New “Kompressor Sport” arrived today.
It arrived in 2 equal sections complete with
a reducer all neatly packed and in a blue Century
bag.

Ok, so far so good, all intact.
Slide out the rod, have a quick look, hmmm, looks
nice.
Cosmetically it was eye catching, sparse, but eye
catching nonetheless as it is a very minimalist build.
This is great. Unground tip and just enough hi-build over
each guide foot to make sure the thread is well protected.

Plain whip on the tip

A little tipping on the butt section and guide.

This rod sports a metal collar at the spigot. It is well
enough finished, not rough or sharp to touch and is obviously
a replacement along with the butt grip for the usual familar
heavy area of thread and hi-build that usually sits here on
most rods.

The metal collar is actually very thin.

It’s nicely finished and you can’t feel it under power.

This particular rod fitted together like a glove.
Very easy to assemble / disassemble with NO play at all.
No flat or high spots as the joint is rotated when just
slid together without a full interference fit. Quite a nice
jointing all in all.

You can see where the joints slide too in this photo.

The tip, well, obviously in a field test I can only tell
you so much about the tip.
Sure, its fairly good at smoothing a full blow cast, and I’m
certain that it won’t fold in a tide. That remains to be seen
but first impressions of these things are usually fairly
accurate when you’ve handled one or two rods over the years.

BNHG’s all through, all lined up nicely.

The top two spaces between guides are smartly finished
in a nice white reflective tape. This is a real neat job on
this particular rod

Going back to the cosmetics, like I said, the rod is only
carrying hi-build where needed. That said, the graphics
stand out impressively and whilst they aren’t protected
under anything, who cares. The label isn’t exactly
functional is it ?

Just a few images of the graphics.

Well, so what did it cast like ?

First impressions always count don’t they.

Like before, I wasn’t dissapointed by the performance
of this rod. I have to be objective of course and in NO
WAY do Century prime or have ANY say in what I write here
or anywhere else for that matter on these rods.
They must be pretty damn confident to farm these rods out
for independent reviews of this nature and to be fair,
they have every right to be.

Under load 175g to 215 meters within a few chucks.

I’ve cast many rods, too many probably, but the fact remains
that that helps me with evaluation. Remember these are only
my views and that of other reviewers may differ.
I’d say, the rod feels smooth. Very smooth in fact.
Probably the smoothest rod I’ve chucked a weight on.

I only had chance to cast 175g on the rod, and along with
a Daiwa 7HT Turbo loaded to 1mm under flush (fishing load)
and 16 turns of 80lb leader the rod sent this time and time
again out into the hot zone. It was effortless. In fact, I’d
say it was like casting with a remote control.

It was so easy to get the rod “around the corner” it was
unreal. Like “Traction Control” for fishing rods in actual
fact. This is great and the first rod that I’ve cast that
does it for you. That sounds nuts I know, but it’s the
actual impression it gives you. Even mis-timed casts were
smoothed so effectively that the reel stayed calm and 100%
under control. Try driving a car with and without “traction
control” switched on and one will be twitchy and and one
normally rock solid and glued to the road. This sort of feels
in between as it retains a quite lively feedback that is
telling you what’s happening ALL THE WAY THROUGH the cast.

It made it easier to elevate the left hand.

The rod felt great with a flatish finish. I did try
throughout the session to gain some height into the cast
and most changes to the cast were rewarded immediately with
a response from the rod.

Even with over 6oz of lead weight, its easy to stay on
balance with the “Sport”.

In the photo’s the rod looks to be a little zoned.
By this I mean, it has definate area’s of rod that are
working for you at any one time during the cast.

You can see here, the rod under load. Tip is well
folder away, mid section is compressed and bent and there
is a healthy bend above the right hand. Look at the area
between the top hand and the first butt guide. This shows
me the rod is working and I’m NOT. That’s important.

In a previous review I raved about the C3 LD. I stand by that
review. This rod is something different.
Its another ?100 for a start.
I’d have to be fair and say that, ?100 more is alot of money
extra to pay for any rod when you comparing it to what I have
already described as “The great allrounder” in the C3 LD.
Fact is, this rod has refinement in excess of the C3. It’s just
a damn sight smoother.
I cannot emphasise the smoothness enough. Its like 110%
feedback.
I haven’t tried the reducer, I haven’t cast any weight other
than my favourite 175g either.
I will of course and I’ll add to this review as I get
relevant information.
I’m not certain on the carbon used to construct the blank
but it feels to me that lessons have been learned from the
C3 range in the ease of use/feel stakes.
The grip either side of the spigot is wonderful and I’m so
pleased Century have stayed with this very practical idea.

The only negative…
well, when I first picked it up alongside my older model sport
it felt heavier than I would have expected. In reality, loaded
up with reel on board it’s really well balanced and swings well.
I think it’s a reduced diameter rod thing to have thicker blank
walls to retain cross section strength as when i went and checked
out my “built” narrow diameter rods, most felt !! heavier than
wider “older” thicker cross sectioned rods.
In practice, it paled into a faint memory so I wouldn’t worry.
Just remember what i said about thicker walls in narrower rods
when you pick one up in the shop.

I had the reel 6″ from the butt cap in the tests above.

Kompressor SS……………… 879 grams
Kompressor S……………….. 831 grams

These weights are “all up” including the reel seat.

The SS isn’t quite ready just yet, but I’m assured that I will see one
in due course. The difference in weight is due to higher modulus
intermediate materials and changes to the gearbox. The tip will have
very slight but undoubtedly noticeable and felt changes. The gearbox
has longer zones in the SS.

On felt changes and action……

The S does indeed have “Built In” zones.
It seems, that

This picture is showing the rod display 3 zones. There is a 4th

I obviously hadn’t quite got into the lower gearbox with this cast and I’m
told by Century that the lower gearbox is designed to take the rod into
a more parabolic shape as seen here….

Remember me saying this cast was 7 meters further.
well, I’m told this more parabolic shape is indicative of the lower
gearbox JUST coming into play, hence the smoothness becoming
even more apparent.

It also tells me, the rod has loads left so don’t go thinking that 215 meters
is anywhere near top end even on the fishing setup I was using.
You’ll notice, I was going fairly easy on the rod in this video..
I removed the usual Xcast step to test this rod initially because in
fairness, I have rarely seen anyone step to cast out to sea.

see, http://www.myfishcasting.org/video/KompS175g.wmv only 6mb.

OK,stealth version.
the only difference is in the logo. seriously, that’s all.
The gold logo’d version I have is for general release.
Some people, carp anglers in particular have shown a preference
for “Low Bling” in rods and related fishing equipment. Sure, so why not
sea anglers too ?
I’m also assured that this rod will be available to UK customers at the
SAME price as the general release “gold logo” rod.

Rod handles 200g no problems whatsoever.

It feels easy in fact.

The reason the session was cut short was it started to hammer down with
rain.
First chuck 210 meters on the 7HT Turbo 0.35mm Sakuma as yesterday.
That was a still dry cast.

Then it rained, hard.

Everything was soaked.

Quick dry off of the cricket bat rubber and next cast 206 meters in the wet.
No spool slip, rod reacted very well indeed.

I foresee no problems with 225 or even 250g of lead IF cast correctly.
Don’t go batting massive weights though unless you know what you
are doing AND you keep it smooth.
Dragging 250g around inside the arc is asking for a broken rod of any
description.

So far though, so good.

Further testing revealed …….

200g goes real well.

200g 217 meters.
Got much deeper into the gearbox. Unloaded very sweetly.

Did extensive testing over the last few days
150g too, awesome.