Throughout my trip I used a 11'-11" Loomis rod as discussed here: G. Loomis IMX-PRO Short Spey 71111-4 Review | Spey Rod Review I would say it was the perfect set up, to the extent my guide wanted all the details of my rod and line, I was complimented on my casting by quite a few Icelander on how effortless the casting seemed and indeed it was, as a 77 year old I don't have energy to spare so easy casting was a requirement, I could easily cast over 100ft, and putting a little more effort into the final part of the Spey cast even further, but that I found was not necessary, below is an extract for the the above review:
We matched the 71111-4 IMX-PRO Short Spey with a 480 grain Airflo Skagit Scout and admittedly never looked back. This is partly because the rod designer himself, Tom Larimer, recommended it to us as his go-to line (its hard to disagree with the designer), but also because it didn’t take more than a few casts before we doubted there was a better balanced setup.
My guide Kristinn Ingolfsson of: https://anglers.is/luxury-fishing-tours/ was everything a guide should be, attentive without being intrusive changed my fly and took weed off the hood whenever needed, I could not have been better looked after, recommend him without reservation.
The fishing at The West Ranga is very good and lots of fish caught, but the runs are sporadic, but predictable, if in your three hour allocation on the beat a run does not happen then it is rare that you will catch, if however a run does happen during your allocated time then you are almost guaranteed to catch something, beat allocation is by the management who allocate where and when you will fish giving this out to your guide, seemed to me when this was happening the best beats and times where given out to those than had fished at the Lodge before, lots of complaints about the change this year of beat allocation and rotation.
The management IMO consider themselves too important to talk to you, they talked to prior guest at dinner, but seemed to ignore me and other first timers, having said that the bar, dinning and cleaning staff where friendly and attentive the food was excellent, have no complaints about quality or quantity Chef came into the dinning hall every evening to announce what our three course meal would be that day.
Whilst the refurbished lounge, sitting and dining areas are very good the accommodation is nothing short of child dormitory standard, even the WC is child height, only one usable socket in the room and that is under a table, no USB sockets in the room, the two very narrow beds in the room had two bedside cabinets between them, these where wedged into the width of the room, it was impossible to turn over in bed without hitting your head on either the cabinets or the wall the beds where up against, I talked to others about this when asked and they rapidly admitted that the accommodation was not up to the standard of the rest of the Lodge, but only after being promoted on my misgivings, no one disagreed once they had thought about it. Thinking further according to what month you will pay between £100.00 and over £250.00 hour fishing time this makes the accommodation even more below standard.
We matched the 71111-4 IMX-PRO Short Spey with a 480 grain Airflo Skagit Scout and admittedly never looked back. This is partly because the rod designer himself, Tom Larimer, recommended it to us as his go-to line (its hard to disagree with the designer), but also because it didn’t take more than a few casts before we doubted there was a better balanced setup.
My guide Kristinn Ingolfsson of: https://anglers.is/luxury-fishing-tours/ was everything a guide should be, attentive without being intrusive changed my fly and took weed off the hood whenever needed, I could not have been better looked after, recommend him without reservation.
The fishing at The West Ranga is very good and lots of fish caught, but the runs are sporadic, but predictable, if in your three hour allocation on the beat a run does not happen then it is rare that you will catch, if however a run does happen during your allocated time then you are almost guaranteed to catch something, beat allocation is by the management who allocate where and when you will fish giving this out to your guide, seemed to me when this was happening the best beats and times where given out to those than had fished at the Lodge before, lots of complaints about the change this year of beat allocation and rotation.
The management IMO consider themselves too important to talk to you, they talked to prior guest at dinner, but seemed to ignore me and other first timers, having said that the bar, dinning and cleaning staff where friendly and attentive the food was excellent, have no complaints about quality or quantity Chef came into the dinning hall every evening to announce what our three course meal would be that day.
Whilst the refurbished lounge, sitting and dining areas are very good the accommodation is nothing short of child dormitory standard, even the WC is child height, only one usable socket in the room and that is under a table, no USB sockets in the room, the two very narrow beds in the room had two bedside cabinets between them, these where wedged into the width of the room, it was impossible to turn over in bed without hitting your head on either the cabinets or the wall the beds where up against, I talked to others about this when asked and they rapidly admitted that the accommodation was not up to the standard of the rest of the Lodge, but only after being promoted on my misgivings, no one disagreed once they had thought about it. Thinking further according to what month you will pay between £100.00 and over £250.00 hour fishing time this makes the accommodation even more below standard.
