yeah – was a top end pole in its day before the CM90 was released

I had one and happily used it for a few years! It’s more than up to fishing on commercial, and the match-kits with the no1’s removed are just as strong as the powers I found too. It was a bloomin good pole back then and very underrated in my opinion.

I think you’ll find the only other pole compatible with it was the slightly cheaper 8151.

It’ll more than handle black hydro, I had a few ton weights on mine using the same. It was “officially” rated up to 14’s with the power-kits, but it was much stronger than the ratings suggested. I used to fish with 14’s in the match-kits (no1 removed) and it didn’t bat an eyelid at it. I’d say it would handle purple hydro too, and anything above that I think you’re better off with a dedicated carp pole anyway.

Is the lerc 50 50 a similar quality pole?

Dont think so mate – the 9151 was a flagship in its day, whilst the 50 50 was a lot less if i remember.

A mate still fishes with his lerc 8151.- great carp solidly made pole for general use up to 14.5 for proper carp – that you can chuck about(he often uses the red vespe hollo long) – as someone said all purpose- except for heavy margin work.

9151 is a proper french made Lerc pole – not Italian like they are now

Spot on Craigo – The Lerc French gear was superb in my opinion, this stuff out of Italy is a poor cousin indeed – never again!

It was (still is) a lovely pole, and I only begrudgingly sold mine. As I said in an earlier post, it was a very under-rated pole, and had it had another company’s name on I’m sure the angling press would have fawned over it and pronounced it the best pole ever!

I,ve still got my 8151 and 9151 poles but not been used them for a few years.

9151 really was a class pole at the time and could handle all situations except hit and hold/margin work for massive carp type situations. Thats why margin poles where invented!.

I had a chat with Ricky Teal from Prestons a few years ago about the elastic rating on the 8151 pole (rated at 14s). It was suggested that Preston 14 elastic was balanced off against 7lb plus breaking strain of line. That means no issues with using 0.18 line in most brands with this pole if used correctly.

The 9151 pole was rated at 16s elastic(not 14s as suggested). So, plenty powerful enough for most commercial match carp situations.

I,ve got 16 top kits. Couple of the middle sections have had professional repairs. So, both poles are ideal for somebody who wants to add extra spares to there 8151 or 9151 poles at a good price.

The top-kits of the 8151/9151 were EXACTLY the same (even down to the product code in the catalogue), so if one pole was rated as a 14, so was the other!

The issue you’ll have with finding other tops to fit was that the tops are very slim, and besides the 8151 I never saw another pole that had tops that fit it, especially as now days the tops are faster taper and therefore wider at the bottom end.

Gavin, what where the elastic ratings for the match tops and the power tops for the 9151 and 8151 poles? Yes, both poles where sold with the exact same top kits but the poles where very different in strength of walls and action. I even had a choice of top kits when i got each pole. However, the power ratings for each pole was different!

Think you will find that the power tops where origanally rated at 14s for use with the 8151 pole but was up graded to 16s elastic rating for the 9151 pole.

The 8151 pole was only ever rated as a 14s elastic pole (with good reason). The 9151 was origanally rated as 14s elastic rated pole but was quickly up rated in the magazine adds as a 16s elastic rated pole because the pole was able to cope with those stresses. While the top kits where the same for both poles. The power kits where much stronger than the rest of the pole in the case of the 8151. As i said in my earlier post. I had a very long conversation with Ricky Teal. Head man at Preston inovations at the time over the power rating in particular for the 8151 pole.

I sort of understand where you are coming from with your reasoning over the elastic rating for poles and top kits. However, you cannot just stick a power kit on a weak pole and expect it to become a bagging pole for very big fish with strong line and heavy elastics. The weak pole will break under massive stresses even if the top kit can handle those stresses with ease. Seen a few poles explode with 4 and 5 sections in loads of bits because the pole was under to much stress. The top kits on those exploding poles where fine! So, for that reason the 8151 got a 14s power rating because thats what the pole could cope with even though the power tops where rated higher. The 9151 pole could cope with the higher stresses and so eventually got the higher rating.

Thanks for the reputation points. Done the same thing for you! 😉

Ricky had little choice to say the 9151 could handle a 16 after Fin did an article in Match Fishing using a short piece of no 16 lakky through the match no2 and fishing with braid in reeds at Makins! My then tackle dealer was using a 9151 too, and Ricky told him at the trade match they hold they deliberately under-rated the poles in the adds to stop people using them with banjo-strung 16’s and then sending back broken bits!

I had the choice of tops too, and getting power kits was perhaps the one bad move I made with the pole – the match kits were plenty strong enough and better to fish with, and in the end I only used the powers for margin fishing.

I never fished with an 8151 (I handled one, but had the extra cash so plumped for the 9151) but saw two people with them subject them to similar abuse that I did with my more expensive model!

Agreed, Gavin. Cannot argue with you over what you said re the fin and the up grade in the power rating for the 9151 pole.

Think it was likely that Preston Inovations/Lerc always knew what those two poles could handle but decided to under state the elastic rating on the top kits for the 9151. In that way they hoped to reduce the number of returns for the 8151 poles. Must have been more cost effective to offer the same top kits for both poles than make a different top kit for each type of pole or why do it? I never felt the need to question the quality of the top kits even though i first used them on a £600 cheaper pole.