A bespoke product, designed and tailored to the individual customer.

All rods are hand made to individual customers’ requirements to the outline specification described below, using only the highest quality components available.

The individual ‘tailoring’ of each rod to the customer, takes on board such design factors as:

ô grip size
ô stature
ô preference for softer or stiffer action rods   the course of normal fishing activities.

All rods are under whipped and over whipped, while Broadsword and Cutlass range with rollers are double over whipped, for strength and security.

All rods carry a lifetime guarantee that they will not fail in the course of normal fishing activities.

Colours are either the unique Excalibur colour schemes, or to customers requirements.

All whippings are fully impregnated and covered with UV stabilised resin, to provide the ultimate in high strength, strong gloss finish.

Additionally, we offer alternatives to the Broadsword & Cutlass rods, constructed with gold framed Silicone Carbide rings with roller tips. These alternative models are more economically priced, without any performance penalty.

Lastly, a speciality of Excalibur Rods is the ‘Flying Fish’ design modification, to enable you to carry fishing rods in hold luggage, like suitcases. Certain models are built in 2- 3 sections with solid tapered carbon ferrules as the joiner between sections, without ANY loss of performance. This facility is not available on all our rods, as certain fast taper blanks preclude such modifications.

Other more specialised rods can be built to customer requirements, though procurement of components may require a longer delivery period. Such specialised rods as for Nile Perch or Goliath Tigerfish and others are not held as standard, though ‘display models’ can be viewed at our premises in Henties Bay .

BROADSWORD

TROLLING

Top of the range IGFA Trolling Rods, with Stuart Rollers throughout. EVA Fore Grip and Stuart Aluminium Trolling Butt. All in Black & Gold. All 7’-6” long, with exacting actions to suit that line class.

ô80lb Curved Butt ô80lb Straight Butt ô50lb Straight Butt ô30lb Straight Butt ô20lb Straight Butt ô12lb Straight Butt

80lb class rods are built with ‘extra-large’ Stuart rollers to more than cope with the extraordinary loads of this line class.

Rods Available

CUTLASS

STAND UP

Top of the range short stroker Stand-Up rods. Stuart Rollers throughout, with Stuart aluminium short fighting butt. All in Black & Gold. 5’-6” long, designed to be used with low mounted butt pads, and full body harnesses – to put that supreme pressure on the hooked fish, and not on the angler. Handles are sectional high density EVA grips.

ô50-80lb ô30-50lb ô20-30lb

JIGGING

Top of the range jigging blanks built with Stuart aluminium figting butt and SIC rings. All in black and gold. 7ft long. The blanks for these rods are specifically chosen for their excellent tip flexibility yet offering pure power and back bone lower down the blank, superb for hauling big fish from extreme depths.

ô50-80lb - Suitable for up to 450grm jigs
ô30-50lb - Suitable for up to 200grm jigs

Rods Available

RAPIER

SPINNING

Top of the range IGFA rated carbon spinning rods, 7’-6” long with Titanium framed silicon Carbide rings. High density EVA grips throughout.

ô12lb ô8lb

Rods Available

SCIMITAR

LIGHT TACKLE

Top of the range Light Tackle rods on a 7’-0” long double taper fighting blank, fitted with Titanium framed Silicon Carbide rings. High density EVA grips throughout. You can feel the fish breathe on the bait with these rods! Built in either ‘stand-up’, SA ‘short’ or Euro ‘long’ style handles.

