The bankstick has been around for years and has evolved into more than just a tool for supporting an angler’s rods.
Coated or brushed aluminium was the metal of choice in the early days and that evolved to stainless steel soon after with Solar and Steve Neville leading the way. The advantage of stainless is the durability, the disadvantage is the weight, almost double that of aluminium banksticks.
In recent years the metal ware market has seen a resurgence with Solar making a strong comeback with their P1 range and new start-ups like Jag and Summit making very good products. Perhaps the biggest change has been the Korda Singlez range, love them or hate them they are very popular and it’s not hard to see why.
Composite/Carbon has now been around the bankstick world for some time with Century/Neville, and Nash Tackle providing some very well thought out products. The good points of carbon/composites are the weight saving and the strength. The bad points, they can sometimes scratch in gravel or stoney ground and being black in colour the scratches show up more than on stainless.
Aluminium is still used in bankstick construction, but the changes in manufacturing and technology mean they are both stronger and more reliable than in the early days. Cygnet make some fantastic banksticks and other metal ware with a really cool black finish!
So if you are a single stick angler fishing with 3 rods then you might need to consider a carbon or aluminium bankstick to save weight, if you like the stability of a rod pod but appearance of single stick then the Korda Singlez might be for you, lastly if you are a traditional bankstick and buzzer bar angler then stainless steel might be the way to go.
The only other consideration will be how big you need the banksticks, bearing in mind the size quoted of the bankstick is the non-extended size.
There are no right or wrong suggestions just a few things to consider!
As always, send us a message if you have any questions or queries and we help you out.