Hello,
I'm looking at building a spey rod for some beach and river fishing in BC. At this time I'm planning on targeting chum salmon 10-20lbs, pink and coho salmon 4-12lbs (wishful thinking!) and maybe some steelhead. Casting will be from ocean beaches and stream/river banks.

I think I've found a few options that look to be a good fit for my purposes. The first is a Loop Blue 12'6" 8wt rod. Next is a RB Meiser Clearwater 12'6" 7/8wt spey rod. The Loop is from a local shop though, while I'd have to order in the Meiser. The cost is about the same, around $180cdn.

If anyone has any info or opinions on these rods or other options, I'd love to hear it.
thanks

Bob Meiser has spent a great deal of time (many years) developing and refining spey and switch blanks and rods. For me, it would be a simple and comfortable choice to go with Bob's offering.

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New Rainshadow® RX7 Spey Rod blanks

Sequim, WA - July 11th, 2007 – One Of The Fishing Industry’s Leading Blank Supplier’s Batson Enterprises is pleased to announce a new series of Rainshadow Spey Rod blanks.

Batson Product Manager Mike Thorson: “We are very fortunate to have an in house design team that has over 75 years of experience designing blanks. We felt there was a need for a high quality yet affordable series of Traditional spey rod blanks in the market place. These new Rainshadow designs offer a traditional spey action vs. the Euro actions that our Forecast spey blanks offer. We worked closely with industry experts on the design and actions of these new models and feel you will be impressed with the results. They are frankly a steal at the prices we are offering them at.”

In the chart below are the new models we will be offering. Please visit our website or contact us for further details

Model Color Length Pcs. Line Wt. Butt Dia Tip size Action Blank Wt. MSRP
IF1266-4 M 12’6” 4 6wt. spey .467 4.5 Trad. Spey 4.13 $126.82
IF1307-4 M 13’0” 4 7wt. spey .495 5 Trad. Spey 4.33 $152.71
IF1368-4 M 13’6” 4 8wt. spey .512 6 Trad. Spey 5.08 $157.24
IF1409-4 M 14’0” 4 9wt. spey .585 5.5 Trad. Spey 6.03 $166.29

Douglas,
Bob Meiser gave a short, positive review of the Rainshadow blanks a page or two back in the posts.

Douglas...

Based on the fishing conditions you will encounter and the vast-range in fish weight, I would opt for nothing less than the IF1368-4 M 13’6” 4 8wt. spey .512 6 Trad. Spey 5.08 $157.24 IMHO. I think that 20# Chums will smoke you on anything less than this rod as Steelies will do the same as I'm sure you know.

Paul