ô20-30lb ô12-20lb ô8-12lb

Rods Available

LONGSWORD - SURF RODS

LONGSWORD - SURF RODS Excalibur Tackle are using the finest single and multi piece blanks available to us. We pride ourselves on a ‘quality first’ ethic in all our rod building, and only use the finest quality components available to us; only then can we build you one of the finest rods available! From 2007, we started to challenge the ‘accepted’ design of blanks available to anglers, and this started with the ‘Torx’ design principle, which led directly to the TX2 and its subsequent successor the ‘TX3’ blanks. The principle was, and still is sound, and will continue to be used on a number of rods in our range. However during 2010, our continuing quest to improve saw the development of the ‘Shatani’ blank, which was a whole new concept – ‘MRS ‘, using European technology with southern African design system. Shatani Rather than delve too deep into the actual construction of the blanks, suffice to say we have succeeded in getting less weight of material to do more work, through extremely selective use of very specialist carbon cloths as well as a unique combination of tapers on the mandrel. The result is a range of blanks that are more powerful than comparable rated blanks, but with the real bonus of being up to 13% lighter ~ even lighter than our ‘TX’ series; which were considered light. Such is the performance gain of these blanks over the ‘TX’ series that we have elected to bring the ‘Shatani’ series forward as our primary recommended rods for all our one piece surf rods. It is not that we are neglecting the ‘TX’ series, as these will still be available to special order. The ‘Shatani’ series will cover the most popular casting rating, as well as some of the more specialist areas. The range: Starts with a ‘Ladies’ rod, very similar to our earlier designs, being 13 foot long, and offering a casting weight range of 5-6oz sinkers, very, very light, but having the power to cast serious distance, while retaining sensitivity. Next is the general all rounder – at 14 foot long, casting 6-7oz sinkers with ease, and yielding some outstanding results on the test range - over 185 metres! Next up is ‘big brother’, a powerful 14 foot rod, that responds well with 7-9oz sinkers and big baits. More than capable of dealing with Bronzies, as well as offering a tremendous distance option with smaller baits. Lastly, our competition fixed spool rod, which is built with the patented Blue Marlin ELS system to offer long handle for casting, closing to a more comfortable length for fishing and fish fighting. An option on these rods, is that they are built with a Breakaway Canon release clip fitted as part of the permanent construction. These rods have achieved supreme distances in the casting field; and are still developing, frequent results are well over 200 metres! ‘Aqrab’ These are our ‘top of the range’ rods, pure big distance machines, that respond best to very powerful casting styles, including full pendulum casting – not rods for the faint hearted. We found these blanks in Europe being one of the best blanks available for both ‘tournament casting’ as well as ‘fishing’. Being a truly specialist rod, the blanks have a fairly tight casting weight range, and being European, they have typical European construction: thick wall, very slim diameter, 14’ long and 2 piece, but are very powerful. Aqrab 3 The real ‘beast’, casting 7oz sinkers to the horizon, this rod has demonstrated itself as being a serious rod on the casting courts of Europe; to over 255 metres. It is superb for sliding baits to huge distances, and in local waters is consistently casting over the 200 metres mark. Easily capable of handling Bronzies, but a super competition rod for distance fishing. Aqrab 2 The ‘little brother’, casting 6oz well past the opposition. Responds well to smaller baits fished at maximum distance. Again best used by competition anglers with the power to motivate the blank, and get the maximum performance. Travel and Fish The need for multi-piece rods is a growing factor in southern Africa, with travel options and security being the main driving force; and we have developed our definitive range of rods to cover these requirements. The rods are all combinations of different strength carbons, using some of the principles used in the ‘Torx’ design process. We have named them ‘BTS’, followed by a descriptor to help define these rather specialist rods. We have avoided the multi-tip options, as they are all built to handle a tight range of sinkers, well; rather than a wide range not so well. All our BTS rods are built for top performance, and then developed to fit in travel tubes. The range: BTS Micro A superb 4 piece very light tackle rod, for small baits and lures in the 2-3 oz range. 12 foot long, it is so small, you feel you should slip it into your pocket. Now you have no excuse not to fish wherever you are travelling. BTS Original The rod that started us on this quest for superb, but focused multi-piece rods. 3 piece, 13 foot long, handles sinkers from 3-5oz, equally at home with lures as with baits. BTS Edibles The general all rounder of the series, a 3 piece rod, that handles all the angler throws at it. 14 foot long and casts sinkers in the 6-7oz range. BTS Shark As the title hints, this is an ‘all-out’ shark rod, equally adept at sliding baits as launching big baits. Best performances achieved with 7-9oz sinkers, depending on your strength and the baits you are using. BTS Fixed Spool 5 A delicate, yet dedicated fixed spool rod, that was designed primarily for ladies to compete at International level, but with a more forgiving nature in the casting performance. 13 foot long with the latest Blue Marlin ELS system, at home with 5-6oz sinkers. BTS Fixed Spool 6 An all round fixed spool rod that is designed primarily for heavier sinkers in the 6-7oz range. 14 foot long, with power in abundance to subdue big fish, as well as cast serious distances. Uses the latest Blue Marlin ELS system and 50mm flip-up eyes. Specialist These rods are dedicated specialist rods that we have developed over a period of time, the blanks use all the techniques we have used in our wider range of rod, but aimed at a single purpose rod, of ‘no compromise’ in their usage. Shark An 11 foot rod dedicated to hauling Bronzies out of the surf. The strength of this rod is amazing, with the advantage of serious leverage being handed back to the angler, though not seriously compromising the distance that can be achieved with this rod, when casting big baits. Built with an eye to real strength in the components, and comes standard with a gimbel fitting to the butt, to further reduce angler strain. This model was used to defeat the current Namibian record at 180kgs! Surf Popper A 9’ foot, 2 piece rod, that was designed to answer requests from both boat and surf anglers alike, for a powerful rod to cast 4-6oz poppers to good distance, and then have the power to defeat seriously large fish. Tested in northern Angola, it defeated some seriously large Tarpon and Snappers. Light Spin A 9 foot rod, that has been designed to cast lures between 1-2oz, but with the strength to handle just about anything you are going to encounter using such small lures. Field tested in southern and northern Angola, this rod has landed Cubera Snapper over 32kgs. Built in either spin or casting format. That about concludes our range of ‘standard’ rods, however none of our rods are truly standard, as they are all built to individual client specifications. Additionally, we are happy to assist developing other rods for surf fishing, as well as modify some of our current range. We are always moving our own goal posts further, so a ‘dream rod’ that you may have, might be one that we are currently testing or designing. Your new rod could be as little as 2-3 days away, as that is the current ‘build’ time, dependant on who is in the queue before you. All our rods are built with primarily Fuji components, they are the best - and we trust their performance. Occasionally for some specialist applications we even have components made for us, but these really are just as good as Fuji, just not available from Fuji. Excalibur Tackle also offer a full rod refurbishment service, including, rings, tips, fore grips, reel seats and handles. We can provide new pistol grips and standard reel seats and foregrips can be in either flotex, leather or textured X-grip. Our refurbished rods extend the life of favoured old blanks, some that we have carried out refurbishment on are still fine after 6 years of heavy usage. Rods Available

