is this a good deal?
 

Next summer i am going to Iceland for 2 weeks of fishing (trout, char, etc.) and photography. i currently have one fly rod, a sage fli 9' 6wt. rod that i love very much. but i need a second rod for my trip as a back up and/or alternative.

the other day at my local fly shop i spotted a sage case with 30% marked on it. i asked the dealer and he showed me a sage 2 handed 4 piece 12' 5 wt. rod (sage 5120-4 model). he said it was originally $700 bucks (it is) and with the discount it would be $490. he said it was a special order rod for a customer who didnt buy it and where i live we dont get much call for 2 handed rods. anyways he said he had also ordered a special line for the rod, a 7 weight line that cost around $70-$75, and that he would include the line with the rod for $490.

now, i know this is a pretty good discount and i am going to give the rod some practice casting later, but i am kind of worried about getting a slightly lighter rod than the one i already have. my original plan was to get a 7-9wt. rod for my second rod for my iceland trip (i am not planning on fishing for salmon). a good buy on a rod doesnt necessarily make it a good deal if its not the rod i need at this point in time. do any of you good fella's know about this particular rod, and is this one that would be a crime for me to pass up on at this price? also, is anyone familiar with iceland, and would this be a good rod for fishing there?

thanks from a self taught beginner who has been doing this all of 11 months!

Re: is this a good deal?
 

A couple of things:
1) a spey rod rating is different than a one handed rod rating. A 5 weight spey is like a 7 weight one handed rod
2) Is it a good deal? Well, first of all you need to go to a spey clave and cast a bunch of rods, because 2 rods at the same price, will be deemed better by different people.
3) the rod is $790? But it isnt a z-axis, meaning it is a older rod. Is it even a current rod?
4) I have cast Deer Creek's (by TFO) and the only rod I found to cast better was a top end CND. The $350 DC was much better than Sages.
5) A line is being thrown in? Which line is it? A line on a spey rod is the most important part. Put a CND GPS line a crappy rod and it will cast decently, put a windcutter on top end rod and it will cast like a crappy rod. A Rio Power Spey is almost as good as a gps tho. Buy a Deer Creek with a rio power spey (think that is the corrrect name, it will be close enough that you will be able to figure it out.)