Salmon spey rod

[jpy]

Hi all
I am new to this forum. I'm after a bit of advise .I fish on my local river neath and I am after a double handed spey rod .im looking for a rod 12 - 12 ft 6" , 8-9 wt. I didn't want to go to 13 ft unless I had to,some of the options I have are
1-shakespear scandi 12 ft 9 , 8 wt
2- airflo air tec 13 ft 8-9 wt
I will be using a Rio afs .
I don't want to spend to much and would buy secondhand if needs must if any one has a suitable rod to sell I would be most interested.
Many thanks
James

[laffingravy]

Hello James and a very warm welcome to The Forum. I don't wish to confuse you but you may wish to consider a third option. If you have a look at the John Norris Atlantic Salmon Rod at 12ft 6" long I think you will find it better than the Shakespeare or the Airflo. James Norris has them on offer for about £100.00 and they are worth every penny. It is badged up as needing a 34g head. I find that this stunts the action a little bit. My suggestion would be to use it with a 30g Rio Scandi or a Loop Lo Float GDC Shooting Head. I use these rods and the 2 longer ones he does for all of my teaching. You can pair the rod up with a cheap reel and the shooting head will cost you about £30.00. I hope that you get set up with what works best for you whichever way you go.


Best regards,
Geoff

[jpy]

Thanks Geoff
Really appreciate your help. Would the john noris rod handle di 5 sinking heads with brass tubes.The river isn't very wide and max distance at an angle I would be casting say 35 yards. So I was a bit concerned as to the lines not being fully loaded to shoot out . This is why I thought the afs might be better but I would take your advise if this was not the case.
Kind regards
James

[laffingravy]

Hello again James, the rod will comfortably handle 30g sinking heads. The sinking AFS heads are not my personal favourite and I would probably plump for a Guideline Triple Density 30g. These things cast and fish extremely well indeed.

[dalesman]

Just to throw a spanner into the works, I use a 13' Shakespeare Spey rod, I dislike having to pull all the running back into the tip.

The Shakespeare see's more action than my McKenzie 14', which cost me a dam site more.

[jpy]

Thanks for the advise .Im going to order the john Norris rod . I had a look at the guideline triple d line seen good reviews on them a bit out of my budjet as I would need to buy a few more spools and a selection of sinking heads. I think the Rio scandi line would be best as it comes in a kit with everything with it.could you confirm it is the 8- 9 wt I will need.
Regards
James

[laffingravy]

Hello again James.

if you are thinking of the Rio Scandi then I would go with the 8 weight rather than the 9. The 9 weight is 34g and the 8 weight is only 30g. If you click on this LINK and have a look at the Scandanavian Floating Head RSF460 which is the 4th item from the bottom of the page. That is the one that I would recommend for you. Please bear in mind that this is the head only and you will need a running line and some Versileaders or Polyleaders. You can buy a complete set of Airflo salmon Polyleaders for about £20.00 and in this you will get about 8 of varying densities from float through to very fast sink. Rio Versileaders are about £8.00each.

[jpy]

Many thanks

[jpy]

Just received my john norris 12 ft 6 atlantic spey rod,well chuffed awaiting my rio scandi line.cant wait to use it.:>