Hi Phil,
Re the Wychwood Truefly rod..... I didn't spend a lot of time casting it but it's not bad, in fact I think you'd struggle to get anything better for the price of the GAC deal.
The rod is quite heavy for 14' rod but cast well, recovery was good and it has a med / fast action. We used a 9/10 38g AFS head on the rod, this felt light, I think it would benefit from a heavier head, MacKenzie 42g would probably suite very well. The GAC kit came with a Orvis 9/10 Spey line (re-boxed Rio Power Spey) which is really not suited IMO to this rod for a novice wanting to learn to Spey cast and not a great choice for fishing the Don where D loop space can be limited
In answer to your original question, I'd go down the shooting head route. You are moving around less line with a head, moving less line is easier than moving more line around. With Spey lines being back weighted, you really need to have the whole head out to get good load on the rod, with a shooting head this is still only a short ish length and they are better at carrying fishing gear, tips & tubes.
Dan, I still have your line, give me a shout and let me know what you'd like to do.
Cheers
Ben