Hi All,

I'm looking at a 4/5 peice travel rod mainly for fishing in Ireland, (the Moy, Ballisadare and the Easky).

I would ordinarily gone with the Sage FLi 10" for 7-weight but the rod now needs to double up for Argentinian Sea Trout, so I was thinking of the Hardy 11'6" Double Handed #7/8.

A Freind mentioned that the blank is very tippy and when playing fish on a short line or close to th net, this can ping the fly our of a fishes mouth.

Has anyone had any experience of this?

Rgds,
FB

FB, can't comment on the Hardy, but I had a serious play with the new Sage Z-Axis last week. 11' - #7, small double handed handle. An extremely impressive piece of kit - would need to be at £600.

This rod as I see it is really summer rod for river fishing but would double up as a perfect boat rod for salmon / sea trout. The rod had real back bone, I am not the best caster in the world, I felt as if it improved my ability to handle a long line by about 50%.

Any way, I would check one out before I dropped any cash on a Hardy.

CD,

I was lookinf at the Z-axis the other day as it goes but it isn't cheap!! I can't really justify that kind of money on it even with a 30% discount that I can get.

Like you say it is amazing the difference a good rod makes. I fished the moy two weeks ago with my Greys 14' #10/11. I was fishing a floating line with a fast sink poly leader,, and I thought I was doing quite well considering it was blowing a gale. Then my mate lent me his 15' Gem with a sinking line and leader, which ended up throwing a better loop with less effort...

I think this will need a bit more thought on my part.

How did you get on with the spring run? We had one fish of just under 7lbs and a couple of takes on the fly the day before but no more landed.

Rgds,
FB

Kiri, you are right, it is hard to justify the price for the Z-Axis, especially with your impending nupuals, but they are amazing.

I am getting on very well with the 10'#7 FLi.

I haven't fished for Salmon this year at all yet. I am not really into river fishing. I have had six days in the past three weeks for trout at the mayfly, two on lough Erne, one on Mask and three on Corrib. Total disaster. We have not been able to hit the weather right. Spent three days at the end of last week in Galway. The mayfly was almost entirely gone.

Going fly fishing for pollack this weekend.

Ken was sayig that Erne was fishing like crazy, but then the weather changed and the fish went off the boil. 8 rods in a competition there 2 weeks ago had 6 fish (or perhaps the other way around??)

You didn't miss much on the spring run. I was talking to a ghille who has averaged 170 springers upto end of May for the last 3 years. This year they managed 17 upto last weekend. The Moy has dropped off again though but I think it won't be until mid June before the fishing is worthwhile when the Grilse start running.

I'm coming back in September for some Seatrout and back end salmonso hopefully we will fare better.

Some of the southern lochs have been fishing extremely well for the mayfly I hear.

Rgds,
FB

If you like the Sage rod have you considered having one built for you on the blanks? I don't know if the blanks are available yet but with the dollar very weak you might do well with a US rod builder.

I fish mostly in the lochs of the Hebrides, plus the hill loughs in Ireland, and while I have no interest in salmon occasionally, especially in view of the quality of fishing available, I will have a cast for them.

Anyhow, Dave Lewis has, in the past, built 2 rods for me and both of them are works of art plus even after paying the tax and duty I had them in my hand for less than the cost of the Sage here in the UK. In fact the last one he built for me on a Sage blank I got rod, Sage reel, tax, duty, postage and all for slightly less than the rod alone would cost here in the UK. The dollar is a lot less strong now plus I got to pick my exact specification.

http://www.performanceflyrods.com/

I've no connection with Dave other than he takes a pride in his work and I enjoy fishing his rods. Might be worth dropping him a line (excuse the pun) and seeing what he could build for you.

If you are interested Brian let me know and I can meet up with you and show you some of Dave's rods. Not next week though as I'm off to the Hebrides for trout on the loch.

Thanks caorach.

I'll give him a call and see what he says. Ideally I would like a 5 peice 14' but I can't seem to find any apart from the very expensive end of the spectrum. Perhaps he can give me some ideas. Or if not then it would be interesting to see what he can do the Z-axis for.

Thanks again,
FB