The Salmon Rod Test

Check out Jim's exhaustive test of the best 14-foot salmon rods on the market now in the April edition of Trout & Salmon magazine.
Jim and fellow AAPGAI Master instructor Gary Champion put no less than fourteen 14-footers through their paces with a whole range of different lines - and they came up with some surprises.
The second generation MacKenzie DTX was as good as expected (the original is one of our favourites), bit in the lower price brackets the Guideline Exceed, Grey's XF2 S and the Enigma EMG3 all won the approval of the testers.
But what was most surprising was the improvements that Hardy has made to its salmon rods (we detect the influence of Ian Gordon, Hardy's consultant, master speycaster and AAPGAI instructor). Jim said the Hardy Marksman 2 was so easy to use it "felt like a 10ft trout rod" while the Hardy Zenith (albeit at £949!) had astonishing power.
Fourteen footers are increasingly popular as they are more user-friendly than the traditional 15-footers and we find we are advising our clients to kit themselves out with 14's much more often now.
Check out the review if you're in the market for a new salmon rod - you won;t find a more thorough test of the leading contenders anywhere.
- Bob