Harrisons Rod Information

Listed below are the carp rods available from Harrisons Advanced Rods.
Prices on request for full custom build. The list would be endless for a custom build due to the amount of variables in guides and other rod components.

Introduction

Carp fishing has grown to become the most popular type of fishing in the UK. Many of you will be new to carp fishing and will be thinking about your first set of good quality rods but I guess many of you reading this site will have been fishing a little longer and already own a set of Harrison Rods. For the newer angler I offer a few comments and a bit of history to help you better understand the types of rods we make.

The first quality carp rods of significance were Richard Walker MK IV's. These were 11' long, made of split cane and bent into an almost perfect curve under load. This type of rod was later reinterpreted in glass fibre. Such rods were very effective at playing big fish in small waters. They could apply a lot of pressure to a fish, but they would not be able to cast the distance that anglers fish today. They did not need to. Fishing a weedy hole in Redmire didn't call for that.

Glass fibre opened up the possibility of making longer lighter rods, and carbon fibre extended this trend. In the eighties a good selection of carbon carp rods emerged from TriCast, Century, Sportex, Bruce and Walker and North Western Blanks. These were now stiffer and longer. 12' became the norm with some 13's available. If you put those rods next to a Richard Walker rod you would call them fast taper, but by comparison to today they would be through action.

Through the nineties, trends for carp fishing have been to use bigger leads at longer distance. Venues fished got bigger and big fish more plentiful. This has called for a new generation of rods. There have been a number of different approaches to design ( and a few evolutionary blind alleys, boron, kevlar, dyneema etc.). We have our own distinctive style of rods. We like to make beautiful rods and pride ourselves on our rod building, but function comes first. We dislike gimmicks and have focussed on the blank performance first and foremost. Although we make rods that can cast distance they all retain a certain feel that is a result of their ability to handle big fish. We have certain trade secrets (we call it compression tension balance, CTB) that allow our rods to feel more alive in the butt when casting and handling fish, yet can produce distance like stiffer, duller feeling blanks. A static test like test curve or 1kg deflection only tells half the story. Try and get a cast with a Harrison rod and you will see why we have sold so many carp rods over the years.

Today we have a massive range, some with a real pedigree like Ballista and Multi Carp, others which are leading the way like Chimera and Torrix.

• Gti.
• Multi Carp.
• Baby Ballista.
• Ballista.  
• Ballista Slim.
• Chimera.
• Torrix. 
• Trebuchet. 
• Spod.
• Stalking.                                                                                                                                                               

Trebuchet - The Trebuchet was the dominant weapon for attacking castles under siege in Europe from around 850AD. It was used to fire large rocks and other missiles to put the fear of god into the people under siege. I thought it an appropriate name for my new distance carp rod which is unlike anything we have made before.
My efforts have always been tipped towards designing rods that are easy to cast accurately by the average caster and that are light, responsive and well balanced to fish with. It is what Harrison Rods are known for. But I thought it was time we offered something a bit more radical. I am a competitive guy and I get a bit fed up when companies that have been in the rod business a very short time and have no in-depth technical know-how on rods, make extravagant claims on their distance rods. So I set out to make the best long distance carp rod on the market. Trebuchet was born.
Trebuchet is a real world distance fishing rod. The distances it has achieved are not with pendulum casts. 200yds is achievable on the casting field which means that there is the potential to fish at 150yds and more depending on your level of skill. 

Steve Harrison January 06.


