Tel’s verdict on the Tungsten Loaded…

Terry Hearn wrote the article below last year. It covers his initial testing period of what became the Tungsten Loaded coated hooklink and we held it back until the launch of the product.

Terry is an ESP consultant so you might think he would be very biased, but he has a free hand to use whatever products he prefers, whether they be ESP or not. So whenever he is given a product to test, he analyses and tests it thoroughly and is always brutally honest with his feedback – good or bad. So here is what he had to say based on his initial impressions of the ‘Loaded:

New ESP coated braids, first outings. T.Hearn, July 2014.

‘Whenever I get something new that I’m really impressed with, something that I just can’t put down or stop playing with, its normally something along the lines of a new rod, or maybe a new lens for my camera. This time round it was the new ESP tungsten coated braids. Seriously, I absolutely love them!

When I received the first samples back in the spring I was fishing Ashmead, where pop ups on my faithful Hinge Stiff links were already doing the business nicely, so there was no need to change a thing, but you know what, these new braids almost had me altering my approach. They looked that good that I wanted to get using them right away. Instead I held back and decided to save them for the start of the season on ‘Old Father’. How better to test their usability, strength and resilience to abrasion than with the hard fighting carp of the rocky, crustacean infested waters of the Tidal Thames?

Although in appearance both varieties look very similar, one is soft and supple and the other version, is a touch stiffer. When I say stiffer I don’t mean stiff and wiry, just stiff enough to push an unbalanced boilie, straight from the bag, away from the lead when settling, thus helping to prevent any looped up hooklinks. Therefore, the slightly stiffer tungsten version is definitely my first choice for heavy baits like boilies and large tiger nuts, but when it comes to balanced presentations with lighter baits such as plastic corn and maize, the more supple variety is the obvious choice.

Both varieties perform exceptionally well, easy to straighten with no bunching of the coating when warming it up by running your fingers along its length, yet still easy enough to strip with your fingernails. No silly tools needed here.

The braid itself is already well proven, the perfect mix of Dyneema to provide strength without sacrifice to diameter, nor ability to sink. No stringy, fluffy or wire like feeling to this stuff, just perfect supple braid, with the emphasis on supple, something that’s particularly important when creating small hinges at the hook end of the rig.

With all these traits hitting the spot nicely I was already more than pleased with the coated braid in just a standard solid colour, as with the first olive tungsten version that I received, simply because the feel and the colour was right, nice and drab, exactly how it should be.

Then I pulled the Camo versions out of the jiffy bag. Wow, that’s all I can say! I’ve seen several different versions of coated Camo braids in the past but I’ve never been that impressed, in fact most looked more obvious to me than your average solidly coloured coated braids. The ESP one however is a different ball game. Both the brown/black and the green/black looked great, and though obviously one might be more suited to a particular type of bottom than the other, to me the green/black version was something else. This was the one I just couldn’t stop looking at, and twiddling and twisting the braid around whilst holding it above a similarly drab background in the garden, it just disappeared. I can’t imagine anything else blending in as well as this stuff, it’s simply right in every way.

Dad was joining me for opening night on the Thames and as it was going to be a case of just one rod each off the back of the boat, we used my kit. Due to the rocky, mussel infested nature of the bottom, I reached for the strongest 20lb+ tungsten version (at the time we were also testing a finer version) and soon had us several simple rigs tied up, all baited and ready to go with 15mm bottom baits topped with 12mm pop ups, snowman style on size 6 Curve Shank hooks.

Fishing for Thames carp is a bit like match fishing in some respects, and as always it pays to be as organised and efficient as possible. Whenever it’s necessary to change a rig, either due to a hook point turning over on the rocky bottom, or better still after catching something, I like to be able to get it done and get the rod back out quick time, therefore making the most of any short feeding spells. With simple figure of eight loop knots tied onto each ready-baited hooklink, changing a rig takes seconds rather than minutes.

This is one department where some coated braids are let down, as the coating can often weaken or completely separate at the figure of eight knot, creating an extra hinge in a place where you don’t really want it. Even after fully tightening and bedding down the loop knots, with the ESP stuff there was no weakening of the coating and the loop and hooklink stayed true to each other, nice and straight with no extra hinge – bang on.

I’ve already written a catch report on the start of the river season so I won’t go over it again, (link here: https://esp-carpgear.com/news/tel-tames-a-thames-whacker/ ) but suffice to say the hooklink performed well, so well that all my other coated braids came straight out of the tackle box and into the ever growing trunk of obsolete terminal tackle items which I keep in the shed. Maybe they’l see the light of day again someday, but after using the new ESP stuff I very much doubt it, not unless I need to repair a hole in my landing net or something.

After fishing the first week of the season on the river I headed back to Sunny Somerset for another try at the beauties in Ashmead. Just as before, to begin with it was pop ups on the faithful Hinge Rigs that produced the takes, but then on my last outing I was faced with a situation that suited bottom bait fishing perfectly. Over the course of three nights I managed to winkle out three corkers, two of Ashmead’s better commons at 31.8 and 36.1, along with a lovely old mirror of 24.14, all with the tungsten hooklink.

I’m not normally one to plug a product too much, preferring to let you the angler make your own choices, but this is one product that I feel deserves a bit more than a quick mention. Seriously, if you’re looking for a decent coated braid, one which is strong, easy to straighten, nicely coloured and with a durable coating, then these are going to be well worth checking out. On second thoughts, ignore everything I’ve just said and I’ll keep it to myself!

Keep catching ’em,
Tel