Hi all, I'm after a 13' rod for fishing spate rivers on the west coast of Ireland to replace my "too soft" Orvis. I wish I could say that the Visions, Loomises, Sages and Guidelines were within my price range but ... they're not. I only get "home" to Ireland a couple of times a year (I live in France) so sadly I dont get fishing as often as I'd like. So, I'm thinking a budget of about £200. Again, I cant get to try any rods here so any advice would be most welcome.
At the minute the Diawa Wilderness 13' looks good, but I have also thought about the Redington Redfly 2, or Greys GRXi+. I really dont like a soft rod (my trout rod is a Sage XP) soooo - does anyone have any suggestions?, or experience with any of these ones?

Thanks in advance

Haven't done any salmon fishing for a long longgggg time, but it may pay to have a look at the Airflo delta classic salmon rods.

Voted best budget rod over the last few years from memory.

Best regards
Jim

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Tanta Stultitia Mortalium Est

There's a very nice Winston LT 14' 9/10 going in the Monnow Annual Auction in the Rivers sub-forum which is a faster/more powerful rod than the others in this range.
It's an older rod, but gently used and a very nice rod!

Would also recommend going down the route of a gently used second hand rod, you could also try getting in touch with some of the tackle dealers and see whats available on their end of line/last season stock, I got a new 3 piece 13' Guideline Lpxe for £175 when they changing over to the 4 piece model just by ringing around. I use it on a lot of rivers from the Suir to the Moy in Summer and find that it works nicely with both shooting heads and Spey lines. But every one is different so would recommend that you try and get a cast with a selection before you buy

thanks for the replies

I'm looking at the Airflo Airtec Nano range too, and Deise, if I could find that Guideline I'd snap it up! Its just impossible for me to try any rods here prior to buying.

Steve, that Winston looks beautiful ... again I cant find any info on whether its would to be too soft for my liking.

the agony of choice

I notice that the Guideline LPXE is starting to appear with big discounts now (e.g Guideline Fly Rods Recommended By Our Instructors | LXPe | fly Fishing Rods) so they must be coming out with a new range. They aren't all discounting them yet but once one starts...

I lost out last time though. I had a major project on and by the time I resurfaced the sale had been and gone - at least for the rod I wanted - the 12ft6 7/8.

The Snowbee Diamonds are very under-rated, but they are excellent bits of kit.

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they had a hardy demon 13ft in the shop couple of weeks ago for £150 with out tube and rod bag ood buy at that price i treat myself to the 14ft