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Ray Walton rolling pin & rod combo question.

Julian Griffiths

Julian Griffiths

Senior Member & Supporter
Morning guys

I walked a new stretch of river yesterday and it screams for the rolling meat approach...

I've always wanted to give it a try, but there was a fault with them that was spoken about that put me off from purchasing one.
I'm curious to know if my reasons for not doing so were valid?

Upon twisting the reel face round to cast & vise versa.... Did that mechanism suffer by becoming a bit of a loose fit?
Even Gary @ Mill Tackle suggested they were a bit of a rubbish design, for the price you were expected to pay....

Did both versions suffer with this issue?

Which version is the 'better' of the two to buy?

Lastly was wondering (other than the ray Walton rod) which rods would be suitable for this approach?

I've got a Harrison 3 piece tryptych might be a suitable match being that It felt quite light in the hand?

A Torrix 11ft 1.75lb?

Or my recent purchase of the Harrison 11ft 1lb 6 Avon that Mick Holgate built?

Any thoughts.
 
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The first version would turn under pressure often whilst playing a fish. Youngs retro fitted a stronger connection if people applied, a lot did. Think Gary mills still does the job but not sure of the price. They fixed the issue on the second version with the same fix. If rolling you do need to be able to use braid, so check if your club allows braid. Its one of the main reasons they appear on the second hand market. People using mono having horrendous line twist after a day rolling meat. I have used a Torrix 11ft 1.75lb rolling and its perfect for the job. I have a youngs ray walton rolling rod which I bought new on Ebay for bargain £35 when they were discontinued which is just as good for the job. Your 11ft 1.6 harrison will probably be perfect too. What I would do is try all your 11ft rods to see which feels best for you. People will tell you they do not get mono twist with then but these are anglers that use them for static fishing only casting every 30 minutes
 
Mark Swaby said:
The first version would turn under pressure often whilst playing a fish. Youngs retro fitted a stronger connection if people applied, a lot did. Think Gary mills still does the job but not sure of the price. They fixed the issue on the second version with the same fix. If rolling you do need to be able to use braid, so check if your club allows braid. Its one of the main reasons they appear on the second hand market. People rolling with mono having horrendous line twist after a day rolling meat. I have used a Torrix 11ft 1.75lb rolling and its perfect for the job. I have a youngs ray walton rolling rod which I bought new on Ebay for bargain £35 when they were discontinued which is just as good for the job. Your 11ft 1.6 harrison will probably be perfect too. What I would do is try all your 11ft rods to see which feels best for you.
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Thank you so much Mark. Yes will check the rules, good point on that!

Which brand of braided mainline would you suggest? I use to have spider wire which was quite a nice braid.

Did you tie a length of mono at the hooklength business end or braid straight through?

Got loads of modelling clay to use as weight, which I guess I could use some loose fitting float stops to anchor the putty in place? 😊
 
Hi Julian, I would say all the rods listed would be suitable, I use a Harrison 1lb 6oz Avon or Trefor west stalker 1lb 12oz depending on the flow, speed of river, and size of fish present?
 
I would have to suggest using a true through action rod when using braid. A rod with an arresting point half way up the rod will put unecessary pressure on the hook hold.
That is just my view.
 
I have the mkii, not use it much these days, simply because I found casting with it a bit hard, and yes, I cast further with wallies casting. I spool it in Ray Walton’s way, lots backup, and around 100m 0.2mm braid right to the edge of the spool (yes, like what you do for fix spool reel), directly tie the hook on it, no need for any lead, 0.2mm braid won’t damage the fish.

As for rod, for rolling meat you want a rod with soft ish tip, and by trying all the rods I have with rolling meat, the best is my hexagraph Avon and torrix 1.75.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
I have the mkii, not use it much these days, simply because I found casting with it a bit hard, and yes, I cast further with wallies casting. I spool it in Ray Walton’s way, lots backup, and around 100m 0.2mm braid right to the edge of the spool (yes, like what you do for fix spool reel), directly tie the hook on it, no need for any lead, 0.2mm braid won’t damage the fish.

As for rod, for rolling meat you want a rod with soft ish tip, and by trying all the rods I have with rolling meat, the best is my hexagraph Avon and torrix 1.75.
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Cheers buddy! Thanks for your thoughts 😊👍
 
Julian Griffiths said:
Thank you so much Mark. Yes will check the rules, good point on that!

Which brand of braided mainline would you suggest? I use to have spider wire which was quite a nice braid.

Did you tie a length of mono at the hooklength business end or braid straight through?

