Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing any one use Spey rods?

Just wondering if any one uses Spey rods much in other parts of the world.
I have a 15' Bruce&Walker Hexograph which I use for Salmon in the UK and I also take it to India for Carnatic Carp and any thing else that will take a fly whilst there. I haven't had a Mahseer on it....yet.
I use a Lamson LS4 with it and use tube flys with a trebble hook.

I have been using spey rods for almost 20 years. I used it in the surf and on jetties for stripers and blues. Also for salmon and steelhead. It is nice to cast as opposed to casting a reg fly rod 8 wt and heavier all day. I think it would be great fun to catch a carp on spey.

I picked up a switch rod 3 years ago. A 12 ft 7 wt and really like it.

Pretty common here in Alaska.

They are a lovley thing to use. I picked mine up second hand about 10 years ago as a bit of a novelty , but just really enjoyed using it.
The Carnatic Carp arn't very big, but they put up one hell of a fight.
The Croc's can be a bit of worry though!
I think that it would break if I got a half decent Mahseer on it.
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Always thought a switch was defined as being under 11'...

Built my first one about 15 or 16 years ago. Within the last 5 or 6 years, spey rods have become the norm for steelhead fly fishermaen on our Pacific Northwest rivers. I'd guess only 20 to 25% of the fly anglers are using single hand units. Very efficient with little time wasted on line in the air if one uses a long taper.

Short heavy tapers are most popular though, and fishermen spend a lot of time stripping line in between casts. In my mind they are lot like flinging a heavy split shot with a spinning rod. My personal leaning is to long double taper lines that I simply pick up and cast. I can also mend and control the line all the way out to the fly. I run a 13, 14, and 16 footer in 8, 10, and 11 wts respectively.

I am lookin at switch rods right now, either a Redington CPX or a St.Croix, in 5 or 6wt. The latter is about 100 cheaper and i have used the St Croix for years and found them to be rugged and well made. Redington is new to me. I'll be using it for big water trout and smallmouth -- and maybe for Great Lakes steelhead that are a little smaller than the Pacific runs.

Any thoughts...?

I already have a longer and heavier 7wt Spey rod for steelhead use.

Thanks,
1B

1B: No thoughts at all, as one should use whatever floats their boat. My main reaon for going with the longer/heavier rods is simply wind. At times things can be dead calm in the canyons of the Columbia tributaries, and at other times one might be fighting 30 to 40+ mph winds.

I also like to throw a daisy chain of 2 or 3 flies. That lets me cover more water in a cast or session. With a wider swath covered by flies, I will take about 4 steps between casts. Each fly added cuts about 6 feet off of my casting range. We're allowed a maximum of 3 hooks only. A daisy chain also makes mid-river landings interesting. For sure, always keep ones legs together.

Before going to spey equipment, I used 10 ft Sage rods in 7, 8, and 9wts. Wind was the sole factor affecting choice. The wife uses a 9.5 ft 5wt loaded with a 7 weight forward floater. She shuts down though when the wind gets heavy.

1B, the St. Croix switch rods are a very nice rod. They are also very good for single hand overhead casting. I have a 7wt and it is plenty light enough to cast overhead at long range. But I wouldn't stop the hunt at just Reddington and St. Croix. Echo makes a fantastic switch rod which is geared more toward spey style casting (slightly slower action with a deeper bend).

AKG,

Thanks. In fact, I am loking at all three now. I lean toward the St. Croix or the ECHO for durability reasons.

1B

Finally settled on a 10'6" 6-7 WT Beulah Switch Rod. I talked to a fly shop owner in MI who uses one on local Steelhead and he convinced me to go that route and put together an attractive package -- Rio line and backing, Lamson reel etc.-- to fit my needs best.

Now I'm going to have to sell my unused 12' 6" Orvis 7wt Spey rod and reel package that I got from one of their tent sales. The rod is marked R on the grip but damned if I can find anything wrong with it. I think I'd sell it for @ $250. Does that sound reasonable?

1B.

They delivered the Beulah switch rod yesterday. Migod, what progress in technology has done to lighten flyrods since I was last actively in the sport about ten years ago!

It is lighter than some of my old 5 wt 9 footers! Can't wait to hit the river with it. It should make an excellent high sticking nymph rod for the bigger smallmouth waters and free me from the effective but much hated chuck-and-duck weighted systems in steelhead fishing to boot.

Now to master the switch cast and snap-T.

1B

I just hopped on this thread, and lo and behold, here's someone talking about the same rod I received as a belated Father's Day/Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary gift about two months ago.

I'm using the Beulah Elixer line, on my old Lamson LS 3.5 reel. So far I've just been practicing two hand work on the lake, and tried using it in the surf on Hainan. I'm liking it so far, and look forward to using it on the Yuba/Feather/Kenai.

Scott

Scott,

The coincidences run on. I got a lamson 3.5 Guru in the package for my Beulah too. But it has a Rio switch line on it and sweveral of the VersaT tips for different depths.

1B

I remember casting one of those while back. Definitely a manly rod

I live in south Louisiana now so the spey rods don't get much use these days. I pull them out and cast them now and again but that's about it.

I've been fishing them for about 5 years now. It still amazes me that I can start out casting like I've been doing it my whole life and 15 minutes later you'd swear I'd never seen a spey rod before. I fished the Salmon River in ID for steelhead last weekend, didn't touch a thing but had a blast. I haven't had much time to get out since my little boy was born last August. The steelhead in my avatar came from the clearwater river on a 13' 7wt.

Clearwater is a broad river, worthy of a spey rod for sure.

Nice little trout ya got there too!

I need to learn to cast one of those things someday. A friend's wife used one up in Alaska on silvers last fall. She was doing great until finally it snapped. Ah well, lifetime warranty as I recall. Can't remember the maker though. She did just fine with it. didn't really need it, smallish river.

Regards, Guy

Spey rods, especially with newish casters tend to work loose and that really makes for a bad situation when big fish are in the mix. Their length begs for high-sticking and that adds tremendously to the breakage potential.

Even with modern technology, it's good to firmly assemble all joints and bind then with a layer or two of electricians tape. Spey casting includes a lot of twisting and bending, and joints can work loose resulting in an exploded ferrule.