A top-of-the-range pole you should definitely make a beeline for at fishing shows or in your local tackle shop is Middy’s new Reactacore XZ65-3 World Elite.It’s very special indeed... with a lordly price tag to match.
However, with various deals and finance packages on offer through the shops, owning a pole costing in excess of £4,000 is now a reality for the serious angler, and if you pick the XZ65 it’s doubtful you’d ever need to invest in anything else.
This pole takes all the excellence of the original XZ65 and its predecessor, the XZ65-2, and builds on it with reduced weight and increased overall length, without an ounce of strength being lost.
Each Reactorcore pole is packed with features, many unique to Middy, perhaps the most important being the use of four-layer Quad carbon technology. Each layer of cloth is precision-placed over the others at specific angles to achieve a fast response on the strike and superb rigidity.
Power and longevity come with the addition of Maximus Wrap to strengthen each section joint while reducing wear and making each section overlap slightly less to give an increase in overall length. But away from the power and stiffness, a few cosmetic features add further to the brilliance of the XZ65-3.
All butt sections (13m, 14.5m and 16m) are printed with numbers spaced 5cm apart so you know the precise distance you are fishing and catching at. Middy has also created Spineline section alignment to get the very best out of the pole.
It’s also well worth talking about the top kits and extras that the Reactacore comes with. They make for impressive reading. Buy the 16.5m pole and you get two Safe-Zone Mini Butts with full Maximus Wrap. Each Mini Butt and all No4 and No5 sections are fitted with soft EVA Dome Top Ends to protect the pole.
For your hard-earned you’ll get six Reactacore Ultra-Control Two Kits, power models with spots that can be drilled to fit a side puller slot, plus a grey-coloured Reactacore Ultra Control Phantom Kit and a Max8-SL Match Three Kit inside the pole. These are unbushed, however, so you’ll need to fit them with PTFEs. All top kits and pole sections are compatible with previous XZ65 and XZ65-2 models too, so if you already own one of the above, your old kits will fit to give you more options.
Cupping kit issues are taken care of, with the Reactacore Ultra-Control Cupp Kit and Flat Base Click Cup set offering pole cups in a range of sizes. If all that wasn’t enough, there’s a Reactacore Short No4 section.
The final smart feature of the XZ65-3 are the two Reactacore Adapative Q Parallel Short No3 sections, which fit on to the end of a top kit to give you a slightly longer reach when needed without having to add a Mini Butt or longer extension.
To give this thing of beauty of whirl I was off to Jay Lake at Rookery Waters, in the heart of the Fens. A typical snake lake putting the far bank 15m away, this allowed me to play about with the Mini Butts and Adapative Q Parallel Short No3 sections for that extra distance past the standard 14.5m mark.
Whole worms and bunches of maggots fished tight to the far bank soon produced a run of hard-fighting angry carp and the XZ65-3 soaked up absolutely everything, even the never-ending surges of carp hooked in the tail or pectoral fins.
Here’s an admission. I hate fishing really long distances on the pole. It’s hard work, my rig often tangles around the pole-tip, the feed spills out of the tip-mounted cup and I just can’t get into any type of rhythm. I was keen to see if having one of the best poles money can buy would make a difference.
Well, I only occasionally turned the air a royal shade of blue, but none of that was down to the pole. It was more about foul-hooked carp pinging off at the net! Shipping the XZ65-3 out to beyond 14.5m is so easy. The rigidity through every section means no bounce or wobble, so the rig remains just where it should be.
The overall low weight of the pole is pleasing, too, and easy on the arms and back – even in a gusty crosswind, fishing the XZ65-3 one-handed was easy and I could even strike at sharp bites with just the one hand, the pole is that crisp.
And it’s strong too, very strong, the type of pole you can give the big ’un to without it showing any signs of exploding or even letting out a creak of protest.
Verdict:
Weighing in with a price tag akin to that of a good secondhand motor or a blowout Caribbean holiday, Middy’s flagship Reactacore XZ65-3 pole is well worth the layout of all those banknotes.
It’s simply faultless in every single aspect that you’d expect a top pole to possess – balance, stiffness, strength, weight, speed on the strike and the package. If you’ve won the pools or have been squirrelling the cash away for a top-end pole, the XZ65-3 simply has to be on your list to take a good long look at. I’d be staggered if you were disappointed!
The Package
• Middy Reactacore XZ-65-3 16.5m pole with Max8-SL Match Three Kit inside
• 6 x Reactacore Ultra-Control Two Kits
• 1 x Reactacore Ultra Control Phantom Kit
• 1 x Reactacore Short No4 section
• 2 x Reactacore Adapative Q Parallel Short No3 sections
• 1 x Reactacore 11.5m/13m Safe-Zone Butt section
• 1 x Reactacore 14.5m/16m Safe-Zone Butt section
• 1 x Reactacore Ultra-Control Cupp Kit
• Flat Base Click Cup set
• Middy pole holdall
Price: £4,134.98 – shop around