Got loads of modelling clay to use as weight, which I guess I could use some loose fitting float stops to anchor the putty in place? 😊
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Have my rolling pin loaded with 30lb spiderwire and went straight through. You can also weight the hook with non toxic solder which also works to keep the bait down. Though two local clubs have now banned braid straight through so my rolling veunes are limited.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Have my rolling pin loaded with 30lb spiderwire and went straight through. You can also weight the hook with non toxic solder which also works to keep the bait down. Though two local clubs have now banned braid straight through so my rolling veunes are limited.
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From my lure fishing and latterly fly fishing experience I have found that using fluorocarbon straight through does offer an alternative to braid where it is banned. The feedback is comparable with braid, and the heavy nature of fluro does overcome some issues that nylon presents. In a similar way to euronymphing , as long as you keep in touch with the bait and strike at everything unusual it is possible to eliminate braid. Of course using a pin is all lovely and all that, but fluro is much more suited to a fixed spool.
 
I use a Mark Tunley Dark Carbon 1.75 which has a great action for touch legering and rolling meat. I use it with a MK2 RW Pin , which did develop an issue with the locking mechanism , Chris Miles said to send it in to him in Tewkesbury and he would sort it , as it was out of warranty I expected a charge but he did it for free. Great Service from Him. And no issues since , and I use it a lot during the summer. I also bought a Heritage Green Lightweight Rolling pin and use that for float fishing with 10lb Sufix Duraflex straight through - its only 6lb diameter and a really nice supple line. No problems with line twist either.
 
David Will 2 said:
From my lure fishing and latterly fly fishing experience I have found that using fluorocarbon straight through does offer an alternative to braid where it is banned. The feedback is comparable with braid, and the heavy nature of fluro does overcome some issues that nylon presents. In a similar way to euronymphing , as long as you keep in touch with the bait and strike at everything unusual it is possible to eliminate braid. Of course using a pin is all lovely and all that, but fluro is much more suited to a fixed spool.
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What about line twist Will?

If I was using a side casting pin like the Ray Walton I couldn't envisage using anything other than braid purely because of the line twist issue. I can't see fluro being less of an issue than mono in that respect?
 
David Will 2 said:
From my lure fishing and latterly fly fishing experience I have found that using fluorocarbon straight through does offer an alternative to braid where it is banned. The feedback is comparable with braid, and the heavy nature of fluro does overcome some issues that nylon presents. In a similar way to euronymphing , as long as you keep in touch with the bait and strike at everything unusual it is possible to eliminate braid. Of course using a pin is all lovely and all that, but fluro is much more suited to a fixed spool.
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Cheers for an alternative idea.
 
One thing I forgot to mention is with even a small amount of line twist your meat can often be spinning round and round as it goes downstream. I caught Pike 3 sessions in a row rolling meat when I first got my MK1 rolling pin on mono. I was sure the spinning meat was the main reason.
 
David Will 2 said:
From my lure fishing and latterly fly fishing experience I have found that using fluorocarbon straight through does offer an alternative to braid where it is banned. The feedback is comparable with braid, and the heavy nature of fluro does overcome some issues that nylon presents. In a similar way to euronymphing , as long as you keep in touch with the bait and strike at everything unusual it is possible to eliminate braid. Of course using a pin is all lovely and all that, but fluro is much more suited to a fixed spool.
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Braid isn't banned on any rivers is it, David?

@Julian Griffiths yes, I'd go for the soft-actioned Avon. A wallis cast with a normal 'pin (after a bit of practice) is probably just as effective as a Walton side caster. I've had my turn mechanism fixed by Garry Mills and it went again last season. Great reels but fallible.
 
Richard Parsons said:
Braid isn't banned on any rivers is it, David?

@Julian Griffiths yes, I'd go for the soft-actioned Avon. A wallis cast with a normal 'pin (after a bit of practice) is probably just as effective as a Walton side caster. I've had my turn mechanism fixed by Garry Mills and it went again last season. Great reels but fallible.
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Cheers Richard!

Got to be honest I'm loosing my interest in them. A brilliant concept without a doubt, but am really put off by that turn mechanism. I've had a fair few people message me about their experiences. And what a lot of money to part with only for that turn mechanism to break. 🙄
 
Ray Walton did mention you can use pre stretched mono to avoid twist. But I never tried that so not sure if it is true.

And if possible, use Wallis cast, it much better than side casting pin. I now only use my ray Walton pin as a normal pin.

Another casting method, I don’t recommend it but it works well, is to cast like a fly reel, pull the amount of line you want to cast off the reel, lay on the ground nicely, and an overhanging cast.
 
Richard Parsons said:
Braid isn't banned on any rivers is it, David?

@Julian Griffiths yes, I'd go for the soft-actioned Avon. A wallis cast with a normal 'pin (after a bit of practice) is probably just as effective as a Walton side caster. I've had my turn mechanism fixed by Garry Mills and it went again last season. Great reels but fallible.
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Two of my local clubs ban braid all the way through from the reel.
 
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