Gaelforce rods have lovely deep bend when playing fish ,the 15ft 8/9 would suit your needs ,don't be fooled with the 8/9 rating ,gf website details what lines go well on the rod
But to be honest a shorter rod would be my choice , again the 4 pc gaelforce in any size

 

I’ve heard good reports about Gaelforce rods. One of my friends swears by them. I have never personally used one, but next time I fish with him, I will have a few casts to make a comparison.

 

Wow! From a Canadian perspective those rods are gross overkill for grilse. Horses for courses (of course) but from a Canadian perspective the best grilse rod is a 9 foot 7 wt. single hander and modern 7 wts can easily handle fresh salmon well into double digit weights.

 

Fair comment, but the East Ranga is a fairly big river and has its fair share of 15-20+ lb fish.
You may see a comment earlier by me taking 40 minutes to land a 14 pounder in Russia on a single handed rod resulting in a completely knackered arm !

 

A long rod, okay and very nice to use. I have fished the CND 15'2 Solstice 8/9 for a long time there and elsewhere. These days I even do fish lighter and this year I mostly used a RJC Switch 11'9 in 7/8. It performed extremely well but if there is heavy wind, as often is, and 8/9 would be better. But a 10/11 is something for Norway or early spring fishing and imho far too heavy for Iceland. A god bet in between would be a 13'6 8/9, probaby 6 pcs as RJC and CND do.
Last time I was on Ranga was 4 or 5 years ago, in early July, and there I used a Loop 13'2 8/9 which was perfect to fish with and to land a fish of about 8 kilos.
Icelander05

 

A long rod, okay and very nice to use. I have fished the CND 15'2 Solstice 8/9 for a long time there and elsewhere. These days I even do fish lighter and this year I mostly used a RJC Switch 11'9 in 7/8. It performed extremely well but if there is heavy wind, as often is, and 8/9 would be better. But a 10/11 is something for Norway or early spring fishing and imho far too heavy for Iceland. A god bet in between would be a 13'6 8/9, probaby 6 pcs as RJC and CND do.
Last time I was on Ranga was 4 or 5 years ago, in early July, and there I used a Loop 13'2 8/9 which was perfect to fish with and to land a fish of about 8 kilos.
Icelander05

Thanks for the input- all interesting info coming in.

 

Interesting discussion and thanks for your input.
The East Ranga is quite a wide river by Iceland standards so the choice of a 15’ rod was for practical reasons to cast the line as far as possible.

 

The fish aren't always on the other side

 

That depends which side you happen to be on

 

RJC 13'11" 6 piece 7/8
Still reach the other side.

 

We were there at the same time and our ratio was rather better than that. Could a reason have been that our guide had us rigging his subtle little 4 inch long (the dressing not the tube!) magenta Prom Dress flies with the hook right at the end of the dressing? he told us to do this because the running fish, which they pretty much all were, tend to nip. The free swinging hook was attached to a biggish loop, the knot of which jammed up against the tube. We used similar big flies like this or German Friggis in dirty water - which it was most of the time. In terms of numbers we both hooked about the same as you but landed rather more. I actually fished the whole time with a 12' 6" 8 weight but I don't think that this made much difference - except making the longest casts a bit more hard work.

 

Very interesting- good point about the hook position- was that a single hook and what size- 10 ?

 

My experience of Norwich rods is that they are quite soft? Is that not the case?

 

I’ve got a Loomis greased line #8 which sound like a nice rod for the job. It’s pretty light and doesn’t feel like a 15’ rod. I use it occasionally on the Upper Tweed. Very pleasant to use.

 

Sounds good. How reliable is it with the grilse ?
One of the Dee ghillies on Inchmarlo watched me hook, play and lose two fresh run grilse on the trot and opined my David Norwich rod was too stiff for grilse.

 

While an overly stiff, or even too heavy an actioned rod might well be a good indicator towards fish loss's, personally I'd also give thought to the hook and even fly set up being used too.
Having the option to swap n change hook types and styles can't be a bad thing!., then as indicated, there's where the hooks sits in the flee!. All worth thinking about.
Pedro.

 

The more I am reading this post, the more I realise the importance of hooks. Interesting to see the use of single hook and it certainly makes sense if they can articulate freely. Something I have never tried before.The ghillies here in Scotland and guides in Russia and Iceland tend to be traditional- ie doubles and trebles. Thanks for making me re-think.

 

Not quite 15ft, but the LTS Across Light 14’6” #7-9 might be worth considering

 

Aga, sounds a very suitable rod. With so many suggestions it will be difficult to reach a rational decision.

 

I feel your pain. When fishing the Tay during the summer months, I lose a lot of fish using a larger rod. The problem is that you need to cover a lot of water on some beats and really need a powerful cast to reach all the taking spots, even with deep wading. If you factor in a good gust of wind, then a longer, powerful rod seems like the best tool for water coverage, but, as you say, not the best for hanging onto fresh, hard running fish that are nipping at the flies and, not engulfing them.
In that situation a lighter (softer rod) set up may help in hanging on to the fish but may sacrifice some water coverage, dependant on the conditions on any given day. I am not entirely convinced it makes a massive difference though, as part of the problem will always be that running fish do not necessarily turn on the fly and it is just luck where the hook point tries to take hold in the fishes mouth.
On a day where you maybe hook seven fish and only land one, I am not convinced that a softer rod would massively improve the conversion rate.

 

I guess there’s no perfect rod for every situation. One of the fish I lost this year was a big brute which behaved itself for the first 5 minutes, then decided to head towards deeper water. I was on near max drag but there was no way I could control that particular fish. It swam against a large rock, leaving the Red Frances attached to the rod, and swam away !
A few years ago on the Kola ( the River Zolatoya) I was using an 11’ single hander 7 at and hooked a liced 14 pounder using the hitch. I landed it but it took the best part of 40 minutes and my arm took 24 hours to recover.
On the Gaula the Scandis can cast tremendous distances using much shorter rods than 15’ and the underhand technique- very impressive. But the average weight of Gaula salmon is 18 lbs so I guess they have to be fairly powerful rods.
The subject of using an articulated single hook has certainly caught my attention and I’m going to use that technique next year in Iceland.

 

Yes- I think the ghillie on Little Blackhall & Inchmarlo uses them- very light and easy to use.

 

Thank you very much for your lengthy and interesting comments.
The 11’ rod I used in Russia, in hindsight, was not fit for purpose- it’s really a trout/sea-trout rod and I only used it because I was told a 15’ rod was way too big for the Zolotoya.

 

Very interesting fly which looks fairly elementary to tie.
I notice it has an orange conehead and the tube material ?
Last year I was catching salmon with a leader down to less than 10” and it made no difference to hooking fish, so I guess the sink rate of the tip is more important than the weight of the fly.
Thanks for the photos. I’ve fished for salmon since 1966 and never seen a single hook set up like that before and am going to try that method from now on.
My local river ( the Teith) closes at the end of this month, so that should provide enough time to put it to the test.

 

Yes, it’s not a difficult fly to tie. The only thing worth noting is that there is a ‘thorax’ of Fritz or something like that to flare the holo Flashabou and give it a bit more movement. I’m sure this style of fly would be a good option in dirty water anywhere.