What is a switch rod?
A question
What is a switch rod?
It's a long rob like a spey rod that can be used with one hand like a standard fly rod. They take spey lines which may say 4wt they are actually larger and have a heavier gram weight than a standard flie line.
what benefits are gained by using a switch rod? what are their main uses?
Here is a quote from an article here on FAOL you might want to read:
"One of the questions I get asked is "why use a switch if you can fish with a single hander?" Well, two of my mates and I recently fished the lower bridge pool, we fished upstream nymphing behind a couple of other guys and all the single handers were casting roughly the same distance up and across, maybe 60 feet across max as they need to get a long way upstream to get a good long drift so the flies get down deep. I followed up behind them with my Switch rod and Scandi line and could easily reach much farther across the pool and picked up fish that the other guys just could not cast to. Of course as the fish get disturbed by the constant casting over them they move further and further out and a good cast, even 10 feet further than the other guys can manage, can put your nymph where the fish are. One of the things I look for now is a pool that has had a bit of a thrashing by the indicator nymph fishing guys as they will have pushed the fish into a fairly narrow band just out of their casting range, but well within mine."
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/arti...MikeThomas.php
Switch rods can typically be used for both single and double handed techniques and are usually 10 to 12 feet long. You tend to find them in lighter line weights than spey rods, as light as a 3/4 wt. On moving waters they can be used reach out a bit farther than with single handed rods, mend more line at longer distances, and help achieve longer drag free drifts among other benefits but at lesser distances than Spey rods.
On still waters they are often used with single or double handed overhand casts to reach out to longer distances than many anglers can achieve with single handed rods. Some anglers use them in the surf for longer presentations. I know some anglers who have been using them for repetitively making longer casts with topwater flies for striped bass or even largemouth bass chasing shad in open water. Switch rods can also help with making longer roll casts. Although he didn't call them switch rods, the late Gary LaFontaine wrote about using long rods for long roll casts when fishing mountain lakes where stands of trees along the shoreline precluded the use of a standard back cast.
There is not much in the way of moving water where I live and most of it is not as wide as a switch rod is long, but I have been playing with one for fishing from shore for bass and panfish where there is no room for a backcast. It does allow me to effectively fish some areas that were previously hard to fish from shore with a shorter rod.
Last edited by tailingloop; 04-24-2011 at 03:40 AM.
A switch rod is longer than a single hand rod but shorter than a Spey Rod. Switch rods are mostly 10'6" to 11'9", once you get over 12 foot the rod is a Spey rod. A switch rod CAN be used to single hand overhead cast, but for most guys not for long, it is just too heavy to cast one handed all day. They are designed to cast spey style lines and shooting heads with two handed spey and two handed overhead casts, as you are using two hands and shortish strokes these rods are easy to cast long distances all day without getting tired. The main thing to remember is that the line weight is not usually the same as a single hand rod, a 4/5 switch will load properly with a 7/8 single hand line, or a 4/5 spey or switch line. If you are thinking about getting in to a bit of switch fishing give me a PM and I will do my best to answer your questions.
All the best.
Mike
Thank you that was most informative.
Thanks everyone, cleared it up for me too. I thought it was something that my dad applied to my rear end a few more times than I'd like to remember, lol.
TT.
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