Switch Rod ?

[El Cid]

I am looking for recommendations;

Im looking closely at a Maiser 6, Beluah 6/7 or a Sage Z AX 6 11. I apologize in advance for any misspellings. I am a long time fly fisherman, but never used a switch rod, (used to think 2 handed rods are for old old guys) I am partial to sage, but in doing my homework I get the sense tha the Beluah and Maiser seem have done a quiet a bit of work in designing their switch rods. I want to fish local water for steelies and corbina on the surf in so cal? I plan to use an Abel No. 1 reel, (since I already got one) Any suggestions? Thanks

[Grampa Spey]

I own Meise's 5/6 and 9/10 10'6" switch rods and a Z7110.

They are great rods and the lower weight rods should be good rods for you. They work well with Rio's Skagit lines and may work better with the lines Beulah has designed. They work very well with Rios Outbound Floating lines, go several line weights above the rod weight or they will not load the rod. I use the OB 10 Wt Floater with Bob's 5/6 and the 11 wt floater with the Z7110 and the Meis 9/10. Both lines work well with these OBs and the Rio Versi Sinking leaders or Air Flo 5' sinking poly leaders.

[Jasonh]

El Cid,

All 3 rods are great switch rods. Each rod is a little different so i will try to describe each one for you.

The Beulah switch is a great rod at an amazing price. I would say that they are more of a progressive action switch rod and work well with both skagit and scandi style lines. Beulah has done a great job at matching all their lines for their rods. If you are looking into a Beulah, get an elixir switch line to match your rod. They are great lines.

The sage switch rods are great rods as well. These excel with spey style casts and skagit style lines. These rods seem to have a little more backbone than the Beulahs and seem to handle more grain weight. These rods are great as a small spey rod for summer and winter steelhead.

The meiser switches are great rods as well for the price. These are very stout rods and are probabaly the fastest action of all switch rods. This means that they can handle a big variety of lines from shooting heads to traditional style spey lines. I would say that the 6 is really a 7 and so on.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at the shop or drop me an email. Hope this helps a bit.

Jason

[burl51]

Give Bob Meizer a call he will let ya test drive any of his rods. I have a system 2 switcher and a Highlander 4/5/6/ awsome rods. Bob was the main pioneer of the switch rods, He works with Beluah and TFO with the design of their switch rod also.

Burl

[speyfool]

I haven't fished the Sage, but I have tried out the Beulah and Meiser. My vote goes to the Meiser. It feels better to me. Although, that is just personal preference. Your best bet is to try them all out and go with what you like.

However, I'd guess that you'd be happy with any of them. They're all good.