                                                                                                                    

Torrix- The Torrix range have been both the hardest and the most rewarding rod I have ever designed. I do not believe in bringing out new models unless they are clearly different or better than what has gone before. I spend every day thinking about and designing carp rods, and I have and do work with many of the top names in carp fishing, but coming up with something really new is hard. Not for us the product each year with a new name on an old rod with a new colour or trim. I will not launch a new rod until it clearly has something more to offer. Chimera and Ballista may have been out a few years but improving on them has been very difficult. All around the world I meet anglers who are reluctant to change their ten year old Ballistas, but in early 2005 I developed a new way of rolling blanks that has helped me to launch a new range of world beating products. The Torrix development took a long time. It took me more than half a year to perfect Torrix working every day on the project. It would take the average rod company sourcing from China many times longer. What sets what we do here at Harrisons apart from most other carp rod brands, is that I can actually design and make a rod here on the premises. I can tape on rings and test cast it a few hours after designing it, and if it is good, get a batch of samples for test fishing produced in less than a week. This means that I can get more rod development and testing done in a month than most of our competitors can do in a year, and in six months I think we achieved an unbeatable result in Torrix that many others may well never be able to match. Several thousand Torrix rods on, I now have the feedback to know that the 12' 3 1/4 Torrix is the benchmark for the modern carp rod. As well as performance and looks it is also proving ultra reliable with the lowest breakage rate of any carp rod we have ever made. Compare that to other big name brands who buy in their rods from the far east and charge as much or more as this top UK made rod. There are other benefits to Harrison. We can offer spares for almost every rod we ever made, and because we do not change models each year and discount last years, your investment in new rods will be worth more for longer.

So what makes Torrix different? I won't tell you all the trade secrets, but here is part of the story.

1. As a designer I am probably the most experienced carp rod designer in the trade.
2. My staff are not production workers but craftsmen.
3. We have some exclusive materials that are very difficult to source.
4. We have developed some new tapered tooling.
5. We have optimised the compression and tension performance with our mix of ultra lightweight high strength carbons and high modulus carbons.

Performance

Pick up a Torrix and the first thing you appreciate is the 1k woven fabric finish of the butt. 1k carbon is an expensive material, but it adds toughness without adding too much weight, so we use it a lot. The tip section has a little 1k at the joint, but the tip has a tough ribcage of carbon scrim on the inside and does not need the 1k all the way on the outside. In development we tried a 1k layer all the way to the tip because it looks so good, but in comparison with the tip without the weave, we could feel a little better balance and greater sensitivity in the latter, so we chose to go "naked" without weave on the tip.

The 3 1/4lb test curve Torrix is the best selling rod. It is slim, light, and when you swing a lead you immediately feel more in touch than with other rods. In tests on grass we have got close to 200yds with top casters, so you can expect to be able to fish at distance easily. Every caster is unique so we won't mislead with any numbers, but I think you should be able to fish at greater range with Torrix than with any comparable slim, light carp rod, Sure it may be possible for the best casters to cast further with our Trebuchet and some extreme distance rods from other manufacturers, but Torrix is slim, well balanced and a joy to use and achieves as much distance as an extreme rod in most anglers hands. Optimised for 3 1/2 ounce, your choice of lead will be dependent on how you can power up a rod, but Torrix, though a great caster has some action through the butt that makes it less critical of casting technique. It is fast by our Ballista standards but does not have the premature lock up of some modern carp rods from competitors.

Lock up is something worth talking about. Different carbon fibres are described by their modulus. High modulus fibres generally have less strength and less stretch than the high strength fibres. There is a place for high modulus, and we use it a lot in Torrix, but we use it with some high strength material in our famous compression tension balance. That word "balance" is important. You can go too far with high modulus carbon, and many do. It is my opinion that the tendency for some makers to go to very high modulus is a mistake. Some of the current more expensive rods from the far-east are slim and light, but have premature lock up and low reliability. Not what you want in a carp rod. That is because Korean and Chinese designers are not always familiar with the size of the fish you catch and the leads you throw, and the UK angling consultants are not familiar with the limitation of the materials. Together the UK consultant and the Far East designer can end up developing a rod that is a camel when they really wanted a horse.

My view, is that Torrix has the best balance of high, intermediate and low modulus materials for the current state of the technology . Now I would say that wouldn't I? But you know, because I have a cold room full of carbon materials to choose from, and total control of the in-house production process, combined with more expertise in this game than most, there is no reason for me to settle for any less than the best design and production.

