Spey Thoughts -- Rods and Lines

A nice spey caught steelhead (click image for detail)

Spey thoughts – Rods and Lines
by John Judy

Sometimes I fell like a painter; I go through periods in my flyfishing. The mayfly era, the nymph and indicator time and of course my Spey phase. Each of these periods represents a time when one aspect of the sport or another has caught my attention and I have gone on a tangent to explore – to expand my horizons.

During these explorations I try to keep an open mind because sometimes my path leads me back to places where I have been in the past; to ideas that I have already rejected in another time and place. Among these concepts are distance casting, stiff, fast action rods and shooting heads.

With this bias in mind it was with some reluctance that I started exploring the world of Skagit style Spey casting. Skagit uses a very short, heavy line (a shooting head) to cast sink tips and heavy weighted flies. A stiffer, fast action rod is recommended.

Clearly I was not too thrilled about this bit of exploration, but the proponents of Skagit Spey are very vocal. They praise the method to the ends of the earth. They are quick to tell you (too quick perhaps) that classic style Spey casting, the way I learned it, the way it’s been done for years in Scotland and elsewhere, is old school, passé.

Heaven knows with all that extra gray in my beard I don’t want to be though of as passé, so I decided, “OK, I’ll try it. Then I’ll be able to say with absolute certain the method stinks.” But, that’s not exactly how it all worked out. The old dog actually learned a trick or two.

The first bit of information that came out was about rods and rod flex. In Spey there are two general classes of rods: fast action or European Style rods and Classic more moderate action rods.

Since I consider myself a Classic caster I have always favored the classic rods. Most fast action rods are too stiff for my liking. Even though they offer a lot of power and distance; I’ve always felt, because of the stiffness, they were clubby and insensitive. They just don’t offer the kind of “feel” for the rod and line that I like.

When my new 7 weight Spey rod arrived last summer (a fast action, European rod for Skagit casting) I was pleasantly surprised to find it was not nearly as stiff and uncomfortable to cast as I had anticipated. In my experience, when it comes to rods, fast and stiff mean almost the same thing. A typical fast action rod is usually fairly stiff throughout its length. It doesn’t bend very much when it’s loaded so that it recovers more quickly from flex when it’s cast, thus making it a fast action, high power rod.

My new 7 weight was much more parabolic in its action then I would have expected. That is to say the action was fairly stiff in the lower half but then it got progressively softer toward the tip. Not as soft as some rods but enough to give it a lot more feel.

What a nice combination; a rod that is fun to cast and fish but still has the quick recovery time that allows it to generate higher line speed. Even though the new 7 weight is a full line size smaller than my older classic 8 weight it’s still significantly more powerful.

Now I’m looking for a single hand rod with that same progressive, fast action flex. I haven’t found it yet but I’ll keep hunting. Meanwhile my little 7 weight two hander has become queen of the quiver. It’s my new favorite rod. I bought a second European action, 9 weight, to go with it.

To continue with my testing I also bought a couple of the new, pre made Skagit lines from RIO. Until recently all Skagit lines were home built. You cut and spliced to make them. Now you can order the system ready to cast.

At first I wasn’t very excited with the results. The lines were OK, buy still a bit fussy to use. There’s a lot of stripping and shooting that goes on with the Skagit system. With each cast you have to “set the hinge” by bring the thin running line in so that just the heavy head portion of the line is outside the guides. Then you can cast.

At sort range this set up is OK you strip a few strokes and make a cast. At longer range it became more bothersome – I didn’t think the fuss was worth it. The line wasn’t doing anything that couldn’t be achieved just as easily with a regular sink tip.

Then I had a chance to do some winter steelheading with some folks who have used the Skagit system almost from its inception. They immediately said, “You’ve got it rigged wrong. It needs more weight.” We switch the line for the 9 weigth rod over to the 7 weight.

At first I was fearful; it was such a heavy line I thought I might break my prized little rod. But that’s the goal; you want a line that is almost at the limit of the rods capacity. The idea is to compact the weight of sixty or seventy feet of line into thirty feet. When you do this you get a line that can be cast with a very tight compact stroke. The line is so short and so heavy you basically just flop the rod to form your loops. There’s very little effort to it.

You don’t have to worry about grip or stick either. With conventional sink tips you’re always trying to keep the line near the surface during the cast so it won’t get stuck. But with Skagit there is so much momentum from the extra line weigh it just brings everything right along with it. Any part of the sink tip left behind is just ripped out and sent on its way.

With these new capabilities suddenly all the stripping didn’t seem so bad. I quickly realized this really is the easiest way to cast a heavy line and fly with a Spey rod. I won’t describe it as pretty. The Skagit line will not replace my floating line any time soon. This is heavy lead chucking stuff. But, when lead is required, when you have to get those flies down deep, this is the way to do it. A big two thumbs up for the shooting head Skagit line.