[Anadromo]

I am a very frequent peruser of your forum, from which I have derived great pleasure and invaluable information. Would you very knowledgeable gentleman assist me in choosing a salmon back up "combo" to fish (hopefully) Norwegian rivers?
My idea was:

15' Euro action rod for overhead and spey casting, either:

Sage 10151 (is the breakage saga over? For some unknown reason, I am unable to access Sage reply to this problem posted earlier by Dana).

T&T DH 3-5 piece

Loop Green Line DH 15' 10


Salmon reel

Redington Breakwater
Vision XLA

Both look great; "medium" priced, Vision in particular looking very good, but I know nothing about them namely in what concerns efficiency and reliability?
Hands-on experience unfortunately impossible for any of the items, in the foreseeable future.






Thanks very much for your time and help;

 

[Jacob]

rod: sage 15,1´ or greyline 15´
reel: Loop Evotec LW 8-12 or Hd 9-13
lines: sawada flatbeam 50lb shootingline, Vision ACE shootingheads

 

[Grampa Spey]

Anadromo

You might want to contact Bob Meiser and talk to him about his special Salmon Rod:

S2H130EX~10/11* 13' 10/11/12 4 $685.00

* The S2H1130E 10/11 wt. is a 13 ft. Scandinavian action "Cannon" developed to deliver extreme head systems utilizing two-handed overhead and underhand spey presentations. This is the rod to use for those 60 pound plus "Car Bumper" Kings, monster Stripers, Muskies, and Atlantic Salmon. This is one formidable piece of graphite ! Capable of delivering Big Boy Dredgers to 1000 grains, in excess of 100 ft perfectly balanced, yet weighing just over 7.5 Oz.

Those of us who own Bob's rods, and most of us can't own just one of his rods, know that Bob does not gild the lilly when he tells what each of his rods are capable of.

I have a new Brakewater 10/11. It appears to be a bullet proof reel and has a disc brake system that would stop about any fish if cranked down. Dan Blanton is very high on this reel and so is my son, a salt water fishing boss of engineers.

 

[Anadromo]

Already very valuable input! Gentlemen, we are really something!
Concerning Grey Line and Evotec, budget limitations are of great relevance...
Meiser's rods I am well aware of, but I am on the wrong side of the Atlantic...

HvB

 

[Grampa Spey]

Anadromo

Anadromo, I'm sure that Bob Meiser can ship his rods anywhere.

Of course France may boycott his rods as part of their nature.

 

[flytyer]

I own a T&T 1510-3 because I felt it was the best fast, progressive-action 15 ft 10 wt on the market. I like the Loop Green Series; but it is slower than the T&T and the T&T has more power in its design. The Loomis GLX 15 ft 10 wt (18010) is also a very good fast, progressive-action 15 ft rod that is probably the fastest 15 ft rod on the market.

Meiser's rods are excellent rods that are essentially custom made to your specifications. They are a true custom rod at factory rod prices. You might want to email or Private Message Meiser and see what he can do.

You might also want to take a look at CND's Thompson Specialist. It is an excellent rod with a little slower action then the T&T; but it has a very fast balnk recovery from deflection when casting. And it also has a lot of power. The CND Salar Specilist would also be worth a look.

 

[Norwegian]

Why as heavy as 15 ft? What river and what part of season? What weight/lenght do you go for as your primary setup? You should fish some of the few VERY big rivers, or only fish early June if a 15 ft is a standard setup. 12,5 - 14 is in my opinion more suitable for floating/floating-sinktip or intermediate lines.

All rods are excellent.

For the reels, I would avoid the Vision - I havent tried it but many have had complaints about it on scandinavian web forums. (Maybe it will be a better reel next year if they improve it - it looks cool though.)

There are, I think a lot of other choices in the lower-medium price range than the two you mention.

Good luck.

 

[Anadromo]

Thank you all very much for the input. Now, no way am I going to import from the USA; custom duties would make the deal obscene.

