Middy X Flex 4g Rod Range

Choosing new rods can be a minefield at times – just where do you invest your hard-earned cash? Middy’s all-new 4G range might just be up your street. Alex Bones took them to The Glebe complex for a spin.

As fisheries go, this one is up there with the best. It’s a complex I’ve had the pleasure of fishing for many years. And, when we need to give any item of tackle a thorough testing it’s the ideal place because it’s packed to the rafters with all manner of species.
Taking each rod from the bag the contemporary graphics, slim blanks and slick whippings make for great-looking products. A good start, but are they any good to fish with?
I strapped 4000-series reels to the 10ft Micro Muscle Feeder and 11ft Micro Waggler rods in a bid to find out.
A feeder fished tight to the far bank, around 32 metres away, is a great tactic here so that’s what I did with the feeder rod. The waggler rod was treated to 4lb reel line and a 4SSG poly pellet waggler to fish 8mm pellets shallow at a comfortable firing range, around 25 metres from the bank.
I chose these two models as they’re perfect for this distance and the most suitable to cope with this venue – typical distances you’re faced with on many commercial waters.
There are six rods in the 4G range, comprising 11ft Micro Muscle Waggler, 11ft Baggin’ Pellet Waggler, 13ft Waggler, 10ft Micro Muscle Feeder, 11ft Baggin’ Feeder and the multi-length 12ft 7in/11ft 7in/8ft Baggin’ Distance Feeder.
It’s a comprehensive range that Middy has worked on to cater for most of today’s match fishing scenarios.
Where the 11ft Baggin Pellet Waggler rod differs from the Micro Muscle is in the strength department. It’s designed for heavier reel lines, bigger fish and, as the name suggests, bagging situations where a big weight is on the cards.
The 13ft waggler rod is more of a traditional rod for standard wagglers. Its extra length makes it perfect for fishing at longer ranges and it’s a tool I’d happily use to launch larger scud-type wagglers. It would also make a great river rod where you need a bit more beef – maybe if you were fishing for chub on a stick or waggler.
The 11ft Baggin’ Feeder is, once again, a slightly heavier version of the 11ft Micro Muscle version. Just as the stepped-up waggler version is great for heavier lines, so too is this feeder variant. The multi-length Baggin’ Distance Feeder is a super all-rounder and perfect if you visit a wide variety of waters that demand many different requirements of your kit.
So, back to the session and after a couple of hours of fishing I’d managed to put a 20in hooklength and micro Drennan Cage feeder through its paces thanks to the Micro Muscle Feeder rod. I found accuracy was easily achievable, while the blank adequately cushioned my size 18 hook and 0.15mm hooklength perfectly.
The waggler rod also performed admirably, although there weren’t as many fish to catch on this line as on the feeder. I managed a thoroughly enjoyable session, which allowed me to conclude that this range, in my opinion, is the best range of rods that Middy has ever produced! Each of the feeder rods comes with three spare tips, while the SiC guides on all variants will make for smoothness and longevity.
Middy’s X-Flex technology makes the blanks progressively smoother and softer in the tip section for more positive bite registration, and there is a host of other great features on each rod in the range, including a hook keeper and soft-touch reel seat.

Prices range from £99 to £149.99
www.middytackle.com


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