Best margin pole I’ve ever used by an absolute mile is still my friends 10.5m browning sphere power partner, there about £600 quid unfortunately so in the mega expensive bracket, but only 600 grams at the 10.5 meters, and I was landing double figure carp up to 14 pounds with absolute ease ( at the birtley Angel angling lakes in the north east) using middy blue solid 18 if I remember correctly, honestly just felt like the first 10.5 meters of the sphere pt+ if I’m being completely honest, it was an absolute dream and felt incredibly strong for the weight of it, even with big doubles on it never felt under any pressure at all, obviously the major draw back is £600 quid+ is absolutely nuts for a margin pole, and I’m sure he said you only get 1 top kit as well which makes it even worse, but like I said it’s the best I’ve used by far, and I’ve had a go of most of the more expensive ones due to my friends owning them at some point.
Good mix of poles there. For information I’ve had the Browning Xitan for 5 years and MAP TKS fits (including shalla) are a perfect fit, I also use my Maver Signature/921 top kits on it, they do go on slightly further but have never had a problem. It does handle like a match pole and super strong.
Great review as always Ben. New to pole fishing and after watching loads of reviews I bought the Middy XM10-3 at 10m. Mainly because when I save up and upgrade the top kits for it are interchangeable with some of Middy's flagship 13m+ range. I can say after 3 sessions it is absolutely brilliant. Yes, youve got to drill and bush the top kits, because they don't come pre-bushed, but once I'd done one, it wasn't difficult. I'm saving for an XK55 at 16m next and don't think I'll be disappointed if it works like the XM10-3 at the extra range.
I’ve got the original xm10 and the xm10 3 pole and they’ve never let me down and now the warmer months are getting closer that will be the only pole I’ll be using plus I got 4 spare top kits from Amazon because I couldn’t get them for any tackle shop
I have the MTX Margin. Mainly, because the sections and topkits all fit my MTX2 too Edit to add. It comes with 3 power kits (one is inside the pole). So, that is about £180 in topkits alone.
I use the "power 2" top kits along with the number 3 and 4 sections from my MTX Margin pole. I use them on my MTX3 to beef it up for margin fishing and still fish at length. I only carry these with me. The rest of the MTX Margin stays at home. All Matrix sections interchange. This means I have 3 different rated top kits. Match kits, power 1 and power 2 kits. 12 top kits in all. I also take a short 3 section as an additional option. Best of all worlds. Only downside is that I can't fish at 16 metres with the MTX3. It simply is not a 16 metre pole. It is fishable at 14.5 metres or I can use the short 3 section and the pole becomes excellent at that length. The upside is that I didn't spend 5 grand on a 16 metre pole. My whole pole setup was less than 1500 quid. If you are looking at getting a Matrix pole. Try to get the V1 versions. The new V2 versions are too heavy. (See Ben's reviews of the MTX3 and MTX4 V2's) No nonsense, no bias reviews from Ben. There are still quite a few V1 versions about atm and they are at budget prices.
Just bought a MTX 3 V1 for 530 +9 top kits. With my Middy M3 (I dont use the 13 metre section) and 5 top kits Im all good. So my take on Margin fishing and using and when to use a Margin Pole is carp between 8 and 15lb, I use 20-22 Nick Gilbert Slik and Carp 15lb to 30 lb Im using the Middy 26 - 30 shockcore hollow purple. There isnt a place I cant fish now with confidence and the M3/M2 Middy Margin poles are super super strong. I had a 12 lb carp foul hooked at Decoy (Willows) Sunday just gone (16/07/23) and it snapped one of my MTX power kits ultra, the thing is I had 18-20 Nick Gilbert Slik in it and the power kits are rated to 18 elastic. This is the first time EVER I have had a top kit break by a fish, it was one of the ones that came with the second hand bought MTX3 which had been hand painted white. Maybe it was cracked I dont know, but im not going to take the risk anymore, from now on its Margin pole for me where the carp are as above.
Great again Ben, I had a result Angling Direct were selling end of range matrix MTX margin poles for £140 and they came with THREE power top kits that fit my other Matrix 13 metre pole. To buy 3 top kits come to more than I paid for complete pole. Happy days 😁😍
Good reviews - but anybody looking for a margin pole should look at Ben's other reviews featuring other poles not shown on this video before making a decision .
To anyone watching the map xitan margin is amazing, they have raised the price by £200 in the last couple of years. I had one when I fished commies(don’t anymore) you could use it for anything, silvers , margin units , 5m line you could even fishing it to hand. I’ve also used the old map Tod 8.5m margin to that was brilliant for the money
Hi Ben, not sure what the deal is now with the mtx margin, however when I bought mine it came with 3 top kits, one in the pole and 2 spare, I have no idea about the others 🤷🏼♂️
