First Thoughts
The 4 piece Wychwood Aura fly rod is well presented in an attractive cordura-covered rod tube and the rod itself is built on attractive metallic olive-green blank with olive-brown wraps. The whippings are well finished with not too much epoxy - something some other manufacturers could take note of.
The rod is fitted with two lined stripping guides on the 2nd section and single-leg snake guides on the next 2 up, with a good quality cork handle with little filler. The reel seat is machined aluminium with a subtle metallic dark grey finish, and has double locking rings for security and a short cork covered extension handle with aluminium end cap.

Performance and Opinion
As I normally fish with 10’ rods both #6 and #8 weights it was nice to try something in-between. I could not have chosen a worse day to try this rod with gusting high winds and rain putting white tops on the waves of my local reservoir, so bad in fact that the boats were unavailable. I took my trusted Scott with me, intending to fish with that 1st then swap to the Aura when conditions improved, but the forecast was bad so I started out straight away with the Aura, and I’m glad I did. With the wind gusting from my right side it was very easy for me to turn around to face the bank and release the line (a borrowed SA XDA WF7) on the back cast. I should say “Launch” the line rather than release it because the Aura is a powerful, fast tip actioned rod well suited to the reservoir angler. Even under those conditions it managed to throw tight loops with ease and my 15’ leader with 2 flies reached a wind lane 25yds+ out from the bank just fine. Hooking and playing fish with the Aura was very easy, no need to worry about playing fish too hard and pulling the hook out or breaking a 6lb tippet unlike some fast actioned rods that seem to be built as mere casting tools. The tip section is nice and forgiving when playing fish, a nice safety factor especially for the competition angler where every fish on the bank or in the boat counts. Having competition fished in boats for a good many years I can see that this rod would be ideal for that purpose and would handle any line from a WF7 Floater through to a Ex Fast Sinker, the power in the butt section would really be an asset when hooking fish on a Di8 at range.

Features
o Fast tip-action taper

o Tip-over ferrules

o Machined aluminium reel seat

o Full Wells handle with fighting butt

o Section labelling and eye-sights

o Two lined stripping guides

o Single-leg snake guides

Guarantee
The company claims to provide a simple and straight forward guarantee for its rods: ”We believe in a fair, unconditional after sales policy.” The warranty, as described on the company’s website, provides for the replacement of any broken sections at a cost of £35 per section, including postage, for the life of the Aura rod range. Replacement sections are available from Wychwood dealers or direct from the company.

Cost
The 10’ #7 4-piece rod, as tested, retails at £139.99 but is currently on special offer at Sportfish for £93.33

Other rods in the range are 9’ #5 or #6 at £119.99; 9’ 6” #7 at £129.99; and 10’ #8 also at £139.99