I'll be going salmon fishing in early summer in the west country and am putting together a cheapish set-up. Was wondering if anyone could give some advice on an all round length of rod and line weight? I was thinking 13 foot and line weight 8/9 or am I way off? Have not fished for salmon before...
Will probably get something from Glasgow angling as they have some good deals on salmon rods at the mo.
any advice gratefully received
Alex

Hi alex.
Now thats a huuuuuuggggeeeeee question
No worries but more info will give better answers from the far more informed members on the forum than me
Your first salmon setups a big step and a relatively expensive one....... particularly if you make mistakes like i did....... more than once!!!!!!
heres my input
1) casting lesson from a qualified instructor
2) casting lesson from a qualified instructor........ and so on!!!!
pick his / her brains about options for your destinations and try before you buy.
You need a line to cover many eventualities and personally i cant see past shooting heads for this.
for something to wet your appetite, gac are selling guideline power taper distance heads for £25 a pop, which is a steal!!! but youl need to add some poly leaders to this.
And garry evans are doing a free scierra mwf v2 shooting head system (running line, 3 bodies and 3 tips) with some of there salmon rods.

tight lines

Rod

See if you can pick up a cheap Daiwa Wilderness XT 13'. You won't be disappointed with it. I found it so good last season that come the back end I carried on using it with sink tips and large copper tubes on a 10/11 AFS line which it handled with easy.

My only gripe with this rod was I thought the handle was a little too short for my liking, but if it's your first salmon rod, you wouldn't know.

I agree fully with 'roders' and will add this, if you have never salmon fished you may find a 13' 8/9 a bit much to wield. My first 2 hand rod was 13', however I had fished for several decades using 9, 9'6" & 10' single hand rods and made the transition from single hand Spey style to 2 hand casting with relative ease.

If you were to settle on the 13' rod then find someone to introduce you with the casting. I have put my rod into the hands of men who never held one and had them doing a basic snap T cast within 5 minuets. I haven't a clue how long it would take had I not been there to instruct.

Ard

The current vogue is for switch rods using shooting head setups with Scandinavian or Skagit heads. Much easier to cast and you could single hand cast at a pinch.
A 11 to 11'6" 6-8 switch with running line compact skagit/Scandi head, poly leaders or t14 10' tips will be a nice setup comfortable to cast all day.
Beulah Snowbee alll do reasonable switch rods though I'm sure you could find something cheaper on the bay.
Skagit heads are much thicker so you may need a slightly bigger reel despite their short length.
S

Do you intend to salmon fish after your trip or is it just a one off, or does it depend on whether you are hooked?
If you intend to salmon fish again learn to Spey cast properly with a long bellied line, and learn to cast off both shoulders. Forget about snap Ts or Snap Cs, Skagit lines and shooting heads it’s like learning to drive in an automatic, yes you learn quickly but you are very restricted afterwards. (It is easier to teach as well.)

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Malcolm
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Quot homines tot sententiae

I don't think casting a shooting head setup with Scandi or Skagit heads is necessarily a poor man's or dumbed down spey casting. There are many thousands of Scandinavian or US Skagit fishermen (and worldwide) who successfully use these methods and also in preference to casting long bellied lines on 15' rods.
Sure it's beautful to see an accomplished caster picking up 75' or more of line and casting prodigious distances or complex casts, but is it really reasonable to expect someone new to DH to be able to reach this level without a lot of time invested in practice, lessons and/or coaching?
You are still using all the usual single, double and other spey casts, with slight modifications for the bottom hand and the short head, and the short outfits are much easier to handle over a long period as the whole switch outfit probably weighs as much as a a 15' spey rod.
For small to medium sized rivers like those West country ones, it's probably a better option, and certainly doesn't preclude you from later picking up a 15' long bellied outfit should you want to go in that direction, having found a switch/skagit/scandi too easy .

I have searched my post and cannot see where I said using a Skagit line or a shooting head was dumbed down Speycasting. Both Skagit lines and shooting head lines are short, fat and heavy, casting is easy but any sort of presentation is much more difficult. As I said earlier if it is a one off trip use all the short cuts but if you which to learn to cast properly start with a traditional method. Salmon are wild creatures, most of the time I would ban chest waders, definitely “Snap T or C” casters and probably Skagit lines there is a lot more to salmon fishing than landing your fly on the far bank.

It appears salmon fishing is going like everything else in life, do not bother to learn the basics just alter the equipment to suit poor style. When I learnt to ski, I was taught by Karl Fuchs who also incidentally taught Martin Bell in those days skis were long and you skied with your knees and ankles together now skis are short and fat and you are taught to have a wide stance. Motor cars, I passed my bus driving test in a bus with no synchromesh, you needed to double de-clutch. Powerful sports cars were mainly rear wheel drive and to drive them fast some car control was required now cars are four wheel drive computer operated and anyone can drive quickly. It might be progress but it has little or no style. Rant over.

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Malcolm
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Quot homines tot sententiae

Alex,

Much depends on the river. I spend hundreds of hours every year fishing for salmon and seatrout. On my local small river where a 50ft cast is a long one I fish with a single handed rod as it is the best option for casting from awkward places into awkward places.

Malcolm

You statement that Skagit/Scandi is like driving an automatic car, easy but restrictive in capability (to me) implies that you mean that it an easy way in.
If you do not imply that, then my apologies.
Both Skagit and Scandi use shorter heads (especially so for switch rods), however Scandi uses a very long leader (some 2.65 times the rod length I believe), incorporating a poly leader 10' to 14' depending on the rod length, plus tippet and it is my understanding that the Scandi cast is basically a single spey with the anchor using the leader only with the bottom hand dominant, meaning the disturbance is minimal. Skagit has more disturbance, as it is a modified double spey with a very thick line, but they are very useful in casting very heavy tips or large flies or being very close to a bankside, which a classic setup will have more trouble with.
Snap T/Z or C Spey casts are as I understand, casts to setup other casts such as a Skagit double spey, but ae not casts in themselves.
Things, methods, techniques, equipment change and evolve, and Scandi/Skagit are just different developments of Spey casting to cater for certain circumstances, so are not just a way to avoid learning the basics. As much practice and technique are required to master them as traditional spey with long bellied lines.