The Range

Torrix 12' 2 3/4lb, 12' 3lb, 12' 3 1/4lb, 12' 3 1/2lb All semi fast action. That is, good with a fish on, but great casters too. My pick, 12' 3 1/4.

Torrix 12' 2lb, 2 1/4lb and 2 1/lb. Slightly softer rods aimed at smaller lakes.

Steve Harrison October 06.



Ballista- The Harrison Ballista is a design classic. Like an air-cooled Porsche, it delivers the benchmark in performance and bullet proof build quality.

When we introduced it, everyone else was making Carp rods with spigot joints. All the other Carp fishing rods seemed heavy and big in diameter. The tips of the other rods were thick, and unwilling to bend to the strain of a fish. Other rods were made in the same fibres from tip to butt, unlike our multi modulus approach to design. Kevlar was still being pushed as a wonder material, and others were flirting with Dyneema and Boron.

Today, many of our competitors have followed the lead we made with Ballista, some even cynically and unashamedly copying our tapers. But, thats not a problem, as "He who aims to keep abreast, is for ever second best" Piet Hein. So let us recap on what makes Ballistas a firm favourite across Europe.

Sizes Available 11' 2.5 to 13' 4lb TC

Most Popular sizes for UK Carp: 12' 2 3/4 and 3lb

Most Popular European Blank 13' 4lb.

1. They are made in the UK by a team who are all anglers.

2. We us top quality Carbon.

3. We use a range of different carbon fibres throughout the rod to suit the differing requirements of the different zones.

4. The joints are ultra reliable overfit - no spigots to break.

5. Diameter is low and remains the benchmark.

6. Rolled on the latest piano key rolling tables.

7. Made by the most experienced team around.

8. Inspiration for so many "Me too" products.


Ballista Slim - Ballista Slim is like a hybrid of Multi Carp and Ballista. The tapers are like Multi Carp, but the power extends into the Ballista range with 12' 2.75lb and 3lb. These rods are at the best in medium range fishing where their action is a joy to use and their fish playing power legendary. Low diameter rods can have the power to cast distance, but greater accuracy will be achieved with a larger diameter rod at distances over 100yds. This is to do with the control of torsion or twist during casting. For smaller waters ringed with a 30mm ring set these rods are hard to beat for pure fishing pleasure.

Steve Harrison October 06.



Chimera - Chimera has been our best selling Harrison range for some time. It introduced the two weave concept to the carp market, which both aids performance and looks. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, this rod has been seriously flattered as it has been copied time and time by other companies. The looks are not so hard to copy but the action is a bit trickier. The Chimera is a forgiving rod compared to some on the market yet it casts as well as many stiffer rods, but has the elasticity to soak up any last lunges of a big fish close in. If there is such a thing as a good all round carp rod, then the 12’ 3lb Chimera is it. The 12’ 3 ½ is an awesome distance machine that is not for everyone but the 3 ¼ offers the best of both worlds, a distance rod that anyone can enjoy using.

Chimera is available in the following sizes:
Chimera -12’ 2.50lb
Chimera -12’ 2.75lb
Chimera -12’ 3.00lb
Chimera -12’ 3.25lb
Chimera -12’ 3.50lb
Chimera -13’ 3.00lb
Chimera -13’ 3.25lb
Chimera -13’ 3.50lb

Steve Harrison October 06.


Multi Carp - Multi Carp are semi through action slim rods in light test curves. They are available in 2lb and 2 1/14lb. They are constructed from HR40, 40 ton carbon and lighter modulus carbons for true fish playing action. The ideal rod when fishing distances are less than 70yards. These rods have accounted for some of the biggest carp in Europe and the UK. They can apply more pressure to a fish without lock up, than can modern fast taper distance rods, and their low diameter and weight makes them a pleasure to use. Blank finish is UD carbon either unground or coated.

Steve Harrison October 06.
 

Items and text on the following pages are duplicated from the Harrisons Advanced Rods website with there permission.

Details on rods and descriptions are those expressed by Harrisons and are not to be replicated.