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Joe,

Let me start by stating which Harrisons I have. One is the 11' Avon 2 piece blank made up by Mark Tunley to my ring spacings, handle length (17.5") etc. etc. The other is the Insight (Leslies) 12' RB. (I don't know which blank that is based on.) The Tunley rod cost me £160, the Insight £170. Another expensive rod that I have is the Nash X-lite barbel rod (£175).

I will not compare the Tunley because it is not off-the-shelf and is built to my request, and as for balance and weight, it is an 11' rod. That said, it IS a beautiful rod.

This brings me to the Insight. 12', reasonably light. IIRC, the Insight is an 'overfit' joint with whipping for strengthening. The ring spacing is not as I would like it. The rings towards the tip are quite well spaced leading to more acute angles through the rings than I would like. The handle is a full 23/24" too. Again, my preference is for shorter handles. Two reasons, one it avoids catching body/jacket etc. and two, I prefer to have the 4 extra inches above the handle where I can make use of it. Note that these are all my personal preferences.

Looking at the Nash X-lite next. The handle is long, similar to the Insight. It is a lightweight blank (but not massively different to the Elites which I'll come to). The ring spacing is spot on. Very Nice Seymo rings. Same number of rings it is the spacings that are fundamentally different.

Now, both of the last two rods cost £170'ish. So in use, you'll be quite careful using them. If you put one down in the dark and step on it - ouch!

Now to the Elites. What do you get for £40? A bargain! or should that have read "A bargain?". Overall, the blank diameter is possibly 1mm wider than the X-lite (if that) but less than the Insight. So immediately it looks good. The strength and action are identical to the X-lite but more progressive than the Insight. (This is my preferred action). The quality of the rings, whilst reasonable quality are not the match of the Seymos, but they are more than adequate. The rod feels marginally heavier than the X-lite but not so much that it would make a blind bit off notice. The handle length is about 19.5" IIRC, which I have explained my reasoning/preferrence for above. Both the X-lite and the Elite have nice chrome butt finishes and srew down cork finish handles. Both the Elite and X-lite are spigotted blanks with carbon over-wrap reinforcement. However, the carbon on the Elite looks mariginally better (it looks stronger but may not necessarily be so). Cosmetics of the X-lite are a really deep blue with silver whippings. The Elites are black (deep carbon grey) with silver whippings. They used to retail at £80.

When I bought the X-lite and got it home and REALLY compared the two I couldn't see where the extra £95 had gone (£30 possibly). Alternatively, I looked at the Elites and thought that I would have comfortably parted with £100-120 for them. (I now have 5 remember). But everything pointed to the Elites as my preferred tool.

In MY opinion, at £80 they were a bargain. At £40 the are unbelievable.

Now you might think my experiences are limited. I would disagree. I also have a Greys Prodigy, and I have looked at pretty much all of the Harrison rods, Fox's, Free Spirits, Wychwood, Shimano's, Daiwa (my first proper 'barbel' rod was a Daiwa). But the Nash Elites were the closest thing to what I ideally wanted in a rod, and at a cheap price which was a bonus.

If I were to be asked what I didn't like about them... I would say that there is nothing I dislike, but if you wanted to improve them, the top of the range Seymos' rings would be the only improvement.

I have not mentioned the Nash Tri-tip. They are a useful rod but aren't quite as good as the Elites. But then, you were getting a three tip rod for £100 as opposed to a single tip for £80. You can draw your own conclusions from that but they certainly are not rubbish.

I think that Nash have been considered more of a carpers brand. Also, I have heard that Nash are not one of the easiest companies to deal with (Leslies, as big as they are, don't hold an account). That I feel, has beleaguered Kevin Nash's attempt at breaking into the Specialist market that he had hoped for. Such a same. I hope that the person who told me that he was dropping out of the 'Specialist' side of things have got the story wrong as I reckon he had a few good products that will be missed.

If you miss out on the Nashies, the Neoteric 12' Quiver is another nice piece of kit which, once I have had the benefit of one or two fish, I will also be keen to recommend. But they're £100.

Get the bargains while you can. If you find that the Nash doesn't suit you I'll bet there will be a bunch of Ebayers after you


Gary

Bob,

It's a couple of seasons since I last had a 'waggle' of Nexave and I would hate to try to offer you a side by side comparison and get it wrong.

As I said above though, if you do try one and you don't like it I am sure you will have no trouble passing it on for next to what you paid for it (actually, you might even get more on Ebay )

Sorry I can't be any more help than that.

Gary