Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Norrie

Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« on: 16/04/2016 at 11:41 »
Hi
Started fishing on the don upstream of kemnay bridge this season ,
Enjoy fishing on single handed rod but looking to get double hand set up for salmon.
budget about £500 sold my canoe ,prefer fishing than paddling .
Not sure what to buy as don't want to get it wrong
Options  13 or 14 ft ? Or ?
Mackenzie DTX  ex demo last years 13 ft #8/9 looks good value about £350 not seen as online
Mackenzie DTX  perflex  13 ft #8 or 14 ft #9 £310 nice rods seems great quality .
Greys XF2 T 2015, model 14ft #9 £190 not seen one ,as online .
Then say vision deep fly reel and fly line either running litre and heads ,traditional Spey  or ?
Any advice. Or ideas ?
Plenty of secondhand options 

Thanks Norrie



Mike Barrio

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #1 on: 16/04/2016 at 11:46 »
Hi Norrie,

Welcome to the forum :z16 ......... I'll leave it to the double handed gurus to give you some feedback on that :cool:

Best wishes
Mike

Norrie

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #2 on: 16/04/2016 at 12:08 »
Thank Mike I am sure once the double handed  gurus stop fishing and get the snow off their boots
I will get some advice
Cheers norrie.   :z18

Eddie Sinclair

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #3 on: 16/04/2016 at 13:54 »
Norrie,

I do a lot of double handed stuff when I am at home, I do not know where you fish but I have  a DTX 14 ft 8/9 and unless you are fishing heavy tubes in the spring this is all the rod you will ever need. I use the bigger DTX in the spring as the line on the wee one struggles a little with the heavier big tubes. It casts extremely well with either an AFS or one of Mikes short head lines which I tried with Ben Dickson on a testing day and they handle big fish with ease, for an all round rod from April onwards you will not go too far wrong with the DTX. It is all I have used for the past 4 years, and before anyone else jumps in with comments on my age I have been at this for a while now and have used many different rods over the years.

Eddie.

Mike Thornton

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #4 on: 16/04/2016 at 14:40 »
Different people have different preferences when it comes to DH fly rods.  I found the DTX Perflex to be not too user friendly, and you will need to get your timing just right. 
   Uttings have an excellent offer on both the 13 foot and 15 foot Vision Atom rods at the moment at £89 each.  Normal rrp was around £220.   I have found these to be very versatile rods and you can see a review of these Vision and DTX rods, on line , via the May issue of the 2013 Trout and Salmon.  The Vision 15' gets an excellent rating.
   Hope this may help.

Eddie Sinclair

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #5 on: 16/04/2016 at 15:09 »
Norrie,

redfish is right that rods are very much a personal preference depending on your own casting style and that you should probably try before you buy, I was not discussing the perflex but the DTX but again this is a rod that needs to be cast a certain way to get the best out of it and it does suit the way that I cast and fish but it might not be the answer for everyone.

Also look at the Shakespeare oracle which are not expensive, I was home in March and fishing on the Dee and one of the guys had one of these with him and it was a lot of rod for the money.

Take your time and try a good number of different rods and find something that you are happy with before you part with your money so that you have something that you are happy with and you can just concentrate on having fun and fishing.

Eddie.

Colin Sunley

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #6 on: 16/04/2016 at 19:09 »
I would go along with everything said so far. I have a shaky oracle cracking rod for the money I paid,  but are very hard to come by now, not sure how the new ones fare.
13ft /14ft is all you need for the don , buy cheep if you can and try other rods from the bank to see what you like.
Guideline rods are another good rod .
that vison deal looks good to me
Colin

Norrie

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #7 on: 16/04/2016 at 20:28 »
Appreciate all the advice will get a  13 or 14 ft rod  and if you see my white 90 Landy  with black roof  ,at side of the road
Please come over and give me some advice ,
Watch out for fast moving low flying hooks .
Thanks  Norrie

Hamish Young

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #8 on: 16/04/2016 at 20:52 »
The original DTX or maybe a G2 Mackenzie (you might pick one of those up for the mid-£300 bracket second-hand) would be my choice without question, lots of other nice rods out there but I can't see past Mackenzie rods, for me they feel just right.
The question of reels brings out something of the tackle tart in me, nowt wrong with the one you've mentioned but a reel is more than just a line holder and from Vision I'd buy a Tank..... ask Euan... he did. Twice.
Lines - to be honest the Barrio ISS is my 'go to' line these days but I also have a multitude of full lines, shooting heads and Skagits from Rio, SA, Mackenzie and Airflo plus many others. Each have their place in my armoury, so I guess the question is which line is likely to be the easiest to use where you're going to be fishing :? Chances are the shooting heads will be as would the ISS.
Happy to discuss this for hours.....  :z18

H

Rob Brownfield

Re: Hi newbie looking for tackle advice
« Reply #9 on: 18/04/2016 at 08:08 »
I fish mostly just down stream of the bridge and for early season I use a 14ft 9 weight Loop LTS Scandi rod and as soon as the water drops I use a 12' 6" Guideline 8 weight Scandi. Both more than cover the river here and further downstream.

In the summer I use an 11 foot Helios 7 weight switch.

Early season I use MacKenzie shooting heads, then onto Rio AFS when fishing flies as opposed to tubes.

For the Switch I use one of Mikes Switch lines.

Biggest bit of advice I can give is see if you can try a few rods first. My first DH rod I could not  get on with at all. I then tried a few different rods when talking to folk on the river and I found the action I liked, and then had to find a rod in a price range with the same action.

 




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