Nash Tackle
Entity Rods

When a tackle manufacturer states in their description for an item that " This is a range of rods you really must look at seriously ", you are always going to think that "I am going to have to take a look and see if they live up to the hype", and the amount of times that the product is either as the manufacturer has said or a total disappointment.

When we heard that Nash Tackle were releasing the Entity range of rods with this marketing line, we just had to get in contact with Nash Tackle and obtain a set to put through their paces ourselves. After a phone call to the guys at Nash, it wasn't long before a trio of the Entity 12' 3lb tc rods were in the UKMA office.

Did the Entity rods live up to the description, only by reading the following will tell you.

The Entity rods have been developed to suit the angler that fishes small ponds through to the biggest of pits, which is something that manufacturers have been trying to do for a long time and the only rods that have performed like the requirements are those priced at the upper price band. Before going into the performance of the rods, it is best to describe the actual rod first.

The Entity has been built on a high modulus carbon blank that has been designed by Kevin Nash and his team of consultants, including casting legend Terry Edmonds. The blank has a fast action which means that the tip recovery is very fast allowing for propulsion of leads a very long way. Most fast action rods tend to lock up as they approach the butt section, but the Entity has been designed to cast extremely well but also bend through the blank when a fish is hooked. Most rods with this type of action tend to have quick thick butt sections, but the Entity butt section is remarkably slim considering the action. During testing, Terry Edmunds managed measured casts of 175 yards using the 12' 3.5lb version, which is virtually unheard of from rods not dedicated to distance work! During testing, we found that the tip recovery speed was superb and propelled a lead further than what we were expecting it to, but also retaining accuracy. Low to mid-range rods usually have a tip that can flex laterally during the cast and propel the lead off course slightly, but this was not experienced with the Entity.

The 12' 3lb trio of rods that we were sent had the 50mm ring set which is what most angler would choose regardless of if they actually needed the 50mm ring set or not. The rings are lined using the now de facto standard Silicon Carbide which allow for faultless use of both braided or monofilament/fluorocarbon reel lines without the worry of braided lines cutting into the liner under pressure. The ring sizing of the guides is as follows: 50mm butt ring, 40mm, 30mm, 20mm 15mm terminating in a 15mm tip ring. All of the rings are of the three leg design to withstand the rigours that anglers put their gear through. The 15mm tip ring allows for fantastic flow of line through the ring on the cast and if you like to use a shockleader, the joining knot will literally fly through the ring with no problems. The larger diameter tip ring will also allow for small clumps of weed to pull through and mean that less clogging will occur at the tip of the rod.

Moving down the rod towards the reel seat, one thing that stands out as virtually unique on a mass produced rod is the inclusion of a carbon line clip situated 12" from the reel seat instead of being placed directly in front of it as traditionally done. There are two reasons for this and something that I have done on all my custom built rods; the first is that the line clipped up further along the blank allows for a more acute angle on the indicator drop without having to clip a third party line clip to the blank, which makes bite indication more sensitive. The second reason is that the whipping of the line clip has a couple of metallic strands whipped into it to act as a distance indication if the rod is used as an emergency plumbing/marker rod. This is a nice little touch that should be incorporated on all rods in my honest opinion.

Moving onto the reel seat, Nash have chosen to use a true Fuji DPS-18 seat. The 18mm wide collars allow for a wide variety of reels to be seated into it without risk of movement during use. On our test we used both a traditional baitrunner reel and a big pit reel, and both were housed snugly without problems. Moving away from the reel seat, the rods we were sent had a full shrink wrapped handle which feels nice against the skin and also allows for less slippage when used against waterproof clothing. It also looks nice for the tackle tart as well!!!! The shrink wrapped handle is flared towards the extreme end of the handle to give some additional grip on the cast. At the end of the flare, the handle is finished off nicely with a stainless button that has been laser etched with the Nash logo.

So how did the Entity rods perform? Well, for the price that they are sold at, I have not seen another rod that can compare with them. The casting performance of the blank is simply sublime thanks to the fast action tip and is as equally good as the custom built rods built on expensive blanks that I have owned over the years. The ring spacing allows for smooth line flow during the cast and when retrieving line under tension without creating extremely acute angles to the line when running over the SiC liners. During the cast, no line slap against the rod was noticed even with a powerful chuck. The length of the handle was virtually spot on for me and it did not make the rod feel unwieldy during the cast or when retrieving the rig from the depths. Overall it is hard to imagine that these are Nash Tackle's lowest priced rods as they are up there with the best of some of the other manufacturers, and if I had to compare them to another rod, it would have to be the older Pursuit range from Nash, and the Pursuit rods are known to be fantastic pieces of kit!

The Entity rods are available in 12' length only at time of writing and are available in 2.75lb, 3lb and 3.5lb test curves in either abbreviated or full shrink wrapped handle options. The pricing of the rods is as follows 2.75lb - £109.99, 3lb - £131.99 and 3.5lb - £ 142.99 each.

The golden question is "would I use these rods instead of the ones I already own?". To be honest my existing rods have been built to my exact specifications, but I would certainly have no problems having a set of Entity rods on my alarms if I did not have my existing rods. I would love to have kept these as a second set of rods, but I cannot justify having a second set of rods! My final thought about the Entity rods is "if these are this good at this price point, then what are the top of the range NR rods going to be like?". I hope I get the chance to find out one day.

Overall if you are planning to buy a set of rods and the Entity range are within your budget, then I seriously suggest that you take a close look at them. I was surprised at how good they were, and I am sure that you will be as well.

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