Specifically in response to Norwegian:
15 ft because it worked! Let me explain:I fished all my life (surfcasting, mainly). One cursed day, a few years ago, a friend of mine decided I should learn to flyfish. Obviously, it became an obsession. And then I stumbled on Falkus's book (more glue by now than black ink). Based on my research, I bought (on-line) a 15 ft Scierra-generally accepted, from what I read, as an all purpose length and medium priced- and a SA salmon reel, and went to Norway last September (NFC waters). The first days were...dry, to say the least, but then the rain started and, in flood conditions, with chocolate coloured water,I managed to hook up three salmons and land two (1 small and silvery, about 2 Kg, and a big, mean, beautiful, somewhat coloured one, that left me completely extactic). And the above rig worked - with a Guide intermediate SH and a black and orange tube fly bought locally- just fine. In fact, my absolute beginner's very humble opinion is that the 15 ft rod was, for those conditions, close to a minimum.
Needless to say, I intend to return to Norway (lovely country!), money and health permitting.

Admitting that any of the three rods brands mentioned are safe bets, what would you specifically suggest in the way of:

-alternative lenghts
-medium priced quality reels (the XLA sure looked good...)

By the way, have you got any knowledge of the Nivelva?

Thank you all; it is a pleasure to interact with you.

 

[Norwegian]

Anadromo - I assume you fished the NFC beats on the Gaula? Must have been end of august, not september, unless you fished illegally...

The river was at a rather huge late summer rain spate those days, and if you go back, you will most likely not believe you are the same place, as the discharge might be 10 % of what you had this year... Under the conditions you had, a 15 ft is perfect, but it is seldom like that.

I would consider some different lenghts, at least when you aleady have a 15 ft setup. 14 ft is nice allround, 13 ft is a real supplement to the 15 ft.

If I should choose three rods for typical Norwegian salmon fishing, that would be a 15 ft line 10/11, a 12.5 - 13 ft line 8/9 and a 9.5 ft line 8 onehander. This would cover almost any river at any condition, except for the smaller grilse-only rivers, where you would like a 6-7 weight.

I would look for a quality reel in the used/classified pages. Buy a used Ross or Loop if you can. You also get a Loop traditional brand new for a nice price now - a fantastic reel in my opinion, at least if you go for a lighter rod the Loop Traditional 3W is a perfect companion.

Good luck,

 

[Anadromo]

Norwegian: you are right, of course-end of August (I am somewhat time-disoriented)-and thank you very much for your input.

Anadromo

 

[jcc_00]

Rods cont

Anadromo,

Why the " European" action instead of the traditional "spey" action?

 

[sms]

Anadromo,
I've had a change to wiggle the 15' Greyline this autumn and I was shocked. As was the guy who had it on test. The rod is hugely nose-heavy and thus uncomfortable to fish. The old heavy evotec of the guy wasn't enough to balance the rod...
I would suggest loop evotec lw or hd or some second hand quality reel. But beware, even high quality reels have those monday pieces so don't buy before you have tested the reel well. In action that is.

15'1'' Sage I've fished a week. I didn't get along with it too well. Somehow it seemed too slow or lack of real power to mee at that time (the first year it came out). Or maybe it just was my poor casting skills I had those days . On the other hand, many people have loved this rod and some say that it needs a little different casting style.

My advice to you is:
Test the equipment you're thinking of buying, especially rods. You don't want to end up with a rod that you thought you'd like but you just don't. It is an uncomfortable and an expecive road to take.

jcc_00,
I think Anadromo wants European action to make it easy for himself to cast those quite short shooting heads. Am I right Anadromo?

 

[Rodmaker]

Hello Anadroma

In my eyes a very good rod are the new LPXe from Guideline.
They have nice fast action and are very light.
They looks like a copy of a Loomis GLX.
You can have it in the follow size.
13ft line8/9
14ft line9/10
15ft line10/11
I cast the rods with shooting heads and the Windcutter Spey,
both works great.
I think there give in the moment no better fast action rod in this price group.
By Guideline Sweden all LPXe 2hand rods are sold out this season.
When you need more information over the rods send me a mail under [email protected]

Taki