A few more months have passed and I thought I'd update the thread.
Last spring, I did get a lot of time with this rig, mostly for steelhead, mostly on smallish great lakes tribs. My less-than-perfect casting results were totally adequate.
This summer and fall, I've started regularly fishing on the Salmon River in New York. It's bigger. A half-hearted cast won't cut it any more. I struggled the first few times out, trying to determine the problem - was it my technique? Was it the rod? Was it the line?
Well, after racking up the hours, I got to the point where I can cast consistently, without thinking about what I'm doing. This took maybe 100-150 hours of on-the-water time. Also, I went to that speynation event, and cast a whole bunch of other rigs. It was very enlightening. Getting the consistency in my technique and knowing what it felt like to cast a properly balanced rig left me feeling like it HAD to be the rig.
It also left me with a direction to go in. This rod is labeled a 6 wt, and the manufacturer suggests 290 grains. When I was casting it back to back with rods from other manufacturers (Redington, Sage, Scott, Echo) the consistent feeling I had was that my rod was a LOT stiffer/heavier than other "6wt" rods.
Also, now that I've got some good exposure to the whole switch/spey world, I've decided that I'd be totally happy swinging streamers 100% of the time with this rod, I don't really need or want to use it for drifting nymphs.
All this put together put me back on the hunt for some more bargains, so I could get a "proper" setup for this rod. The final straw was hooking in to a monster King salmon up on the Salmon River. That thing took off downriver like a freight train, and when I reached up to dial in a bit more drag, that cheap Cabella's reel basically called it quits. The drag suddenly got way light, resulting in a big snarl of line flying off the reel, jamming in the guides, and causing the fish to break off. I'm sure you'll all be mumbling "I told you so." I will still keep the Cabella's reel for lighter-duty use, but now I was in the market for a new reel, too.
For backing, I picked up a giant spool of white 30# dacron on Amazon for $18. No more buying 100 yards at a time with every reel, this should last a while. For running line, I decided to try mono and ordered a giant spool of Trilene Big Game in Solar Collector green - I like the price/performance ratio and the high-visibility aspect of the color. For a head, I found a 400 grain SA Skagit Extreme on eBay for $24.
For a reel, I knew I needed something with a more-reliable drag. No more cheapo reels for this rig. I'd really admired the Hardy Ultralite reels that several vendors at the speynation were using for their demo rigs. As luck would have it, they were on closeout on backcountry.com so I picked one up with a coupon (the 7000 DD) for just over $100.
The unplanned bonus of this setup is that I'm now flying the green, white, and gold of the Irish flag on my reel.
I can't say enough good things about this setup. The mono line shoots well, doesn't tangle, and I find the handling perfectly acceptable - I haven't had it slip and it mends better than I expected. The head is able to throw the flies I need and turns over well. The reel is a piece of art, and the drag has proven totally capable of playing big fish. Just this past Saturday I had what was probably my largest King ever on the line, fought it right up to the net, only to have it toss the hook and swim away while I was scooping it out of the water. I'm gonna go start another thread about that, but suffice to say, the reel did a GREAT job.
I feel like reaching out to Douglas to tell them their rods are under-rated, but I'd assume they know this. Or maybe it's me, after all. But the 400 grain skagit head has woken this rod up, even if it's way over the 290 grain suggestion. The rod needs a compact stroke (compared to some of the longer rods I cast at speynation) but it loads well and feels much more energetic with the extra weight in the head. It feels like I'm casting a lively spring now, instead of a wet noodle. I can launch a fly as far as I need to, but even just up close, the rod is lively and I can use a very small flick to toss it around up close.
I'm now in a point where I'm totally happy with my "budget" rig, even if the budget had to be expanded past the original number. My casting is consistent and I can easily put a fly right on the opposite bank of the Salmon River, which is the biggest water I'm ever likely to fish. I'm trying not to let my ego get to me, but on each of the last 3 or 4 days I've been up there, I've had people stop and watch, then compliment my casting and/or ask if I had any tips for them. I'll take this as a good sign that I've got things dialed in. ?
