10 extra top kits you need to store them somewhere. So, each extension is fully capable of holding at least 3 top kits if not 4 (they will probably hold 6 match kits). You would need somewhere to store these anyway so we don’t really consider having the butt sections separate to be any real inconvenience. Also, if the 13m stored inside the 14.5m then the 14.5m (and 16m) would need to be bigger in diameter. We tried to keep the diameter down.

                    We don’t supply plastic tubes as we just assume everyone will have them already. When you are buying such an expensive piece of kit it is unlikely to be your first pole. To us, an extra top kit is worth far more, and is more useful, than say an additional 3 or 4 plastic tubes. It’s similar to the pole holdall. Actually, it is very good quality and very well made. But, I guess you must be thinking that it is a bit insufficient to use as a main holdall. That is correct. It’s made to take the pole only and not to be used for the pole, rods, umbrella, banksticks etc. Again, we assume that anglers have other luggage (in a lot of cases probably matching carryall & holdall) already for this purpose.

                    I hope you enjoy it.

                  • 29/11/2007 at 8:24 pm #68761

                    Kingman

                      Richard,

                      Cheers for the feedback on the package. Like I said you cant please all the people… Its still the best package by far that I have seen, and so well presented.

                      I do have a quality holdall and tubes but I may have to part with them with my Spectron, we’ll see.

                      I will keep you posted as to my thoughts once I use it in anger.

                      I reckon I deserve a Drennan merit badge as I now have:-

                      Drennan 10-11ft6 Method Rod
                      Drennan 11ft-13ft Carp waggler
                      Drennan Matchpro Quiver 10-11ft
                      Drennan DRX River Feeders in 12ft10″ and 13ft10″
                      Drennan Team England Carp waggler
                      Drennan 11ft6″-13ft Feeder
                      Drennan 14ft DRX Ultralight MkII waggler

                      That must be worth a loyalty bonus!
                      Those Drennan Feeder and waggler rods are the best and the main reason why I purchased the pole based on reviews only. Time will tell…

                      Keep John at The Match Men sweet as he did an excellent sales job!
                      Cheers

                      Andy

                    • 30/11/2007 at 10:03 am #68762

                      TF_Dave Pellet

                        good work kingman
                        what do you think of the 10-11’6″ method rod?

                      • 30/11/2007 at 10:50 am #68763

                        Kingman

                          Only had it for about 6 weeks and not really given it much of a work out as yet. Not really the time of year for method bashing on the venues I fish.

                        • 30/11/2007 at 12:52 pm #68764

                          TF_Sneaky

                            Kingman, how does the zircon compare alongside your speccy,I’m considering making the same change.

                          • 01/12/2007 at 7:24 pm #68765

                            TF_bartez
                            Participant

                              fosters hae one on there web page for £1595.00 seems a fair price what do you think?

                            • 03/12/2007 at 10:50 pm #68766

                              Kingman

                                I,m pretty sick actually. A week after I paid £2k for a recently released pole Fosters are knocking £400 off. Whats going on? I hope this is a One-Off otherwise I might as well have purchased a Maver!!

                              • 04/12/2007 at 12:07 am #68767

                                bigroach
                                Participant

                                  i’ve seen somewhere else for 1500 but it was only 14.5 long, was 2k for the full 16m

                                • 04/12/2007 at 8:51 am #68768

                                  TF_Dave Pellet

                                    they’ve got to have got that price wrong

                                    the 14.5m version is up for £1725 at thematchmen.com & the 16m at £1995

                                    wouldn’t have thought anyone could sell it for less than those prices!

                                  • 04/12/2007 at 10:20 am #68769

                                    madforit

                                      http://www.fostersofbirmingham.co.uk/st64785

                                    • 04/12/2007 at 10:25 am #68770

                                      J.G.G

                                        Bargain.

                                      • 04/12/2007 at 10:32 am #68771

                                        madforit

                                          They’re also selling superlegions for £1000….

                                        • 04/12/2007 at 12:06 pm #68772

                                          Kingman

                                            Comments from Drennan will be welcomed here. Finding the pole £400 cheaper than you have just paid, only a week after you purchased it is NO way to reward customer loyalty!

                                          • 04/12/2007 at 12:25 pm #68773

                                            TF_Happy Dangler

                                              Before you get too p’d off Kingman – ring them and see if they actually have a pole to sell at that price.

                                              There is a thread about the Garbo G10 and another retailer on the TF Coarse forum that suggests the advertising at a super low price is mischief making as the pole is never actually available at that price.

                                            • 04/12/2007 at 3:07 pm #68774

                                              Kingman

                                                Just to say, I have spoken with Drennan (Richard Norris) this afternoon and they have resolved any concerns I may have had.
                                                Obviously someone has got a bargain and good luck to them, unfortunately on this occasion it wasnt me. I am secure in the knowledge however that I have an excellent new pole at a fair price. I just wish these gales would stop so i can get out and use it!

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