Mate, trust me all things considered there is only 1 tool for the job and that’s the Shimano Beastmaster 850B margin pole.
You can get them for £140 and they come with 2 top kits.
1 word ‘AWESOME’ 🙂

As baitchef says the beastmaster 850B is the only choice.
I tested a few before I got mine. Its stiffer and lighter than most others but stronger too!
Its a fantastic piece of kit and really is a BEAST!!!

The guys on here recommended it to me. I bought mine without even seeing it, which 99% of the time isnt a good idea 🙂 .

The Tricast is brilliant if money isn’t a problem. I have one and it is great. I will probably gat the 1.7 metre extension to fit as well.

Have a look at the article in September ’12 issue of Pole Fishing where they tested 11 of the main margin poles against each other. The Tricast weighs 417grms and the Shimano 495grms according to the article and is the only one that gets a 5 for Performance. In fact, apart from the Shimano receiving 5 for features, presumably because of the nose caps, the elastigate system pack and the tubes, it was the only margin pole to receive a 5. For their length those were the 2 lightest poles tested. The only other ones to consider would be the Diawa Yank ‘n Bank or the Maver Powerlite.

They elasticated all the poles with the same elatics and PTFE bush and with the extension the Tricast was the longest pole there after being cut back to the necessary length to receive the bush.

Shimano 850b nuff said

IMO

1. Tricast XRS the only one rated to 25+ elastic and definately the strongest.

2. Drennan or Shimano

3. Wouldn’t even consider Daiwa or Maver

By the way, if you go to http://www.polefishingmagazine.com/reviews/on-test-poles, there is a short 3 min video taken on the rather wet day that they tested the poles. I tried just playing it by ‘clicking’ on the link but had to open it up in a new tab and then it asked how I wanted to play it, but I got there in the end.

Theres a Tricast XRS Margin for sale in classfieds 🙂

As always, it’s a good idea to try to hold one before buying. A friend of mine bought a Yank n Bank without setting it up first, on the basis that it was a good length. Shortly after he got it, I had a play and felt he’d wasted his money on a heavy, floppy banana with a horrible response time. There’s no comparison with my 8+ year old Maver H10, which is miles better, and I’m sure there must be even better models than that by now. I haven’t held a Shimano B850, but it would be on my target list for consideration, especially after the comments on here.

The yank ‘n’ bank was in the list of the ones I tested and for the price I have to say I was very disappointed, very floppy and felt heavy!

I didn’t try the tri-cast XRS so I would have a look at that along with the beast master 850B. I am very happy with mine!j

go for the shimano you wont regret it.

just been looking at the new brownie catalog and threre a new 9.5m z12 margin pole for 300 quid with 2 kits with bushes already fitted. It says sections swap with 12 and z9. could be interesting.
I still use the top 6 from a 10 year old Colmic pole for serious stuff. Could land a whale on it. The dont make them like they used to .

Another vote for the Beast Master. Does exactly what’s written on the box.

I fish it with red Hydro tight through one kit and loose through another. Used with balanced terminal tackle – 0.19 Power Line straight through to a Guru Pellet Wag hook (prefer an eyed hook for this kind of work) – dragged double figure carp out of reed beds. Scary stuff.

Had mates telling me how good this pole was for years before buying and using at Scary Carys down Viaduct this year. Double figure fish down the margin – no hassle. The Tourney Pro stayed in the holdall. Frightening how much grief you can give this piece of Kit.

My only reservation was how short the top kits were when cut back. But this works in your favour – less elastic, less stretch and more control.

Excellent.

I second that craig especially with internal bushes I did think that the top kits were too short especially after I got the hacksaw on it, kept haveing to saw another inch or so off of the top kit was scary with a large internal, however works very well, had a big 350lb + the first time I used it at tylers not big fish but up to serious carp bashing the pole never flinched.