Hardy Wanless. A few questions....

[Scott]

Hi Chaps.
I know there are a couple of members on here that own these rods and was wondering if you could shed some light on a few things. I'm on the look out for one for light spinning. I notice that they all carry an lb (poundage) rating, 4lb, 6lb etc... what does this rating relate to? Am I right in thinking that the lower the 'poundage' the more suited to lighter spinning the rod is? Also what's a sensible price for one? E-bay seems to have gone all 'buy it now' with rather large prices that never reflect the prices of genuine auctions...
Thanks in advance,
Scott

[Gammarus]

I have a 6lb Wanless (about 71/2ft), which I have started using this year - with around 6lb BS nylon. Haven't used it for spinning, but first for summer chubbing on Wye - casting and freelining flake etc. coped with chub very easily.
Then for perch fishing (not caught any), ledgering deadbaits/worms and had carp to 9+lb - coped fine. So I used it a bit for surface carp fishing (hardly anything over 10lb in the lake) with bread, again no problems with carp in 5 - 10lb bracket.

Conclusion is that it's far stronger than I expected, and would be well overgunned for say trout spinning, unless you have monsters, better for sewin probably. Brilliant little rod though, I love it and I'm surprised more people don't snap them up, can't comment on price as I was given mine many years ago.

[Snape]

I have had a few of these and took the weight as a pound line guide.
The 6lb one is lovely and great for chubbing and perching I once hook a 4lb barbel and it really struggled. It was bent as far as it could and had no power left so I think I found its upper limit.
The 9/10 version is a great carp stalker.
I had an early 4lb one but found it too light for anything I wanted to do.