# Century HPR 7'3"



## Jeremy Schrader (Feb 7, 2009)

Well I finally got to give this little gem a try and must say that the first impression weren't far from the mark. The rod is a very light weight with a counter balanced rear grip arrangement that allows the angler to adjust the balance point depending on what reel is matched to the rod.
The look of the rod is a conservative one with Fuji "K" style single foots bound on with a white binding for the 4 tip guides the remaining 4 guides are done with a Blue binding highlighted with a light blue metallic trim , the job isn't overdone and they are minimal therefore not impacting the action of the rod. It has a light tip and a deceptively powerful lower section. 

Rating for casting weights are good with a minimum of 3.5 gram and a max of 25 grams, line rating is PE 0.6 to 1.5. For the purpose f testing the rod I decided that I would get myself another small reel and therefore matched it up with a little Daiwa Luvias 3000, the reason for this is that the reels overall weight is lighter than my Daiwa Certate 2500 custom and also because I wanted the reel to also be partnered with my 2.3/4 pound test curve FMA which I will be using as a ultra light surf spin stick, which I will write about later on once I have built it up.










( *The HPR and Daiwa on Frankston Pier *)


As I had to take my daughter Samantha out last night I decided to take the little stick and give it a fling down at Frankston pier with an assortment of soft plastic, hard bodies and metal lures. 
The wind was blowing from the south west at a reasonable strength and the water was reasonably discoloured so I hoped that would bring a few fish in close to the pier, previously these conditions had produced some good Salmon for me and my hopes were hight that this may be the case this time as well. 

As luck would have it nothing was on at the pier and even though I worked an assortment of lures from the first gutter right to the end of the pier and back down the other side it proved to no avail. 

It was good however to see the little rod perform with all of the different lures. The feel and feedback with the Ultima 10 pound Braid was excellent and I could feel the lures working and also stop when a piece of weed or other debris got caught on the lure. 










( *The grip configuration of the Rod *)

The reel choice was good as it kept the overall weight down and whilst I did spend nearly two hours tossing lures it didn’t feel like it at all. 









( *Close up of the Luvias loaded with Ultima Braid *)

It’s only early days in the testing of this rod , but if first impressions count I feel that I am going to like the way the rod performs. I will however reserve judgement till after I have a feew decent fish on it and see how she handles these .

If luck is on my side and the weather improves I will be able to go out again on Monday evening with my younger brother Shane and trial the rod in the boat with soft plastic targeting the snapper that have started firing in the bay.
Shane picked up a nice 5 kg fish on the other HPR that I have which is the 7’6” version which is a one piece rod that has a separate handle set. This one is rated to slightly heavier specifications but still feels very good. Actually in Shane’s words it’s too good for me :roll: , after his third cast with it he hooked into and landed the 5 kg fish and has now declared that I will have to buy another one for myself :evil: . 

As he trains me each week it looks like another ones on my order book for the next shipment of toys. :mrgreen: 

I will keep the reports coming and post up more pictures as I finish them. 

Looking forward to seeing how these rods really perform.


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## Jeremy Schrader (Feb 7, 2009)

Well as I mentioned in the first post I would be putting up a few more picture on the rod as well as getting out to trial it more to then be able to come up with a concise opinion of the rod and its capabilities. 

The rod is well put together as I mentioned and here are a few shots of it. 










Butt configuration with tasefull identification details , stated casting weights and length. 

Note the counter balance weights in the butt section. Note that counter balancing rods isn't something new and a number of firms are doing this on their high end spin stick as stated this has benefit both for balance as well as assisting in loading the rod during the cast. 










Here we see the individual counter weights seperated , its a simple job of changing them though you have to make sure that you have something secure to place them in whilst fishing. As the rod is aimed at the lure fishermen this shouldn't be an issue as you would just place in in a section of the lure box that you are using at the time. 

Here are some other images showing the binding job and the "K" guides used. 



















Also you will see one of the lures that I was using on the Saturday session, the feedback and feel with the braid was excellent and I must say it was good to be able to read when the lure had picked up little bits of weed. 

I also couldn't help myself and snuck out of the office for a very short spin session at the local beach casting the soft plastics from one of the rock groins that are along its length. The first few casts were into the wind working along the edge of the groin and it was here that I appreciated the slightly longer butt section with the counterweights , a quick loading through the butt section and a fast flick action pushed the little jig head out a reasonable distance. The sensitive tip allowed me to keep contact with the jig during the drop back but it was made a little difficult with the colour of the braid that I had , red was hard to pick up at distance and I possible consider changing this in the future. 

I was pleasantly supprised that on second drop I hooked into a nice sized Flathead , it must have made a funing image with a guy wearing slack, gum boots and holding a spin stick with a fish attached and also trying to take a photo of the fish whilst still keeping it in the water. Still despite these little issues I got of a few fast snaps of the fish as it thrashed around on the surface. 



















The HPR's first capture , it would have made a nice meal but as I had to head back to the office it was released to grow even bigger , really looking forward to some more time on the water. 

More details to come as I get out and about.


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