I found a 10ft , 2wt fly rod blank and was thinking of making maybe a 3/4 weight switch rod. I’ve never built a switch rod before but really like light weight rod’s and it just sounds like a cool idea. Has anyone out there tried such a project? Any recommendation’s on do’s and don’t’s?
I’ve only seen a couple 10 ft rods in the light weight range…one was bamboo and blew up on a long cast. (It was owned and built by Vince Marinaro) I’m not convinced there is any advantage in a 10 ft rod. The longer the rod the harder they are to ‘stop’ as the extra length falls under the “a body in motion tends to stay in motion” rule.
I fished a Cortland 10ft and liked it very well for nymphs and s/h’s. Now I fish a 13 1/2ft Tenkara. Many folks in GB and Europe fish 10 ft rods.
You know that switch rods take heavier lines than regular rods.
I’m thinking of extending the forward grip and adding a rear grip , like a regular two handed spey rod but just shorter , which would really make the casting lenght shorter than 10ft with the handle higher up on the blank than it normally would be. As for the line weight , 3/4 is just a guess from what I’ve found on other two handed rod’s and how they seem to be overlined lighter rod’s. None of this is at all proven but I thought it might be worth a try just for fun.