Spey/switch rod purchasing

Evac101

After spending an afternoon with Glenda Powell on the Blackwater last Sunday (fantastic fun, can't recommend it enough), my wife is interested in continuing spey casting going forward as she's found it to be less tiring than one-handed fishing and is a much bigger fan of salmon than trout in any case. I know that you can apply spey fishing techniques to single handed rods to a certain extent but equally, I'll never try to turn her away from a path that leads to us spending more time out fishing together. I'm thinking in the 12-13' 6-8 weight range for her but beyond that I'm not knowledgeable enough to feel like I have an informed opinion. So, my question is, what's a reasonably cheap (sub €200), switch or spey rod I could pick up for her?

OwlEye

Evac101 wrote: »

After spending an afternoon with Glenda Powell on the Blackwater last Sunday (fantastic fun, can't recommend it enough), my wife is interested in continuing spey casting going forward as she's found it to be less tiring than one-handed fishing and is a much bigger fan of salmon than trout in any case. I know that you can apply spey fishing techniques to single handed rods to a certain extent but equally, I'll never try to turn her away from a path that leads to us spending more time out fishing together. I'm thinking in the 12-13' 6-8 weight range for her but beyond that I'm not knowledgeable enough to feel like I have an informed opinion. So, my question is, what's a reasonably cheap (sub €200), switch or spey rod I could pick up for her?

Shakespeare Oracle Spey rods have good reviews as a budget beginners rod

Zzippy

Do you need something that long? An 11' switch rod is nice and light to fish with but still allows you to cover all but the biggest rivers here.
The Guideline switch is a fantastic rod but (shhh) I've heard that the Airflo switch is the same blank for half the price

coolwings

Length of rod for spey casting is dependent mostly upon water size, distance from the bank (can you wade or not to get outside bankside vegetation), and if eg rocky pools have "a spinal "fast flow through the slower water can you get close to it to reach and lift a high rod over the torrent-stream or not. The long casts being better if the pool flow graduates smoothly from one side towards the middle, and short lining being good when fast water passes through still water either side of it.

Are you planning to mainly fish the Blackwater or other type rivers?

On a middle size river like the Slaney I'd use 15' in spring, 12-13' in late spring, and 10 1/2 in summer (provided I would be wading to get away from veg). Smaller and lighter is nice, but you require "water command". In general the shorter the rod and the faster the action the more overhead casting you'll do with it.

Evac101

I'm unsure just how much Salmon fishing we'll end up doing to be honest but we're out and about in areas not conducive to overhead casting and subject to blustery winds, quite a bit and, while I can probably horse out a #8 on a 10' in those conditions, my wife finds it very tiring/sore to do so, this would give her a second string in that regard. Mainly though, she really seems to enjoy to the technique itself, the same sort of fascination that's resulted in me tying hundreds of nymphs over the last few years, so I'll do my best to indulge it