Just fyi for those thinking of a light spey rod. Ebay has a Wind Warrior 3/4wt eleven footer for only $251 with free shipping. Only 2 left. By Amundson. Only other ones I kow of are the $600 rods by Anderson and Meiser. Mystic has a 3wt for $479. $251 for a brand new one with case and free shipping…I WILL learn how to cast that rod.
Jim
Let us know how that goes, Jim. Sounds like fun.
Winston microspey. Not a recommendation. Just pointing out they are available.
Looked up Winston Microspey’s…$830 plus shipping.
I got mine from Steve Godshall. 11’ 6" 3wt spey. It was a tray to wrap kit. Still in the learning process of two handed casting but getting better at it. They are fun to cast and great for swinging flies for trout. I paid 150 for the rod and 60 for a custom line Plus a reasonable shipping price. If you want to wrap your own get in touched with Steve
Just make sure you get a line - one with a short head - that matches an eleven foot spey rod. The only problem is that after each cast you’ll probably have to retrieve some line before your next cast. Also shooting heads with running lines are harder to mend than integrated lines.
Randy
I second getting the right line - I found a switch rod at a reasonable price, but didn’t know to get a special line for it, and didn’t like it, so sold it.
I’m trying to understand the problems a two-handed 3 weight would solve? I’m not against it, you should have whatever tools you want. I’m ignorant of what it will do, maybe I “need” one and don’t know it 
OMG Iceman! Far a better deal than I made! Hat’s off to you. A custom line to go with it? Awesome. I now regret how much I have put out. A $40 running line recommended by a shop in Colorado, two Rio Max Short Skagit ($55 each) heads, $280 for rod…and guessing at the lines…$455. Had I had enough presence of mine to calculate this before buying I would have not done it. I bought on impulse and the separate costs didn’t seem that much in the moment. But wow at the end it bugs me. Oh well…I done went and did it. I got’er did. Unfortunately…Boy would I like to have gotten a rod from Steve and a line to fit it…anybody wanna buy my gear now?
I don’t know of problems a long rod solves. But I cast a 15’ one time and became hooked. It was pure fun to do. The books say it is easier on the joints of the body than single hand casting. I thus think I can fly fish to an older age. I do like it on my stream (I have an 11’ 6wt Cabelas Float Tuber) where I an dead drift and reach out further into the stream with the line than a short rod. But I think it is just a matter of what one likes and what one enjoys doing. Two handed you have less false casting and the hook in the water for more periods of time? Distance? Wind? Big flies? I dunno. Maybe it is just something new and different. Just a rookie wannabe…'tis all I will ever be…
Two problems that two-handed rods solve: 1. It’s less tiring to cast a two-handed fly rod than a one-handed one. (True, with a 3- or 4-weight this isn’t as big an issue.) 2. Using a two-handed fly rod requires less back cast room, and therefore we don’t have to wade far out in deep/fast water. (This is why spey rods were invented in Scotland many moons ago.)
Randy
I talked to guy a couple of years ago in a streamside parking lot who said that he hadn’t been fishing his one handed rods much that year because he was using a spey rod to nymph in very small streams most of the season. The long rods let him reach over bankside brush to dap his nymphs at the head of the holes and let them drift back under the brush with great success. It sounded like a fun way to catch brookies out of streams you can step across.
OR…just get a Tenkara rod for about 80 bucks and leave the 100 fly lines on the shelf…
Brad
You mean one of those telescoping Japanese dapping pole? Try casting a heavy streamer to the middle of a decent river with one. Fine on a smallish stream, but an even more limited tool than a two-hander, IMHO.
The spey rod is an interesting tool, and fun to play with, but an awful lot of folks seems to get them for all the wrong reasons, and I’m still unconvinced they are as versatile as a standard one-handed rod. Would recommend you take a serious look at a “switch” rod (what Winston calls “micro-spey”) as opposed to a full two-hander, if you are just going after trout. I have not had a chance to try them yet, but Orvis introduced a line of very affordable switch/spey rods this year (the Clearwater line). Line choice is not that complicated these days because you can either by a matching line or just find an 2-3x oversized WF line, and you’ll be ready to go.
I had and tried a 6wt switch rod briefly, and came to suspect the “switch” concept is highly overrated. You can cast them overhead, but, believe me, you don’t want to. People may or may not find a valid use for a two-handed rod for trout fishing, but if you think a casting single-hand rod will tire you out, try casting a switch rod overhead for very long.
I certainly find it almost impossible to make short casts with a two-handed rod.
Rand
I don’t like using a spey rod for making short casts. Also, unless I’m using a Skagit line, I don’t like using a spey rod for casting heavier flies and fishing below the surface.
Randy
Maybe It was more than a couple of years ago. I don’t think I had ever heard of tenkara at that time. He may be using a tenkara rod by now. I just tucked the idea away in the back of my mind for if I ever did get a spey rod.
I’m going to have do some reading up on this stuff but when you guys talk about 3-4-5wt. 2 handed rods those lines are not the same lines I’d be using on my 7’6" rods. You talk about shooting heads and such and weighing lines in grains of certain weight and none of this makes sense to me if they rate the rod at a 4 wt. That should mean I should be able to grab one of my reels with a WF4F on it and go fish but doesn’t sound that way when you talk about lines.
I like this blog post: Scandi (spey) vs Skagit (spey):
http://www.jsrods.com/blog/skagit-or-scandi-pt-1-history/
Randy
Spey lines are two lines above single hand lines. Interpretation is sort of that a 6wt spey is the equivalent of an 8wt single hand rod. Thus early on when no one was making light trout rods you mostly saw 8wt “spey” rods on the market…far more than ever needed in the US in my opinion because that is like a 10wt single hand rod. It is very very confusing because you add in the different types and what a mess. Scandi, Skagit, Skagit Short, full long belly 120’ spey lines…etc.
I got the 3/4 wt spey (called a switch but they are all built the same way. 12’ and under they call switch and bigger than 12’ they call them spey)…because it will be like a 5/6 wt single had rod. 6wt being great all around rod for where I live. Got the rod in yesterday and love it in hand. Wondering if the guides are big enough to shoot good line…and wish the butt end was longer.
If I can attach it…here is a link to Rio’s chart of grain wts. Optimum for my short 11’ 3/4wt rod is 300 grain so I ordered a Rio Skagit Max Short 300 grain head. Only 20’ of head. Good for a relatively short spey rod.
http://www.rioproducts.com/skin/summit/pdf/2015-spey-line-weights.pdf
I have fished my little stream with my Cabelas 11’ 6wt Float Tuber rod and liked it. But a tad long for fishing in close. I don’t have much chance at dry fly fishing here. So I will be mostly using wet flies with my new rod
just fyi for those who might have slight interest
jim