Spey Fishing/Rods?

[cj001f]

anyone have starter advice for spey fishing/spey rods?

[ak_powder_monkey]

try here http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/...splay.php?f=34

[Lumpy]

Cabelas has some pretty nice traditional action rods for cheap...I think they are called fish eagles...up to 13-ft.

[skifishbum]

Reading this the other day I realized I have yet to break out the spey rig this season.
A few thoughts, Spey casting/fishing is basically a one dimensional way to present a fly. It allows you to swing a fly through the water. With high dollar weighted lines you can cover various depths. You can not really effectively strip your fly, fish up or across stream, or fish any water thast doesn't have a decent current. You can't really practice spey casts unless you have a fairly wide river w/ decent flow. Spey is only really effective for steelhead and salmon rivers.
The advantages are no need for backcast clearance and it is fairly easy on your body (arms, shoulders, upper back) to cast for prolonged periods of time.
Mastery of spey casting is a true art and cool to watch and or be able to do.
Spey casting skills translate well to traditional casting. Using a snap T to pick up line allows you to bring your fly out of the area you are presenting to ussually without that sometimes loud fish spooking splash. The other great advantage is leverage. A 13 or 14' rod allows you to put some serious side leverage on big fish, which is great especially if you fishing for salmon and catching quite a few.
My rig is a scott 14' 9 weight w/ a bauer m2 reel and rio wind cutter multi tip line. It's a pricey setup and I only end up using it 3 or 4 times a year. On AK trips and an occasional steelhead foray. So I guess it depends where and how you intend to fish. There are quite a few good instructional videos out there. For me the hardest part is unlike tradtioal casting you can't just go out to an open feild and practice. If you want to be a better fisherman go fishing, If you want to be a better caster spend time casting. For me thats hard cause once I finally get to the river I want to fish.
Check ebay occasionally some good deals on spey goodies there. If you already have a decent reel a spare spool to put spey line on is the way to go.

[cj001f]

thanks!

you described what I was looking to a spey rod for - covering lots of water in bigass steelie/salmon rivers. Without torquing my shoulder.

Now I've got to find a cheap one.

[kingjamm]

Reading this the other day I realized I have yet to break out the spey rig this season.
A few thoughts, Spey casting/fishing is basically a one dimensional way to present a fly. It allows you to swing a fly through the water. With high dollar weighted lines you can cover various depths. You can not really effectively strip your fly, fish up or across stream, or fish any water thast doesn't have a decent current. You can't really practice spey casts unless you have a fairly wide river w/ decent flow. Spey is only really effective for steelhead and salmon rivers.

That's a pretty limited view of what you can do with Spey rods. It is nice to be able to control all that line and yes, it is great for swinging, but overall the specifics of what you are talking about just aren't true.


1) I practice casting on lawns, still water or rivers. On grass I used what is called a grass leader. While it isn't the same as a water loaded cast, it does teach you a *lot* of things, specifically how to load the rod with the line properly, and how to start your cast without too much power.

2) I know plenty of people who use 2 handed rods to fish for stripers in the surf, silver salmon in Puget Sound, and for smallmouth bass on some eastern rivers. You can strip the line, you just need to have the appropriate line matched with the rod. In those cases, the people are usually using an Airflo 40+ or Rio Outbound shooting head. The same advantages of a long 2 handed rod are apparent both in the ease of casting (overhead or traditional spey) as well as the line control.

3) Plenty of folks I know use smaller spey rods for trout tactics. The spey rod length allows great mending, and the additional mass in the line allows them to fish heavy nymphs with little trouble. Quite a few of those folks do the traditional upstream cast with a mend, dead drift into a swing... Works great...

The advantages are no need for backcast clearance and it is fairly easy on your body (arms, shoulders, upper back) to cast for prolonged periods of time.
Mastery of spey casting is a true art and cool to watch and or be able to do.
Spey casting skills translate well to traditional casting. Using a snap T to pick up line allows you to bring your fly out of the area you are presenting to ussually without that sometimes loud fish spooking splash. The other great advantage is leverage. A 13 or 14' rod allows you to put some serious side leverage on big fish, which is great especially if you fishing for salmon and catching quite a few.

Totally true for the most part. The problem is once you get a fish in with a 14' rod, it takes a bit of practice and coordination to get the fish tailed. Some of the funniest lost fish experiences I've seen have occured precisely when the fish was brought to hand, but the person couldn't get it tailed with the 2 hander

[Pow4Brains]

Good point KJ and second on the mending and nymphing. The difference is hudge. Another really noticeable difference is the amount of pressure you can put on a fish during the fight. Sure seems like I'm seeing a lot more people using spey rods in salt (i.e. tarpon, jacks) and for trout when stripping streamers on big water.

CJ – I don’t know what kind of fish you are targeting, but a really nice start would be a 13’-6” or 14’ 6 weight. You can use it for steelies, trout, bones and smaller permit and tarpon.