Wychwood Riot Carp Rod

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realise that I'm no Carp angler so it might seem a bit strange to find a sea angler reviewing a Carp Rod. Truth of the matter is I spend an awful lot of my time chasing the local Bass with light gear and so, although I have not the slightest inclination to get involved with boilies or bivvies, a carp rod is my weapon of choice for a lot of my summer fishing. An unfortunate accident which wrote off my faithful old graphite carbon carp rod last summer put me in the market for a replacement and after a lot of thought I put my lot in with a 12 ft, 3lb test curve Riot.

Wychwood seem to have built up a name for affordable, quality gear and, judging by the examples I've seen, its a reputation that's well deserved. The Riot is built on a fairly sturdy carbon-fibre blank which counteracts the inherent weakness typical of slimline blanks by increasing the wall thickness and although the blank is not as light as you would expect from a top end manufacturer, the rod is still light enough to be held all day and has a crisp but forgiving action. The spigot fitting is of the traditional tapered type (with reinforcements) which means if it starts to wear it can repaired simply by cutting a fraction off the female section and, on my example at least, was a very good fit from day one.

Given the rod's price range I was expecting the whippings to be of questionable quality but was pleasantly surprised to find that its plain black wraps were of a good quality with a nice epoxy finish, which ensures that its five braid-friendly intermediate rings are well fixed to the rod. Wychwood seem to have got the ring sizes and spacings just right and the rings themselves look sturdy enough though unfortunately they are not genuine Fuji and do seem to rust when exposed to the saltwater environment if they are not cleaned in fresh water.

The butt is built in the now standard "bare bones" style with a plain Fuji carbon reel seat to hold the reel in place. Wychwood seem to have got the reel position about right and with collars at each end of the reel seat, a slimline foam bottom grip and anodized end plug the butt continues the generally smart appearance of the rod, although for the salt water environment I found putting a small plastic butt cap over the end of the blank offers the it much more protection than the aluminium plug, particularly when I'm fishing from the rocks.

Overall I'd have to say I'm really pleased with the Riot. It's performance and build quality are much better than you could expect from a rod in this price range. I've used mine to fish lures and plugs of various weights up to about 1.5 oz and have have also used it for light ledgering on a number of occasions with a 2 oz lead and it has handled everything I've thrown at it. It's only real weakness is the rings, but in all fairness to Wychwood it has been designed to be used in a fresh water environment and considering that the rod also comes with a rod bag and a lifetime warranty I think it's £50 price tag is absolutely staggering; how do Wychwood manage it?

Overall mark: 10/10 - I can't really blame Wychwood for the rusty rings as it wasn't designed for salt water use. If Wychwood had used genuine Fuji rings they would have got a 12/10 at the £50 price tag.