[Bart Hilderink]

A few years ago I was given an old Bruce&Walker handbuilt hexagraph carbon rod , its a 10.6 ft, 7 to 9 weight salmon and seatrout rod. A very nice rod and I would like to fish with it too. Usually I fish for seatrout at the Danish eastcoast but for that I think the rod is to heavy so I am wondering if I can use it as a switchrod to fish for salmon in the Danish rivers like Skjern A or Varde A . These are not very big rivers with mostly fishing from the bank and tight casting conditions.
Has anyone ever tried to pare such a rod with a modern speyline ? I allready have a  8/9  weight doublehanded rod and I would like to use a lighter line for summerfishing, I am thinking about a 6 weight Rio scandi short or something similar.

Looking forward for your suggestions

Bart

[Hamish Young]

If you keep it as a single handed rod then pop a SLX on it and you'll likely be fine Bart 
I have done so on a closely related rod (Hexagraph 10'6" #7 Hugh Falkus Sea Trout special) that was brought to me by someone who was having difficulty matching the rod to a line; his DT line wasn't perhaps the best starting point with that rod which revelled in what the SLX brings.

 But it's quite a lump of a rod by todays standards and whilst pleasingly progressive it is slow. I would look at a new handle and turn it into a proper small double hander which would, in my opinion, suit the blank very well. You could then make use of (for example) a 6/7 Barrio Switch, but a Scandi Short or perhaps an OPST type line would be a good option - actually a Skagit type line would likely be very nice on that rod I think 

H

[Bart Hilderink]

  Thank you for your reply Hamish,I ll have a look at the  SLX.  I do have an Orvis mission skagit line for my doublehander and I can give it a try on the B&W. If  it works  out, then maybe I can go down a little in lineweight.

Greetings Bart