I have a question. I am experimenting with a rod build. Now I have been around reading a long time but am very short on actual practical experience. I have a spare 10’ two piece full flex 3wt rod blank. A person from down under said you need a lot of flex in a two handed rod. So I decided to make my 3wt a spey. He said it could be done. He refers to it and the wee TS …wee trout spey. I have had some custom work done on it for me. Now I am ready to add guides. On a normal rod up to maybe 7wt I prefer single foot small undersized guides. I use Fuji Alconite BLAG #6. Now I have built some flexibility into this rod just for fun. I can disconnect it and add an 8" slip on slip ring grip and fish it in tight quarters as a 5’…fly rod…or hang an open face spinning reel on it and fish various ways. From lure casting to even flies. I can remove the 8" grip and put the ten foot rod back together. Now the permanent grip is a 12" with a 1" diameter cork grip with slip rings and a removable fighting butt. So in this case I can fish it again…as a single hand rod…with a fly reel on it or a spinning reel. I can remove the fighting butt and add another 12" seamless cork extension…so the slip rings now have a full 24" of grip to slide up and down on. So now I can place a reel anywhere I want to on the rod and fish…again as a fly or spinning rod. But…the idea is to play with it as a two handed rod. I have learned that spey rod designations do not correlate straight across to single hand rods. BTW this rod is for inland trout…stream/ponds/lakes.
Anyway, sorry for the above lengthy explanation. The real question is can I still use single foot guides…similar to the Fuji’s or do I need stronger ones with side supports?
Biggest question is what size guides should I put on it? I am not familiar with the diameter of Skagit heads, Scandi heads, Spey lines, or the size of guides I must have to pass those lines…and the associated knots they will have.
Any suggestions would be extremely appreciated. I have no idea what size to use…I just know I like small and I like single foot. But too small and it wouldn’t even handle a skagit head.
It sounds like your really excited about doing this so I kind’a hate to post this to ya, but I would hate to see you run into problems so here goes. With what your looking to do I really think you might end up with some trouble because two handed (spey&switch rods) have a very different taper to the blank than your traditional single handed rods. Not sure why the guy said you want a lot of flex in a two handed rod, because actually just the opposite is true. All two handed rod blanks are made with a much stiffer butt section that carries the diameter and strength out much farther into the blank than a normal single handed rod blank does. The reason for this is because when your casting two handed there is a much more tremendous amount of pressure on the butt section of the rod right in front of the fore grip. Mainly because casting two handed is a much faster casting action than single handed casting which puts more stress on the butt section of the rod right in front of your front hand. That’s why you’ll see most spey guys actually carry electrical tape with them and they will “tape the ferrules” once they get to the river and get the rod set up. Because the stress of two handed casting will actually lossen ferrules and cause the rod sections to come apart during the day due to the stressful/quick casting stroke of two handed casting.
The point I’m getting to is that the 10’ 3wt blank your using was made to be cast as a traditional single handed rod, so it doesn’t have that extra strength/diameter which carries out farther onto the blank like a two handed rod should have. So what I’m afraid will most likely happen is when you go to cast it two handed you may end up with a broken blank right in front of the fore grip. Add in the fact that you’ll be putting a Skagit/shooting head line on there and that’s going to complicate the problem even more.
If your dead set on doing this then I would suggest perhaps “sleeving” the rear of the blank with a piece from another blank to extend the rear a bit more so that your froe grip placemnet is more on track with were the stock single hand grip would be. That way your front hand (most the pressure when two handed casting would still be positioned in the part of the blank thats designed to take the pressure rather than that pressure being placed up higher on the blank where the taper is weaker.
Steve, and Sully. Thanks for advice. I wondered about the single foot I use because it just has a single little foot. No side braces. With all the gyrations involved in spey casting I wondered it the single foot was strong enough. Guess I will find out.
Steve, all good points I never thought about. I am going to go ahead with existing plan on the 3wt. It is just a tinker bell project anyway. But what you have told me makes great sense. I bet if I use a Skagit head…I probably will break the rod. Will find out. My 3wt not being constructed for the strength in the butt section…for sure…because it is a full flex blank.
Might just become a good panfish rod. But I really appreciate the information. Because…I had three other blanks I was going to do this to…and they are all single hand blanks as well. Will have to see how this works out. I will actually use heavy skagit heads and cheater heads and try to break the rod…well…meaning give it the hardest work out I know how to do. And will see what happens. That’s the fun of learning. I’ll salvage the blank and turn it into something else…and the donate it to some beginner…If I think it is an ok rod for a beginner to get introduced on. I wouldn’t give off something to a beginner that doesn’t behave in any way like a fly rod should.
Jim
I have cast a 15’ 10/11 spey rod on a lake from shore. I drove 2 hours to another town, where a fellow is also trying to learn spey and nobody in his town does it either. I don’t know what line we had…my single hand line on a Pleuger Trion biggest reel…would not cast. Put his skagit head on and I was able to cast from shore. It was terrific fun. Only thing is, my 15’ is over rodding for my inland trout. So I am on a quest to build an inland trout spey rod. I didn’t need the running water to load the rod at all. I can do it on still water. I may not be able to do every kind of spey cast there is…but it was fun…and I want to do it…and I want to learn more.
I am well aware they were for running rivers…no matter to me. I want to learn to do it on a lake. And I am going to give it a go.
I don’t pay much attention to common theory about things. Too many times I have heard it said…well that won’t work. I ask why…and the reply is…either …well if that would work someone would have already done it…or…well because we have always done it “THIS” way…
With that kind of thinking we wouldn’t have cars, dishwashers, tv…etc.
Wasn’t it Voltaire that said…“I may not agree with everything you say…but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
You have the right to say what ever you want and I am ok with that.
“you can always tell who the real pioneers are…by all the arrows in their backs”