Some of the Excalibur surf rods in action:-

Tigerfish

Through the success’ of the ‘Tx’ series of surf rods, we tried an experiment of taking the build principle through to a range of rods for Tigerfish. The results were two blanks that effectively dominate this hard fighting fish.

The first is the 9 foot, 2 piece rod rated at 1-2oz, built in either casting or spinning format. The extra length gives accuracy and effortless casting, just what you need for a full day on the rivers.

The second is an 8’, 2 piece blank, slightly stiffer in action that works well with lures in the range 2-3oz. An ideal trolling blank, and one that has earned its ‘colours’ on many of the big African waters where the really big Tigerfish reside. Field tested by one client on a 28kg Catfish!

A third blank that we are developing at this time is a 3 piece, 2-3oz specially designed for small plane travellers – that is a supreme combination of light weight and power – built on a special blank.

The first two rods were part of a kit taken by one of our clients to the Barrotzi floodplains, in Zambia for a week of intensive fishing. In the party of anglers that went, there were a vast array of commercially produced ‘Tigerfish’ rods, and all were found to be lacking. The only rods that survived the whole trip of 6 anglers were our two ‘Tx’ Tigerfish specials. That speaks for itself – they survived some of the biggest Tigerfish, and are ready for the next trip!

Rods Available

LISTING OF SURF RODS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN THE EXCALIBUR RANGE

Foot Note:

During the past 3 years, specifically with our ‘Tx’ series of rods, there have been a good number of new Namibian records caught and landed on our rods. They have the power and application to do the job they are designed for – catch big fish!

Rods Available

WHIPPING

A selection of butt winds - other designs are available upon request. Also this small sample is not representative of all the colour schemes available. Motif designs are also available. We currently provided a standard range of the Skull and Cross Bones - representative of the Skeleton Coast, where, Excalibur Tackle is based, the Shark and the Scorpion.

A selection of ring whippings available, again other designs and colours are available, it is all down to what the customer wants!!

Rods Available