Rio UniSpey 10/11 Review

During the Deveron Fishing Festival I was fishing the Eden beat which was hosted by GuideFlyFishing. Their representatives were Willie Banks and Jim Fearn. After lunch that day I spent a couple of hours with them just casting some lines. Jim Fearn had a Vision GT4 Catapult set up with a 64ft Rio UniSpey line. He gave me a cast with it as I have a Vision GT4 Catapult and I was very impressed. So impressed I bought the line this week! I managed to get a good deal from an add on the Salmon Fishing Forum classified section. The line arrived yesterday and I spooled it up onto my Hardy Swift MKII. All I needed to do now was go fishing.

Today I tried out the line. It took me an hour or two to get the hang of it but once I discovered the optimum loading point of the line it flew out like a rocket! I spent all day casting with it and getting used to the longer head. The line is White in colour with a 15ft Black loading point. The overall line length is 130ft and has a weight of 750gr(64gm). It has has a long front taper and when I attached a 5ft fast sinking tip it made it even better. The line gripped the surface of the water a bit better and help load the rod. I tried all sink rates of tips and weighted flies. It turned over them all with ease. To me, it's just like a 64ft shooting head without the hastle of having loops of running line strewn over the banks or knotting up in your forward stroke.

Overall impression is this is a fantastic casting line. The black coloured loading point of the line helps to find where it loads your rod to maximise casting potential. I'm glad I have this line in my armoury and it will be very useful on bigger river such as the Dee and Spey where a longer cast can make all the difference.

Deveron Fishing Festival 2012 Open Day

I headed up to the Turriff Angling Association water to attend the Deveron Fishing Festival Open Day. There was a very good turn out to watch demonstrations from some of the best casters in the business. Stalls run by Turriff Tackle and Glasgow Angling Centre to buy any lines or tackle tried out on the day. Brands such as Hardy, Vision, G Loomis and Mackenzie were all on hand to offer casting of the latest rods and lines etc. I will be fishing the 3 free days starting tomorrow and with the water looking perfect there was a few confident ghillies saying there will be fish caught so here hoping. Here are some pictures from todays event.

The impressive line up of casting demonstrations for the day.

Guide Flyfishing's team. Willie Banks (left) and Jim Fearn (right). Two top blokes who are always willing to help out with casting instruction which I like to take full advantage of! As my main fishing rod is a 15ft Vision GT4 Catapult im always interested in what lines go best and if any new ones are worth getting so I had a wee go with the Vision ACE shooting head Float/Sink2 and a 5ips tip attached. I must say it was a dream to cast. You wouldn't even know it was a heavy sink tip on the end. Very easy work with.

Blair Banks of G Loomis is a River Spey ghillie on the Brae Water Beat 5. I had a short casting lesson from Blair with a 15ft G Loomis NRX matched up with a 55ft prototype G Loomis Spey line. After finding a wee fault in my action Blair corrected me and I was soon getting a nice line out with ease. Once I get used to the alteration in my casting it should pay dividends.

Scott Mackenzie with my fellow Aberdeen District Angling Association member Tony Wolk. Myself and Tony spent a good few hours milling around the rods trying them all out. We were both very impressed with the Mackenzie shooting head rods. Especially the 14ft version. What a casting tool! Scott was only too happy to share his knowledge of his rods and he gave us a few pointers on our casting too.

Andy Murray of G Loomis and River Tweed ghillie giving his demonstration this morning. I enjoyed watching him cast as he mad it look so effortless. As all the caster did.

The trade stand in the tent on the banks of the river. I took this picture about 4pm when I think most of the stalls had packed up! Should have taken one sooner. Never mind at least it shows where the stalls had been.

We missed Eion Fairgrieve's demonstration as we were playing about with Scott Mackenzie's stuff but we did get a cast with the new Hardy Zenith Sintrix rod. We used the 14' 6" 9 weight rod matched up with a Hardy Mach 55 spey line. What a combo! Out of all the rods we tried today this was up there. Way out of my price range but a dream to cast. Even into a strong wind. I would not say no to any of the rods we tried out today though. They were all pretty special but will have say the Vison Catapult will do me just fine.