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I recently read an interesting article about light weight spey casting and was interested to learn more about it. I fish a lot of water where back casts are impossible and the distances they seem to be getting are remarkable. The equipment appears to be a little intimidating (12-14 ft. rods) but it looked like a lot of fun. Does anybody out there use this method for bass? What are your suggestions to a beginner in terms of rod/reel/line etc. Thanks in advance for any advice.
If you are interested in playing with spey you don't really need to buy anything to play around and see if you like it. All the casts and techniques can be easily done on your existing one handed gear, you won't easily get the same distances but you can still be quite effective. I use spey casts a lot for most every kind of fly that I do including warm water and salt water, it is more fun than over head and gives me lots more options for line control with casting, mending, and fishing. I use standard lines and one handed rods. Just think of you rod and line as a stick and a ribbon and not a fly rod and fly line and it is amazing at the stuff you can do with it. There are a lot of videos out there of guys doing it all with one handed setups.
Then if you want you can go out and buy the bigger gear.
try a switch rod. a sw rod is a fly rod hybred that allows you to spey cast and to back cast when you want. I sometimes fish for carp with a SW rod. if you don't want to by a new rod you can learn to use spey casting technique with a single hand rod. there are a few fly lines that help when you spey cast with a single hand rod, rio trout LT & wulff triangle ambush taper. I rarely back cast now that I use switch rods & use spey casting with a single hand rod.
take a look at this video. this is a single hand rod using spey technique (i think he is using a 5 wt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QhDavr24xA
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZyKjIBzEDI
I have always enjoyed looking at that video. In awe how he can handle the fly line. I do know that if I tried some of those casts, I would have about 40 feet of line wrapped around my head, neck, body, with the fly stuck in the end of my nose. LOL
S'like anything else. Ya gotta get out & try it. Once you get the hang of it, it's great! The swing's the thing & tug's the drug. Tight lines.
Thanks guys. I knew I could count on this site for some good info on spey rods. Based on what was said, I purchased a St. Croix Imperial 11' 5 wt. switch rod and will be giving it a try for some open water lake fishing. Can't wait to try out my new toy and see how it works.
carp on a switch rod.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...IMGP0199-1.jpg
I built a 12', 3/1 bamboo (switch) rod last Fall to use for Hybrid Striped Bass and Steelhead. Lots of cover on the streams that I fish and a long cast is ~50', so the Spey/Switch rod seemed to be the way to go. I built it mainly for the horsepower to throw flies for Hybrids, also the length made it easier to hold the fly in the seams. All in all, good all the way around.
R
http://i53.tinypic.com/2mey989.jpg