Ultralight: The Story
When you’re fishing for shy biting fish and need to make every bite count, MAP’s Ultralight feeder rods are the choice of champions!
With the popularity of feeder fishing at an all-time high, tackle design for this increasingly diverse branch of the sport has had to change!
Not only are there plenty of rods now available for fishing at huge ranges of over 100 metres, but there has also been development at the finer end of the scale too.
Fishing for silver fish on natural and commercial waters is a popular diversion of the feeder fishing scene, however there wasn’t a dedicated rod that was designed for skimmers and roach.
With standard and more powerful SUV rods existing within the MAP rod ranges already, we sat down with our MAP consultants to create the ultimate in silver fish feeder rods.
It was decided between the team that something around 20 to 25% lighter than our standard feeder rods would offer the perfect balance of casting ability to ensure accuracy but also offering a stunning soft action that would impress any angler!
Sometime after the initial product meeting, samples of what would become the 10 and 11ft Parabolix Pro Ultralight feeder rods arrived, with Graham West, Michael Buchwalder and Matt Pillay tasked with testing them in real life fishing situations.
The feedback we got from the consultants was mixed initially; the rods were far from perfect to begin with and a period of testing and tweaking the rods continued for many months, what was apparent though was the anglers were loving using these rods, with the soft action being loved by all.
Another additional product we started to test at the same time was our Ultralight Hybrid tip, with our team being well linked to Europe through international competitions, it became clear that lots of Europe’s best anglers were using a new type of tip designed initially in Poland which offered incredible bite detection properties.
The Ultralight hybrid tips are essentially a carbon quiver tip to offer excellent recovery on the cast enabling excellent accuracy, but the unique part is a short, spliced section of glass at the very end of the tip section which gives unrivalled bite detection.
These special tips were game changers to the Ultralight project and gave the rods a real edge that set them apart. All the anglers were soon reporting seeing more bites that they would have never seen previously, even on a standard light 0.5oz carbon tip, which was a huge improvement.
Some 12 months after beginning the development of our Ultralight we had arrived at the finished product, now sporting the graphics and livery that you can now see in tackle shops everywhere.
The feedback on the rods was fantastic, anglers who were fishing festivals on venues like Tamar soon found favour with the 10 and 11ft models perfect for the short-range fishing commonly associated with the venue.
The Ultralights also became a common sight on match venues like Meadowlands, Barston and Albans Lakes in the winter months, all perfect for this style of rod where silver fish are the target.
Something we didn’t realise was the popularity these rods would attract on the winter commercial scene either, with lots of anglers using them regularly for docile winter carp and f1s when you need to ensure every bite ends up in your landing net.
The response was incredible from our initial foray into the Ultralight range, and it wasn’t long before we were receiving requests for the same option in our flagship rod range, the Parabolix Ultra II, well in spring 2025 that became a reality with 10 and 11ft Ultralight feeder rods introduced.
The 10ft rods are ideal for distances up to 25m with the 11ft models ideal for up to 35m covering a wide range of silver fish work on a wide range of different venues. They possess enough power to cast feeders up to 25g, but the soft action is something unique and needs to be seen to be believed!
Both the Parabolix Pro and Parabolix Ultra II Ultralight rods are available now from MAP Stockists.
