Help with trout Spey Skagit Setup

[durangobrad]

I want to make spey casts for swinging streamers through the deeper longer runs of my local rivers (San Juan, Animas, Rio Grande, etc. I currently do it with a single handed 6/7 weight with a short intermediate sink tip line (6-8 ft). I picked up a 12ft 2/3 im6 blank from anglers roost and will be building that shortly. The streamers I tie and use usually have some sort of weight to them, cone head, a few lead wraps, etc.

A bargain online website has 11' Rio Trout Max Skagit heads on sale for $29. It seams to me that the 250 grain would be a good place to start.

Now im looking at different tips that would fit the bill for to get my flies down in the water column a little. MOW tips? Am I on the right track here?

What about running line?

Im completely new to this and dont know anyone that does it around here. I appreciate your help.

 

[Unknownflyman]

Sure as long as you are ordering the head rated for your single hand rod you will be fine. Every line manufacturer has suggested mow tip size for the grain line you are using.

I personally use another brand but it’s all based on the same concept.

Please keep in mind there are limits to the payload any line will carry and there is a lot of refining after you get some time on the water.

This whole spey single and two handed thing lends to some improvements and line and tip adjustments down the road as needed for the size of fly, conditions present and desired approach to presenting a fly.

The important thing is to start with the suggested line and tips for the fly fishing you want to do unless it’s entirely unusable you will adjust and figure out more down the road.

Personally I started with two hands and while I single hand cast very well I don’t dig it because I’m always looking for my handle on the other side of the reel. Also two handed casting is way easier on the body for me not just one shoulder doing the work, I’m balenced out.

Do your research but don’t overthink it too much like I did, just get on the road,

GL. Happy swings

 

[ddb]

Look up Steve Godshall on the inet. He knows those ARE tapers as well as anyone and he also makes custom fly lines -- high quality, modest price -- that he can tailor to your rod and specific wants and needs.

You can't go wrong just talking to him. And you could be very happy with one of his lines. Be ready to explain just what you want to do with the rod and the water conditions you frequently fish.

I have several of his lines and they way outperform the big name brands on my two ARE UHM trout speys.

I own no stock in his operation.

ddb

 

[flav]

Yes, Steve Godshall is awesome, I've had him make a couple lines for anglers roost rods I've built. It's worth talking to him even if you don't have him make a line for you. If you don't want to go that way contact the guys at OPST. Tell them what blank you have and what you want to do with it and they'll give you a recommendation.

 

[huronfly]

As the guys already mentioned, Steve is a line wizard has done testing with many anglers roost blanks, so for rec'd grain rating he'd be your guy. As for tips, sounds like you want to be able to throw a little bit of payload... MOW or iMOW(light, 80gr) tips will work good for those purposes. You could also try various lengths of T4,T6, or T8.

 

[durangobrad]

Thanks Everyone, I was able to find Steve's email address on some of the forums, email sent!

 

[eastfly66]

I think for SH you should be looking at OPST Commando head and tips. If you buy tips for the 250 Trout Max you want the iMOW (light) (T8) although that is a good price I would be looking at the kit from commando and save yourself some headache.

 

[Unknownflyman]

OPST also released their smooth line for single hand spey.

Integrated running line like fly line, very nice for single hand and can be easily stripped in to the leader.

Liked them very much at the spey clave. Hopefully they will release a switch rod version in heavier weights for Steelhead and smallmouth bass.

 

[durangobrad]

I don't plan to make single hand cast with this rod. I want it to be truely a light spey setup.

I also want to be able to easily switch to different heads (scandi and Skagit) throughout the day. I don't mind having the loop to loop connections especially in the early stages of figuring out what line weights will work best.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[eastfly66]

The 250 grain your looking at on sale is the same one I use on my 3 wt trout spey with iMOW tips (light) and I use a 240 grain @ 29' Rio Scandi with either the Lazer line or Rio shooting line I think .024) The Laser line shoots better but is hard to feel in the cold.

 

[ryc72]

you may want to consider a longer head for your 12' rod. when figuring out lines and stuff for my loomis imx pro short spey (3wt 11'11") i started out with a 15ft skagit head (think it was a skagit scout) with 10ft tips and i kept blowing my anchor. switched to a 20ft skagit max short with 10ft tips and it was a world of difference for me. sustained anchor casting became much much easier with a lot more distance. also 23ft scandi with a 10ft floating tip works awesome for touch and go casts. considering that your rod length is actually longer than the head length you are looking at, im not sure how you are going to sweep without blowing your anchor unless the plane of your sweep stays very close to the water the whole way around which i think would create a host of other problems. im still very much a beginner and i know i can tighten up my casts as ive seen others cast the same rod with a 15ft head but i cant recall the last time ive heard or read about someone doing sustained anchor casts with skagit head that are shorter than the rod length itself. hope others with more experience and knowledge can opine.

 

[ddb]

A 12 foot OPST head with overhang should cast fine w/o blowing the anchor. I suspect mechanics and timing were the cause rather than head length.

My ARE rods handle the OPST heads fine

ddb

 

[ryc72]

not to hijack the thread but yeah, i definitely have some wood to chop when it comes to mechanics. need to tighten everything up some.

 

[chief17]

I prefer OPST Lazar for running line. Tried Slick Shooter and Grip Shooter, wasn't bad but I liked the Lazar better. I also tried Berkeley Big Game mono...absolutely horrible. I know a lot folks have recommended it (including Ed Ward), but my God did it twist in a hurry. There was nothing that I could do to get the memory out of it once it twisted and curled.

 

[bigal36]

Recently got a OPST skagit line (225 gr) with tips for my 9' 5wt.

I went out and tried to cast, based on video instruction and it was nothing short of ugly. I attached 3' of 2x tippet to the directly to the line, without a tip.

1. Do you need to have a sinking tip for proper power transfer?

2. Is my rod to short at 9'

 

[eastfly66]

Recently got a OPST skagit line (225 gr) with tips for my 9' 5wt.

I went out and tried to cast, based on video instruction and it was nothing short of ugly. I attached 3' of 2x tippet to the directly to the line, without a tip.

1. Do you need to have a sinking tip for proper power transfer?

2. Is my rod to short at 9'

Yes, they are designed to be cast with a tip of some type either floato rsink but you need a tip. A 10' for the 905.

 

[bigal36]

Yes, they are designed to be cast with a tip of some type either floato rsink but you need a tip. A 10' for the 905.

Gottcha...not sure what you mean by 10' 905?

 

[bigal36]

Yes, they are designed to be cast with a tip of some type either floato rsink but you need a tip. A 10' for the 905.

Ah...never mind, got it. Duh!!

 

[dillon]

The streamers I tie and use usually have some sort of weight to them, cone head, a few lead wraps, etc.

I don't have a trout rod but do you all think a 2/3 wt Spey is heavy enough to handle weighted streamers?

When I'm spey casting for steelhead I like to cast unweighted or very lightly weighted flies and rely on the tip to get it down.

 

[eastfly66]

If you find your still having a hard time with casting the system bigAl chances are the problem is "too"...

Too much power
Too much speed/too fast
Too wide a casting arch

slow down and let the rod do the casting.