b/w norway 16ft

[jimac]

hi guys
if the wifes not listening i am thinking of spending some money, on a new rod.
i am looking for a 16ft and wanted to know if anybody out there has a bruce and walker norway speycaster,
ive had a throw with the 15ft and quite liked it, it is a stiff rod "which i like "as mostly all of my salmon fishing is done with sunk lines.
so any one out there with a b/w 16ft norway would like to here your comments,
cheers jim

[tyke]

jimac,
I've used the 16ft Norway forseveral years as have several of my pals, we all rate it very highly, so much so that I & one of the more enthusiastic have since bought the new aftm 11/12 versions as well for heavy sunk line work. I would point out that the claimed rating for the standard rod of aftm 9/10 is too light - this works better with a 10/11 rated spey profile & most of our gang use the [sadly discontinued] Rio Accelerator 10/11 -both floating & [fast] intermediate + the multi-tip versions. Sad individual that I am I've got all of these variations + 30 ft shooting heads to replace the 2 front sections to get down a bit more with the multi- tip & the rod will handle them all. Another pal uses the SA Mastery Spey floater 10/11 which I think has a head length of about 75 ft & this works very well as do the old Lee Wulfe Triangle Taper 80 ft heads. It will also chuck a Michael Evans Spey line [any sink rate] with a 10 ft Poly tip - without the poly tip these are a bit short in the head length, particulaly the sinkers as they get sorter as the density increases & were designed for use with a 15ft rod anyway, but this can be handy if you are wading deep as this reduces the size of your 'D' loop & therefore reduces the chance of you failing to anchor the fly/leader properly before you 'give it some welly' and possibly crack off some exorbitantly expensive Scandinavian Pot bellied, Turbo disced, bottle tubed [ 'that will be £ 20 for the set of 6 sir' !!!!!] this month's must-have fly.
Should you consider the 11/12 version - it really does need a substantial line - I bout 2 of the Partridge Ian Gordan 75 ft head spey lines & [2" & 4" per second] & they are far too light for it [ I think the 2" p s one is a 'Wrong 'un' because it just doesn't turn over correctly - the font taper seems to be wrong & the whole line is far too light, however the heavier one is correctly tapered & fishes well - but only loades the 9/10 rated rod correctly & only with the full head [minus a couple of feet of the back taper to avoid cracking the running line] out beyond the tip ring, it will not adequately load the 11/12 rated rod. However the Daiwa Loch Mor Spey line in aftm 11 rating works fine on the big beastie in all sink rates - these have a 68 ft head so they are fine in floaters with a poly-tip but sufficiently long as sinkers that if you don't want to use a poly-tip then you don't need to. I have found that the 11/12 version works well with a 10/11 rated Rio Grand Spey as well, but requires a fair bit of 'Driver in-put' & is a bit tiring to use for long periods [ but I'm not as young as I was, big 'young-uns'will no doubt happily swing this combination all day, but I'd be swapping for a more easily handled line after 2 to 3 hours - hey It is supposed to be fun !!].
To fish with the rod is responsive, recovers quickly [but not ridiculously so] & has plenty low down to apply pressure if a good fish is trying to go where you cannot follow. My only reservations are that the tips are quite powerful & may pull a light hook hold if you were on 14s or mini tubes & size 16 trebles in low water - but in honesty you be fishing these on lighter lines any way with a correspondingly less powerful rod; certainly Back- end fishing witha size 6 treble or double I never feel worried with either version & I had a 22lb+ cock fish in a high flow on a pretty fast bit of water on the Tweed last year on the 11/ 12 version & was glad of the extra power as I was solo [typically my pal strolled down from the pool above as I was unhooking it just in time to diminish my sense of achievement by saying '' that's an ugly old sod, he's been in a while''] & to bring the fish to within range took a lot of effort in that flow - a lighter rod may have struggled or even broken & no there wasn't an easier spot nearby, trees prevented me moving upstream & downstream was a fast tail & run out down to the pool below so it was a case of stand your ground & fight.
Hope you will excuse the rambling reply, but in short - yes they are very good, the 9/10 is far more versitile & will handle most situations providing you match it with a 10/11 line, where as I feel that the 11/12 is pretty much a dedicated sunk line rod for high water conditions at which it really excells.
Hope this helps, no doubt others may have a very different opinion.

Tight lines, Jon.