Over a fair portion of the past river season, I’ve been putting a new dedicated nymphing rod through its paces - the recently released Vision Nymphmaniac Twin Tip, in specifically the 10’3’’ #3 model. The rod comes with two tips ‘power’ and ‘sensitip’, allowing you the option to mix things up as required.
The twin tip replaces a trusty Greys GR80 Streamflex+, which I had been using for most of my tightline nymph fishing on local South Wales rivers for a few years. It did serve as a great allrounder and is a very powerful rod for a 10ft #3 - but somewhat lacking in finesse. Hence, the decision to upgrade to something a bit more specialist, with a lot more sensitivity.
Straight out of the tube, the Twin Tip feels light in hand, nicely balanced, and very purposeful. Vision has kept the blank varnish free and unsanded, which I like - it cuts down on weight and glare, while potentially reducing the chance of ‘line stick’ on a wet day.
The build is functional and ‘euronymph’ friendly: small single-leg guides, a down-locking reel seat for balance, and some handy 30, 40 and 50 cm fish measuring marks printed on the blank. The second eye down from the tip is a double snake, which helps you avoid leader wrap-ups. A nice touch.
I really like the position of the lowest eye relative to the hand, and its small discreet size. Everything good about the previous Nymphmaniac range has been tweaked and vastly improved upon here.
I opted for the cork handle on my twin tip because I prefer the feel and warmth of a natural material - I am a bit of a traditionalist in that sense. Some may prefer to go with the EVA option, because it could hold up better with wet hands, mud, and general abuse than cork. EVA is also said to be even more sensitive in the hand than cork.
Fishing with the rod
What strikes you first is just how much feel there is within the blank, it is a truly delicate instrument, very sensitive indeed. The carbon is an extremely high grade. You can really ‘sense’ every drift and often detect subtle takes by feel, quite often before your eyes can even react to a visual indication.
Most of my fishing has been with the ‘power tip’ and for ‘normal’ UK trout and grayling fishing it is just perfect, handling bead sizes 2.5mm to 4mm comfortably in your everyday fishing scenarios. The ‘powertip’ is a bit a mislabel. I’d class it as a very sensitive tip and still exceptionally forgiving, when it comes to tippets and playing fish.
The ‘sensitip’ is really niche and very soft. I would only be using that for tiny flies and perhaps where fish are likely to be smaller. Think size 20 or smaller perdigons, single nymph, with ultra fine tippets of 0.10 or less. It would be a good option for fishing a comp, where your target is a high number of 20cm+ measurer fish. In everyday use, it isn't what you’d rig the rod up with, at least for my typical fishing anyway.
Now onto how this rod deals with fish once hooked - it is very parabolic, basically it bends right through. Some people have described it as too soft or without sufficient backbone to bully larger fish. It certainly is something to get used to.
However, I have found that due to the rod's action you should actually be playing the fish hard, with almost no fear of a break off. You can easily put a lot of pressure onto a big trout and play them out under the rod tip - the blank is designed to absorb all of the lunges and basically soak up the fight.
Once I got used to it, I actually found the twin tip to be a great rod for getting fish into the net fast. So my advice is to get stuck into them, bully the fish, don't let them bully you. Another benefit of such a soft rod is that your hookset can be really positive, again with a low risk of a snap off.
I must stress that this rod is purely designed for modern ‘contact nymph’ fishing techniques - it is not going to cast a regular fly line. I highly recommend the use of an all mono rig / micro leader as part of your set up, you really will benefit from such a system. Which can also be used with a dry dropper.
A good reel is also important, to provide balance. A closed cage is essential with all mono rigs to prevent line slip. I paired up the twin tip with the Vision XLV Nymph 4-5, which is a perfect match. The diameter of this reel allows me to get any surplus line onto the reel fast - playing fish off the reel is always the best strategy with this kind of set up.
Overall, it is a fantastic rod and really does its intended job. But make sure you look after it - it has an ultra thin blank and I would not be throwing it about in the car or on the bank, nor would I risk flexing the rod right round when pulling for a break - pull straight if you get hung up.
For the price tag - £499 - this isn't a cheap rod, but in this instance the performance does justify its cost. I think Vision has really worked hard on perfecting this range, with their market being more experienced and competition minded anglers. It certainly isn't a beginners rod, but in the right hands it will truly excel. I feel It has noticeably levelled up my nymph fishing.
Overall, I am really pleased with it, and I hope to continue this long term test over the autumn with the grayling.
You can buy a Nymphmaniac twintip on our website. Or why not call or email us - if you have any questions, or would like to talk about a best price.
02920 619828
sales@garryevans.co.uk
Words and Images: Ceri Thomas
