At last the long flight to your fishing destination is over. You're at the airport and your suitcase appeared on the carousel what now seems like ages ago along with everyone else's. But as ever, your rod tube has yet to show. Sometimes it pops out with the luggage. On other occasions it appears via a different exit point that you're totally unaware of, and nobody bothers to tell you. By this stage, the baggage handlers appear to have finished and there isn't an airport official in sight. Even if there was, in some of the more far flung corners of the world where big fish live, English of a standard high enough to find lost fishing rods isn't guaranteed. What I describe will not be unfamiliar to an ever increasing number of anglers now fishing beyond home waters.

There is another, possibly even more disturbing scenario. It's a family holiday and advance rules of engagement have been very clearly defined with remarks such as "If you think I'm hanging around the airport all day until your rods turn up", or "Don't think you're taking that lot. This is my holiday too". If only there was some way of getting or hiding all the necessary tackle inside a decent sized suitcase. Telescopic rods are fine when it comes to pottering about. But we are talking serious fishing here. The last thing you want after all the time, money and effort involved in hooking up whatever it is you have travelled so far to catch, is your gear to let you down. Reels and terminal tackle are not so much of a problem. They can be carried in a suit case fairly easily. Reliable rods are another matter. Or should I say were another matter until recent times.

Okay, so my introductory comments are perhaps a bit flippant, though with enough reality in there I'll wager to strike some chords of recognition. But as much as I (and many others) have long wanted a rod that could be tucked away inside a suitcase, those who have previously tried making them have not helped the cause by putting out cheap, un-reliable mickey mouse variations on the theme. I never tried them, and from what I had previously seen on the market, quite honestly, thought I never would. But when a company of Shimano's reputation and stature enter the frame, then you have to sit up and take notice. Perhaps the time had come to feel enthusiastic all over again about the prospects of just exactly what additional doors a travel rod might be able to open.

Shimano have taken this particular bull well and truly by the horns, investing a lot of R&D time and cost into developing a whole array of models known as the STC range. This breaks down into two distinct ranges known as Exage and Beastmaster, Exage being the more competitively priced of the two. With the exception of the standup STC rods which are only available in the Exage version, Beastmaster and Exage offer much the same coverage throughout their boat and trolling range of STC rods, with good fish recorded on all models during both development and post development trials.

Even so, I couldn't help but wonder whether any travel rod, regardless of whose name was on it, could ever be the equal of something you would carry in a rod tube. All those joints?. It wasn't so much a reliability concern as many boat rods have either insert or spigoted joints, and one joint should be no more reliable than say two or even three. What concerned me more was the action of the rod, and how it would compare to the same blank either as a one piece as many standup rods are, or a two piece jointed at the butt. Would it have 'flat' spots when the pressure was piled on, and would it still work in the way a well designed tapered blank is supposed to work by progressively increasing the pressure when the mid section of the rod is brought into play?

To be honest, those concerns had to some extent been laid to rest before I packed the Exage 20/30 into my suitcase for a winter break to Madeira. Dave Lewis who does a lot of the field testing for Shimano had already beaten Norwegian cod to 51½ pounds on the Beastmaster STC. If that doesn't provide a confidence booster then what does it take. Having said this, deep water rays regularly topping 100 pounds and potentially weighing in excess of 300 pounds are a completely different proposition to a free swimming fish such as a cod, however big it grows. With rays a lot of initial power needs to be applied through the rod to break the fish's adherence to the sea bed. Then other qualities such as progressive power turn on to dissuade the fish from heading back to the bottom, and a good tip action to cushion the line and hook hold might be called upon.

I knew we would get afloat fishing at Madeira, and had a pretty good idea what the winter fishing would be all about from similar experience of Gran Canaria. But try as I may I could get absolutely nothing back from emails and Internet enquiries. So you can imagine the surprise after walking down to Funchal marina looking for a boat when Dave Devine and I bumped into ex-south coast charter skipper Ron Cowling who was in the process of taking a booking from Brian Wilkinson who, prior to moving to the Isle of Skye, had lived at Fleetwood a stones throw up the road from me. Ron turned his back on the mid channel wrecking in 1988 then sailed his boat 'Our Mary' out to Madeira where he now operates a successful big game fishing outfit when the marlin, tuna and the rest are in season. In fact, he is the only English skipper to have won the 4th of July Marlin world cup with a fish in excess of 1100 pounds.

Actually, this was Ron's first season of regular bottom fishing trips instead of leaving the boat tied up when the trolling season has come to an end. And by yet another quirk of fate, 'Our Mary' it turns out is a Shimano sponsored boat which a couple of weeks earlier had played host to Jud Hamblin, MD of Shimano's Felindre service centre who had dropped off some new reels and a Beastmaster uptide rod which he then used to beat a stingray of well over 100 pounds. Stingrays, butterfly rays, an odd eagle ray and the occasional undulate or thornback ray were the fish we should expect. As soon as Ron mentioned thornbacks I though 'yes, and I know what I'm going to catch'. One saving grace, thankfully dogfish nor anything resembling them make it this far south.

On the day of the trip, Ron put the anchor down in around 70 metres of water over fine volcanic sand within half a mile of the shore beneath the islands tallest cliff. I was then handed a 1 ounce lead while the crew sent handfuls of chopped mackerel into free fall to draw in the fish. Such is the lack of tide in these parts. Doubts were then cast on my choice of gear. Not so much the Exage rod which Ron knew I had brought along to test, nor the Tekota 600 reel which through previous usage I knew was more than up to the job. It was the line I had loaded the Tekota with. Ron doesn't rate braid for this type of bottom fishing, besides which it was too light. With no tide to cut and fish which signal their presence by running, you don't need braid Ron announced as he handed me a TLD15 loaded with monofilament.

In terms of bite detection he was absolutely right. The first run came to the Exage, and once the culprit felt the hook, it was determined to do all within its power to clamp itself very firmly to the sea bed. This was exactly what I had wanted. The perfect opportunity to see how a 4 piece rod would react to maximum pressure. I have to say it reacted exactly the way I had hoped it might. So well in fact that its being a travel rod was instantly forgotten as the business of breaking the fish's suction and pumping it up through the depths became the main thought on my mind. Potential flat spots and doubts concerning blank action were also forgotten as I set to work with what could have been any other well designed boat rod. In this instance, instantly forgettable is actually a compliment.

That fish turned out to be a butterfly ray which was a first for me. Some nice stingrays also put in a show, as did a number or moray eels when the boat was re-positioned over some fine sand close to the edge of a patch of reef. I'm only glad I didn't get one. The mere sight of them brings back thoughts of injections, stitches and anti-biotics at Gibraltar hospital after getting badly bitten by a moray that I didn't even catch. But that's another story. The main theme of this particular story was to look at the attributes or otherwise of Shimano's range of STC travel rods. So far I can see no disadvantages, in fact no detrimental differences at all from a one or two piece rod built on the same blank. It's advantages all the way in terms of travel, and for the dinghy angler, perhaps having one tucked away up front in the bow locker either as a main rod, or as essential back up which we all need from time to time.