When it comes to innovation and rig concealment solutions, Korda is one name that is at the top of the list, so when the company announced on the latest free Tackle & Tips DVD that they were launching their own leadcore, tungsten tubing and putty, the shops were inundated with enquiries to when these products would be on the shelves. Well, after what seems to be an eternity, Korda have now released these products - all of which are used to pin the line down to the deck out of the way of the fish's fins.

Dark Matter Tubing

With tungsten tubing being a product that a lot of anglers want to use but don't get on with for one reason or another, it was going to be difficult for Korda to develop a tubing that was what anglers wanted. Tungsten tubings are notorious for being brittle, but Korda have worked hard with the development of Dark Matter and come up with a tungsten tubing that is remarkably supple, heavy, easy to thread, coloured and also does not turn ultra-brittle when cold. Dark Matter is extremely heavy compared to traditional PVC tubing as well as being more supple. I have to be honest and say that I have used a lot of different tungsten tubings over the years, but Dark Matter almost feels like a completely different product in comparison! We have put the easy threading claim to the test and found that threading the Dark Matter tubing was no problems at all even with supple lines down to 8lb breaking strain. Even when the inner bore was damp, monofilament or fluorocarbon mainlines of the diameters that most anglers will be using with the product threaded smoothly and easily.

As you would expect from Korda, Dark Matter Tungsten Tubing is available in two colours to blend in with almost any substrate fished over ; Gravel Brown (developed for fishing over gravel or clay) and Weed Green (for fishing over weed or silt).

Dark Matter is supplied in 2 metre lengths with a RRP of £4.99 per colour.

Dark Matter Rig Putty

When Dark Matter putty was announced, anglers tongues were wagging and anglers were scrambling at the various shows to get their hands on some. With rig putty's, a lot of them are difficult to work with in cold temperatures due to the putty hardening and requiring to be warmed up before it can be used by the angler. This meant that anglers were placing the tubs on top of kettles as they boiled, holding the corner of a block over a lighter flame to soften amongst other innovative means, but this is all a thing of the past with the Dark Matter putty. Straight out of the smart little round metal tin that the product is supplied in, Dark Matter Putty is extremely malleable without requiring any additional heating up. To put this to the test, we placed the tin in the fridge over night to bring the temperature down of the putty and although it was a little more solid than when at room temperature it was still easy to pull a piece off, roll it between finger and thumb and fully usable in seconds. Until now this was something that was virtually impossible to do with some other putty's.

The metal tin is a superb little feature as there is nothing worse than trying to take a block of putty out of a plastic tub only to crack or break the tub, rendering the putty "homeless".

Again, Dark Matter Rig Putty is available in two colourations; Gravel Brown and Weed Green, and has a RRP of £6.99 per 25g tin.

Kable Leadcore

One question asked at the various shows over the past few years to the Korda team, was "When are Korda going to produce a leadcore?". As Korda have a policy of not releasing a product simply for the sake of it, they have been in development of their own leadcore material but instead of releasing a leadcore that was the same as all the others on the market, the development team waited until they had a product that exceeded their expectations. At first glance, Kable looks like a lot of other leadcores, but on closer inspection is where the changes become apparent. Kable has been designed to include subtle bands of colour change along the length of the material which breaks up the "straight line effect" that is known to potentially spook carp, and allows the heavy material to blend in over substrates where it may not sink into. As with the Dark Matter products, Kable is produced in two colourations; Gravel and Weed/Silt.

Kable has been produced to be of a higher breaking strain than the majority of others available but the diameter is essentially the same as lower rated materials. The 50lb breaking strain has been rated at the splice and Korda recommend a splice of at least 40mm to gain the stated breaking strain and producing the splice is a simple task indeed, and as a long time user of leadcore, I found Kable to be one of the easiest materials to splice. The thinner diameter also keeps the material supple and with the lead core intact, a 4" section can be held out horizontally and a 6" length will droop significantly. Kable is one of the supplest leadcores that we have had come through the office doors.

Kable leadcore is available on 7 metre and 25 metre spools which have an RRP of £5.99 and £14.99 respectively. The smaller 7m sppols are the same size and style as what are used for the Korda braided and coated hooklinks so will slot neatly into most, if not all popular tackle box solutions.

First Impressions

After putting the above products through the inital bench tests, we cannot find fault with them as they have been designed to do exactly as they have been described. Danny Fairbrass has been on video stating that the company will not release a product unless it can better what is currently on the market, and with the Dark Matter and Kable products it looks like Korda have done this. We are counting down the days until we put the items through our full spectrum of tests on the bank.

For more information on any of the items in the product range, please click on the Korda logo below.