Guru Aventus Zero 600 Tele Whip

How well is it built?

The blank uses Zero 600 Tensile Carbon, which is built to stay light while giving the backbone and durability for repeated strikes and swing-ins.

The main sections have a Super Glide Matt Paint finish and the finer sections a Friction Free Matt Tape finish, so the whip should slide open and closed smoothly and stay comfortable to hold.

A Rigid Joint System locks the sections together firmly, which limits unwanted flex at the joints and gives a solid, stable feel in the hand. That's a welcome feature on a tele whip, because loose or wobbly joints are one of the weak points on cheaper ones.

Where does it lose half a point? Mainly against the Drennan Acolyte Pro Tele Whip, whose spliced tip and high modulus carbon make it a slightly more refined build overall. For a whip at this level, though, I think the Aventus Zero 600 is very well put together.

Performance & Handling

An Ultra-Fast Taper puts the bend right at the top, so the tip should be quick to recover and stiff enough to strike fast at small fish.

Paired with the Rigid Joint System, it's built to feel crisp rather than floppy, which is what you need when you're swinging in fish after fish.

The three push-in solid carbon tips are a real plus. The Light white tip suits the smallest fish and delicate presentation, the Medium yellow is the all-rounder, and the Heavy red gives you more power for perch or a bonus skimmer.

Each one has a 360-degree rotating Dacron connector, which should help stop the rig twisting.

At 2.5m it's a short whip, so it's really for fishing right under your feet or tight to close-in features such as reeds. Within that range, though, the choice of tips makes it very versatile, and I think the 8.5 is fair.

Ease of Use

The telescopic design takes it from the holdall to fishing very quickly, and at 55g it's light enough to hold for a long session.

The 3-inch depth markers on the butt are a handy touch, as they make it easy to measure your rig and set the depth, and the removable hook keeper band keeps rigs stored neatly.

Why the lower score for ease of use? Swapping between three push-in tips gives you more to think about, and it means three tips to keep track of on the bank.

A closed length of 116cm is also fairly long for a 2.5m whip, so it's a touch bulkier to carry than its fishing length suggests.

None of that is a big problem, and to be fair, most anglers will pick a tip and stick with it for the day. It's just a little less grab-and-go than the Drennan Acolyte Pro Tele Whip, which has one tip and nothing else to think about.

Is it good value for money?

It costs a touch less than the Preston Innovations Response Whip and a good deal less than the Drennan Acolyte Pro Tele Whip, yet it comes with three tips, depth markers and a hook keeper band.

That's plenty of extras for the money, and the Zero 600 carbon and Rigid Joint System are features you'd normally pay more for.

If you want the full system version, the Guru Aventus Zero 600 System Whip is an 8m take-apart whip with the same carbon and tips, but it's a far bigger spend. The tele model gives you much of that technology in a short, simple package.

Overall, I'd recommend the Aventus Zero 600 Tele Whip to natural-venue anglers who want to catch small roach, perch, bleak and dace quickly at very close range, and who like the option of matching the tip to the fish and the conditions.