Choice of Salmon / Sea Trout Rod

[Traditionalist]

So, the rod arrived safely and it only took a few days which is useful to know.  Hope you enjoy it.

TL
MC

[13Fisher1]

Hi Mike,
Yes Mike as per my email I received your rod yesterday via DHL, it's a great looking rod, really
impressed with quality of fittings and appearance. Cannot wait to give
it an outing as I'm sure that it performs as well as it looks and feels.
Thank you for the line also, you are so very kind and I appreciate your
generosity. I f ever I can return your kindness I will be only to glad
to do so.

I will of course make a donation to the forum as you suggested.

Thank you sincerely once again,
Colin

[Traditionalist]

My pleasure, hope you catch plenty of fish on it.  I was quite impressed with DHL's performance. I have not used them before to the UK.

As it is extremely unlikely that I will be doing any more salmon fishing it is pointless retaining a whole slew of such gear.  It is better for somebody to get some benefit from it.  I will be sorting out a lot of this stuff in the near future, along with a lot of other gear. I will probably offer it here, now that I know I can send it reliably and comparatively cheaply.

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Thanks for doing this Mike, as Colin says, very generous of you. Thanks too to Colin for the donation he has made to the forum funding.

Nice one chaps! 

[Traditionalist]

Thanks for doing this Mike, as Colin says, very generous of you. Thanks too to Colin for the donation he has made to the forum funding.

Nice one chaps! 

My pleasure Fred,

I would rather do it like this than have a lot of hassle. I don't like selling stuff anyway. Also, not everybody would be interested in unknown rods from an unknown maker.

Nice to know that somebody benefits.

TL
MC

[13Fisher1]

Great, now "itching" to try new rod, and one of only TEN made, wondering about taking drive down to  R Leven just to give new rod a cast!!  I find myself a little wary these days of wading in the Leven maybe due to increasing age and nervousness going in deep as Leven usually requires - wimp I know must be ageing since few yrs go never gave it thought.

Decisions, decisions 

[Traditionalist]

Great, now "itching" to try new rod, and one of only TEN made, wondering about taking drive down to  R Leven just to give new rod a cast!!  I find myself a little wary these days of wading in the Leven maybe due to increasing age and nervousness going in deep as Leven usually requires - wimp I know must be ageing since few yrs go never gave it thought.

Decisions, decisions 

The rod you have is actually unique, although the blanks were to identical specs ( which does not necessarily mean they were identical, there are always some differences in blank runs, even from the same mandrel and using the same pre-pregs ), it was the only one fitted with a down-locking reel seat. I think this is only sensible on a lot of rods, up-locks can allow the reel to loosen or even fall off, this simply wont happen on a down locker.   The rings are also rather special with a very very smooth and hard insert.  They should last a very very long time. I don't think you can buy them anywhere even now.

One of the major objections to the rods by the firm which originally commissioned the design was that the cost of the fittings I envisioned was too high. One of the reasons I told them to bugger off.

A lot of firms produce rods to a certain price and often use very poor quality stuff to do it.  All my rods were made for optimum performance, regardless of price.

TL
MC

[burnie]

A few years back I bid for a big trout/sea trout rod at an auction in Montrose,when it got to my self imposed limit I let it go and have since regretted it. It was about 11 foot with a detatchable butt extension to make it a double hander for spey/roll casting,never seen one like it since,would have been ideal for lochs as well as small rivers like the two Esks I fish.

[13Fisher1]

Hi Mike,
Yes Mike as per my email I received your rod yesterday via DHL, it's a great looking rod, really
impressed with quality of fittings and appearance. Cannot wait to give
it an outing as I'm sure that it performs as well as it looks and feels.
Thank you for the line also, you are so very kind and I appreciate your
generosity. I f ever I can return your kindness I will be only to glad
to do so.

I will of course make a donation to the forum as you suggested.

Thank you sincerely once again,
Colin

Mike, Planning to "christen" the beautiful rod this season, assuming fish comply!

Didn't get too much time on the water with it last year for various reason but definitely will this season. Particularly now that I have started to gain at least some of the basics of Spey cast thanks to Jim, Malcolm and others giving me their time at the GCC.


Thank you again for our kindness and generosity   

[Traditionalist]

My pleasure. Hope you enjoy it and get some good fish on it.  Did any of the guys try it with that line?  Just interested in what people thought. A lot of trout lines wont work well on salmon rods.