Major Craft :: CORKISH

i have owned the 20-30lb corkish baitcast rod and it was insane.. hard to find better in that price range.

Ok I admit it, I think Japanese fishing tackle has a certain amount of ‘cool’ about it. Their soft baits are fascinating, their hard lures are beautifully manufactured and their reels are pretty much the best in there world..Daiwa Steez or Shimano Stella anyone ? I’ve enjoyed using a lot of Japanese tackle over the last few years but the one Japanese import I had never owned until recently was a rod (I’ve had plenty of Daiwa rods, but they were all made in Scotland and aimed squarely at the UK market). So I convinced myself that I needed a new bait casting rod, something fairly light that was able to cast little cranks and soft plastics with 5g and 7g jig heads, but also with enough beef to chuck a few medium swimbaits, storm suspending shads and bigger crankbaits. I wanted something that didn’t have too fast an action as well, as I would be using this for perch fishing as well as pike and zander and I prefer something with a bit more give when fishing for stripeys. After a lot of searching through catalogues and scanning the internet I came up with the Corkish series from Majorcraft. From what I’d read it was built around a quality blank, had the right action and was available in a 6’3″ model that was rated 7 – 21g. So I had a chat with Nicefish who are the official Majorcraft distributors in the UK and although the Corkish isn’t one of their stock models, they agreed to bring one in for me with their next delivery from Japan.
So we’ve established that the rod looks and feels great in my kitchen, but that’s not even half the story, so it was time to get out on the water and give the Corkish a proper test. I started with a few lures right at the lightest end of the rods casting range. First up was a 2.5 inch Kopyto with a 5g jig head.I figured that should weigh bang on 7g which is as light as the Corkish is meant to handle. Casting was a breeze and although the lure didn’t load the rod very much on the cast, it was easy enough to punch it out a fair distance. On the retrieve the rod was decent, there was enough sensitivity to feel when the jig head hit the bottom and when the wind dropped completely I could even feel the little shad working in the water. To be fair the sensitivity was nothing like I would have had on my Graphiteleader Corto UL rod, but then it’s rated as 0.6g – 8g so it’s not really a fair comparison. After about half an hour of casting and working a few different light lures I found a little pod of perch and landed three of them all around the half pound mark and although they didn’t exactly have the rod bent double, it didn’t feel like I was dragging them out on a poker either. So in summary the rod handles lures of 7g pretty well and is happy enough catching small fish.
If you manage to get your hands on a Corkish it’s going to set you back around ?179.00 (there are over 35 different models and I’m not sure how some of the other would be priced). Which is a decent wedge of money especially compared to the price of some rods by Savage Gear, Abu and Okuma. So does the Corkish offer value for money ? I would have to say a define YES. It really is a beautifully put together rod which has been made with real attention to detail. The components are all top class and I love little extras like the butt cap and the metal trim on the split section of the grip.


The Corkish is full of nice little details like the branded butt cap.

As well as a beautifully balanced rod to work your lures with, you’re also getting something a little bit special that people will want to hold and look at, there won’t be many Corkish rods around so it will get noticed which is nice for the Tackle Tarts among us. This is a rod that’s right up there with brands like Loomis and St Croix in my opinion and when you look at it like that, it suddenly doesn’t seem so expensive.