Short head spey line

[walap24]

I have a question that may seem silly to seasoned spey and fly Fishers. I recently started salmon fishing and on the banks of the salmon river up in Pulaski New York I learned about the advantages of fly fishing and spey fishing as opposed to baitcasters and spinning reels. So after consulting with those on this form and a few seasoned fisherman I went out and got a heavy duty setup. A 10 weight fly rod and 10/11 reel. I have backing and tippet line the only thing that I'm missing is the fly line itself. I'm considering buying Rio 10/11 730g short head spey line, there's a pretty good sale going on, but I'm not sure if there is a difference between this line and normal fly line? I understand the difference in between spey casting and overhead casting . The rod that I have can be used with two hands, as it has the lower handle. The rod is advertised as a fly rod though. The salmon run is almost over the steelhead run should start soon, so I'm looking to be set up for that. Being a complete novice any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Ard]

I will move this post to the Spey fishing sub forums and with some luck you'll get some good replies.

A few things to provide in another post would be: What brand of rod and the length of the rod. one other thing to provide is the head or belly length of the line you have in mind. If you don't have a particular head length in mind then this is where our guys who use similar rods will be able to help out.

I have a 10/11 rod but it is 15 foot long, yours may not be that long. The one I use requires at least 800 grains and I use an 875 grain line. I would guess that in a short head you may be able to get by with the 730 you mentioned.

Ard

 

[walap24]

Thanks for moving in Ard. I was trying to do that myself but couldn't get it figured out. Just to clarify I am using a 9-foot Ugly Stik big water fly rod with an Okuma SLV reel. I do not have enough knowledge of fly or spey line to say anything about head or belly length.

 

[Ard]

You're welcome, let me go take a look at the Rio website, I'll be right back................

---------- Post added at 09:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

Unless you want to deal with using a shooting head connected to a running / shooting line I'd be looking to a more simple approach like..... The Salt Water Outbound lines. Don't worry over the salt water designation, I think they even make a cold water model if you wanted it. They (Outbound) have a total length which includes the vinyl coated running line behind the head.

This should link to the line I scoped out; https://www.rioproducts.com/products/coldwater/intouch-outbound

If you look at the head design; it is 16 foot 6 inches before you reach the back body section. Depending on your height and a 9' rod a fellow could use these lines for single hand Spey casts as well as overhead casting. They are not a dedicated single hand Spey line by name however I have one that I use a lot. They will execute a Spey cast or provide good distance overhead casting.

This is only a suggestion from a guy who uses primarily long belly Spey lines. I am by no means a expert source for advice on matching a line to your rod. That said I would probably go with an outbound if I were lining your rod.

I hope someone having experience with a rod like yours will find this discussion and help out.

Ard

 

[huronfly]

In general starting out with spey casting, it is easiest to learn with a short head. As a very general rule of thumb your head+tip should be no longer than 2.5-3x length of the rod for ease of use as a beginner.

I've heard of people using outbound lines as Ard suggested, also check speypages, cheap spey lines are always up for sale there. If you can find a wulff ambush TT line or OPST commando line in your ballpark, those would also work great. I've use both for sub 10' rods and both work good.

Also a short belly spey line label can be a bit deceiving. It is still very long compared to a shooting head, they start at something like 45 or 50 feet, so much, much longer than the 2.5-3x rule. They are meant for bigger 2 handed rods.

 

[flytie09]

Walap.... you went with a pretty stout and short rod. It might have a fighting butt... but it's still considered a single hand fly rod. Your best bet at this point is a 375 grain or 400 grain OPST Commando line if you want to try spey casting at all. Most Of the normal Spey/Scandi/Skagit lines are for 11 ft and longer rods. The beauty of the Commando lines is you can use with a single or double hand rod.

Commando Heads

You'll need a tip to pair with it. These are MOW tips or OPST's series of tips. Malinda in Altmar carries the OPST series of lines. Go see her.

With this set up you'll be able to nymph and roll cast or Skagit cast larger streamers.

See this - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=re3wAZ9TR4g

Good luck.

ft09

 

[fredaevans]

If in doubt just call RIO! In the past, when I had questions, they were most responsive (even Simon!! He be the 2hander man!!:frogdance ) to my questions.

fae

 

[flytie09]

Fred is right on.... single hand spey is the new revolution in fly lines. Rio and now Scientic Anglers now carry single hand spey lines. I do again suggest you call OPST or Rio as Fred suggests or see these in person first. They're expensive and easy to get confused with the whole thing.

ft09

 

[fredaevans]

Fred is right on.... single hand spey is the new revolution in fly lines. Rio and now Scientic Anglers now carry single hand spey lines. I do again suggest you call OPST or Rio as Fred suggests or see these in person first. They're expensive and easy to get confused with the whole thing.

ft09

Gets my early day vote for 'understatement of the day.'

 

[walap24]

You're welcome, let me go take a look at the Rio website, I'll be right back................

---------- Post added at 09:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

Unless you want to deal with using a shooting head connected to a running / shooting line I'd be looking to a more simple approach like..... The Salt Water Outbound lines. Don't worry over the salt water designation, I think they even make a cold water model if you wanted it. They (Outbound) have a total length which includes the vinyl coated running line behind the head.

This should link to the line I scoped out; https://www.rioproducts.com/products/coldwater/intouch-outbound

If you look at the head design; it is 16 foot 6 inches before you reach the back body section. Depending on your height and a 9' rod a fellow could use these lines for single hand Spey casts as well as overhead casting. They are not a dedicated single hand Spey line by name however I have one that I use a lot. They will execute a Spey cast or provide good distance overhead casting.

This is only a suggestion from a guy who uses primarily long belly Spey lines. I am by no means a expert source for advice on matching a line to your rod. That said I would probably go with an outbound if I were lining your rod.

I hope someone having experience with a rod like yours will find this discussion and help out.

Ard

Just wanted to say thanks Ard. I appreciate your advice and wanted to let you know that I took your suggestion and got the rio outbound, thus far I am very happy with it.