Scanny
New member
I have just got back from my second afternoon practising with the 12ft Dtx and my first impressions are very favourable. I tried the rod in December and it felt nice and cast well, but a few months on and with my casting freeing up it feels a different rod.
Teamed up with a Rio Afs S1 in 8/9 and a 5ft fast sink polly, a selection of flies from brass bottles, big baboons and smaller flies, it cast admirably.
Balance wise i tried it with the Hardy Uniqua no 3 (WF8+100yards) and it balanced at the top of the handle then again with the No4 (Wf10+250yards), and the extra weight balanced it a third of the way down the handle but also during casting helped encourage more lower hand movement so it is the reel of choice on it.
The loading of the rod is similar to the 14ft again with it reacting better to very little power being put into the stroke and putting out casts which in my novice hands, are just as far as the 14 does. If you do go for any power then i found it consistently casts 6ft less than if you relaxed and allowed it to do the work itself. Equally using a top or bottom hand bias, its turns the line with ease.
The result is superb, it kicks im sure there is more power in the blank to be accessed with accentuated rotation which i haven't yet mastered. In experienced hands it would cast significantly further. Im sure going heavy with s4/5 heads would not be a problem for the rod neither would playing a large fish with the residual stiffness in the but and 2nd section.
It covers the water i can with my 14 but after a few hours you don't feel as if you have been casting, its almost akin to using a single hander such is its weight and effort required. I never thought i could get so much distance from a short rod, i initially thought i would only use on the Ayrshire spate rivers. The 14 is a superb rod itself but the 12 is even better and probably going to see the bulk of my fishing for the rest of the year. I look forward to trying a Snowbee 1D and Mr MacKenzie's 8/9 line when it arrives in May.
Teamed up with a Rio Afs S1 in 8/9 and a 5ft fast sink polly, a selection of flies from brass bottles, big baboons and smaller flies, it cast admirably.
Balance wise i tried it with the Hardy Uniqua no 3 (WF8+100yards) and it balanced at the top of the handle then again with the No4 (Wf10+250yards), and the extra weight balanced it a third of the way down the handle but also during casting helped encourage more lower hand movement so it is the reel of choice on it.
The loading of the rod is similar to the 14ft again with it reacting better to very little power being put into the stroke and putting out casts which in my novice hands, are just as far as the 14 does. If you do go for any power then i found it consistently casts 6ft less than if you relaxed and allowed it to do the work itself. Equally using a top or bottom hand bias, its turns the line with ease.
The result is superb, it kicks im sure there is more power in the blank to be accessed with accentuated rotation which i haven't yet mastered. In experienced hands it would cast significantly further. Im sure going heavy with s4/5 heads would not be a problem for the rod neither would playing a large fish with the residual stiffness in the but and 2nd section.
It covers the water i can with my 14 but after a few hours you don't feel as if you have been casting, its almost akin to using a single hander such is its weight and effort required. I never thought i could get so much distance from a short rod, i initially thought i would only use on the Ayrshire spate rivers. The 14 is a superb rod itself but the 12 is even better and probably going to see the bulk of my fishing for the rest of the year. I look forward to trying a Snowbee 1D and Mr MacKenzie's 8/9 line when it arrives in May.
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. Try the Rio AFS 7/8 with 30gr or a Vision ACE with 29gr. That should fit the rod much better 
