Very often you ask me to tell in detail about Briscola Granito 243 Light rods, which frequently appear in my reports and articles. Not to repeat myself, I’ll try to describe my impressions about this rod here.

Indeed out of all Granito rods these elegant, almost toy-like pickers are my favorite. Surely, sphere of their application is limited, for instance, during competitions I have to opt for longer, more powerful and universal models. But heading for simple amateur fishing I always take on me Granito 243L.

Charecteristics:

Well, its official name is Briscola Granito 243L Light (Small River and Lake). And though formally it’s called a light feeder rod, it’d be more correct to call it a picker rod. The rod consists of two joints and a flexible quiver tip. The standard set includes the case with three tips – pink, blue and white (with the test of ½, ¾ and 1 oz. accordingly). This set can be applied in almost all the conditions, but if it didn’t turn out to be enough, you may use any Granito tips – all of them have the same diameter. The upper joint with a tip is as long as the lower one which enables you transport the rod without taking off the tip. The working length is 243 cm., the transportation one is 127 cm. It weighs just 148 G. It may be quite a lot for some spinning rod, but for a feeder rod it’s really ultra light.

The reel seat is of a closed type, which minimizes the contact of your hand with the parts of a reel, eyelets, screws and other elements. The handle is composite. The upper part which is closer to the reel seat and on which you place your hand during all the operations is made of corkwood, the lower part – EVA material, the butt end – press cork. At first sight the slim handle seemed a bit strange to me, but it turned out to be very comfortable and ergonomic.

Application

The rod has another element in its name “Small River and Lake”, which points out its sphere of application. Indeed, first and foremost, this is a rod for fishing at a small distance (up to 20-25 m.) with small feeders. The rod casts well, but it’s not very comfortable to work with at a distance of 25-30 meters, and if it’s windy, it becomes even more problematic. You need to apply force to cast which has its effect on accuracy, and it’s very difficult to adjust the trajectory of the feeder with a short blank. But if you often fish in ponds, small rivers and other suchlike places where you need a long-range cast and a heavy feeder, this picker would your best choice.

A couple of times I used it for other purposes.

The first time was when I fished for gobies in Kerch from the bridge across the channel the go to from sea. You could feel the biting not only judging by the tip but also through the blank with your hand. In spite of the fact that monofil was used as the main line. By the way, the rod has a high degree of sensitivity. If the biting happens while being in your hand, you can feel it very clearly, giving you a signal to hook fish. One more variant is to use it as a light spinning rod. Surely, I don’t advise anyone to use this rod with the intention to fish for predators with lures. But if all of a sudden after feeder fishing you may want to catch a couple of perches with a spinner or micro-jig, this picker will do it perfectly.

It seems to me, that the rod will work perfectly while fishing from boat. I haven’t yet used it in this capacity, but I hope to in the future.

Tackle

The rod is very light and elegant that’s why large reels are not entirely justified. Generally I use small reels - Banax Ceres 750 and Herse 750N. Sometimes during competitions I use light and swift Mitcell MagPro ligh. The line is either a monofil with diameter of 0,16-0,18, or a thin braided line Exteer 0,128 by Pontoon21.

Trophies

Surely, the target prey of Granito Light are roach, small bream, perch and silver bream. But there’re some other species which prove that Granito Light can catch bigger fish.

Small carp having bit at this tackle immediately appeared on the bank of both Belarusian and Cyprian ponds. This rod also caught several large bream one of which weighed more than two kilos. Its soft action perfectly copes with the jerks of large fish and it enables to deal with them even while using thin lines. The above-mentioned two-kilo bream was caught with a 0,1 leader and braided line with any additional buffer balls.

I like accurate and delicate feeder fishing at small distances. Maximum accuracy, close contact with fish, lightness and compactness. Briscola Granito 243 Light is excellent for this type of fishing.

Alexander Evmenenko

During four years - coach of Belarus feeder team at the World Championships.

At 2015 and 2016 - coach of float fishing team of the Republic of Cyprus on the European and world championships.

Author of articles on the Internet and fishing magazines. Favorite kinds of fishing - float and feeder fishing

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