Alvey Rod 555

A better designed rod than the others I've tried – I've been having a lot of trouble with finding a suitable rod for my Alvey 500C5 that I purchased a few months ago... I've purchased a Wilson Live Fibre 2pc that was horrid in casting and feel and came apart 3 times within 12 casts, and the second rod the Gary Howard Estuary 9' was another horrible casting and feel rod that was too light and had no guts at all...

I found the Alvey Estuary Special by chance as it was on a combo and noticed that it had a full Fuji Alconite guides and a Fuji reel seat and it was a 10'6" in length and perfect reel seat placement and great guide spacing as it's specifically built for an Alvey. The issues of other rods were that the first stripper guide is not far enough up the rod and so that the line slaps and bunches up at the first guide during casting.

The Alvey 555 rod has a full fibreglass blank and with it being 2pc there is a gusseted ferrule that is slightly ugly to look at - however strengthens the rod in this critical area. Once loaded up and tested with the line through the runners it looks quiet powerful for a 3 to 5 kg rod - unlike the Live Fibre and the Gary Howard which were very soft and had slow actions and bent all the way to the butt... This rod has a nice sweeping bend that stops fore of the top hyperlon grip, I would suggest that its a fast action than anything else I have seen and is similar to my Alvey Light Surt and something I am accustomed with. The rod would be perfect with 4kg Platypus line that I am using and would be suitable for Bream, Flatties and Whiting etc.

The only gripe I have with the rod is that the Fuji winch seat seems lesser quality than previous years and grips that I own, the Fuji reel seats arent really designed for Alvey Reel seats as they are quiet steeply footed. I found it hard to seat the reel at first and had to massage the reel seat hoods down while screwing the locking screw down and only got it at the end. There are also some gaps in the binding and the blank is slightly off it's backbone and some bubbles in the epoxy at the guide feet and over the rod's spec's at the reel's for grip - these bubbles are tiny but detract from the overall quality finish.

Its a good rod, at a dirt cheap price! The price of the rod is beyond excellent and at $75 it absolutely knocks the socks off the Live Fibre at $160 and the Gary Howard at $135! As Alvey continues to strive to make purpose built rods for their reels, some things could be improved, however at the price this is at it is the only choice for smaller 500 and the Graphite 55 series reels that Alvey produce!

Well done Alvey.

Edit: Since going for a quick fish with the rod on the 24th July 2012- I used a small ball sinker and gave it a cast. The sinker literally flew half way across the Coomera River, this was achieved with very little effort at all! When the rod was loaded up with a small bream, you could see where the power kicks in from, the tip is supple enough to feel the light nibbles and the lower end of the rod is the working end - just cant wait to really try it out with larger fish.

To me it feels very well constructed and a natural rod to fish with. Quality Fuji fittings! Great action and feel for the reel I have! Nice blank and well gusseted for longevity. Some bubbles in the epoxy, Fuji reel seat not really suited for Alvey reel feet - a bit difficult to seat properly.