Let we begin with that I have established good business contacts with some rod manufacturers who can serve me rods of required quality. I visit them once a year and take a close look at their recent goods and choose some prototype. We discuss the required modifications of these rods, and they produce and send me them. Usually I get these prototypes in late spring or early summer when an extensive test is begun. I check and try the rods, verify the loadablity, and examine their test curve. I have a small laboratory, but I frequantly do field-tests.

It was a memorable moment when I tested my first own long pole, an Xtasy TM02 with a weight of 2 kg. The pole passed the test, and I had an idea about what an effort is needed to lift 2 kg with a 13-m-long pole. I speak in the full conviction that during carp fishing anglers do not lift more than half of a kg with their poles. After the test I  used 0.30 mm mainline and 0.28 mm hooklength with confidence for eel fishing on a canal in Hungary. Besides some eels I can catch a catfish of 9.20 kg with the Xtasy pole. (It was not child's play as may you suppose.)

I also examined the breaking of long poles.

Here you can see how bend a long pole under 2 kg (photographed by Gábor Döme)

and here you can see the moment of breaking.

We made a video and one can see every phase of the breaking thereon. First the third section of the rod was broken then the fourth and fifth sections due to the whipping back of the pole.

 I am very particular about the even bending of rods. In the next picture you can see a T-REX Carp Leader rod under 4 kg of load.

The red line indicates the uneven bending part of the rod.

In the picture you can see a Willowy Spin 3 rod under 3 kg of load. Here one can also see that the bending is not satisfactory. We send back to the manufacturers these two prototypes, and only the redesigned models which show perfect bending will be mass-produced.

A feeder rod under 10.5 kg of load! This is a model for the year 2008, especially developed for river fishing. A big catfish will be no problem.

Let we return to the rods of this year. When the rods go to mass product they are carefully checked immediately in the factory. I have a quality controller for this purpose. Then here in Hungary a final checking follows, I compare some rods choosen by chance from the consignment with the prototype. I check them in every details, even I measure their weights.

Then a load test follows. The rods must endure as load as the prototype.

A T-REX Carp Feeder 3.60 rod under 5 kg of load.

The same rod under 7.5 kg. Needless to say that in normal circumstances we do not lift more than 1 kg with these type of rods.

An another picture only for curiosity.

It is a T-REX Power Carp 3.60 rod. The weight of the boy is 80 kg! No comment.

It is not the end of the story. During some field tests we probe the rods in various fishing situations. An excellent venue for this purpose is the Top Mix lake, near our factory. It is a lake of 5 acre with a lot of quality fish which serves good possibility to test new groundbaits and tackles. It is not an artificial lake, you can find here nearly all of the fish species native to Hungary.

The best and most amusing form of a test of fishing tackles is a contest, and we organized a competition. Only the match rod was permitted and 3 kg of groundbait with 1 litre of maggot. In fact two groundbait was used, one designed for roach fishing (Top Mix Gros Gardons) and the Big Carp. There was no surprise.

The roach groudbait holds small fish and smaller carps. One of the competitors, Zsolt, used a STRADIVARI 3.90 m match rod with 0.08 mm hooklength and a 10 g Top Mix waggler.

While Laci, our "mixmaster", caught some real specimen with the Big Carp groudbait.

A common carp of 6.32 kg in the net.

The total weight of Laci was more than 42 kg.

Laci used a new match rod from the ISIS series, an EXQUISIT Match M 4.20, with which he can catch +6 kg carps with amazing rapidity.

Finally we have to mention the Team Top Mix which considerably helps our work during the whole year. They take part in the test of competition tackles, match rods, long poles and groundbaits.

So, the label on our rods mentioned in the introduction signs our considerable effort to offer quality products for demanding anglers.