switch or spey?
- Thread starter jujim
- Start date
mcnerney
Administrator
mcnerney
Administrator
dillon
Well-known member
A switch is shorter than a Spey and one can cast it with one or two hands. There are single handedrods, two handed rods, and switch handedness rods...
Unknownflyman
Well-known member
You need both. Plan accordingly. 
huronfly
Well-known member
The term switch can be a little misleading. Very few people actually "switch" between one/two hands or spey/overhead casting. To me they're both double handed spey rods.
Switch rods are simply shorter spey or double handed rods.... 9.5' to 12' in length. They've been around for over a hundred years...yet the term is a modern term....coined in the US, by RB Meiser who refined them and opened their potential with modern materials 30 years ago.
"Bob Meiser is the American author of the switch rod. The term “switch” got that moniker because a day of casting multiple types of fly lines to ascertain the best performing combination for that “new” short Spey rod resulted in a comment about so damn much “switching” and voilà, “switch.”
The first switch rods were nine foot, nine inches and made by Meiser for angling friends who were sick and tired of physical demands created by double hauling in preparation for each single-handed cast. That was in the mid-1970s.
The first switch rod ever sold as a company product was by R. B. Meiser Fly Rods. That was in the mid-1980s."
Highlander Switch Rods - R.B. Meiser Fly Rods
Yes you can switch back and forth with single and double hand casting and switch from high sticking nymphs or indy fishing or swinging streamers with a switch rod where you won't with a longer spey rod...but that is not where the term is derived from.
In the end it is a wonderful tool that has opened my eyes to a completely new way of fishing and for it I am grateful. I have become a much better angler and caster because it has made things easier.
Whether this praise be to Mr Meiser or some nameless gentleman from the UK that first made a shorter bamboo double handed rod 100+ years ago...... is really irrelevant. I'll give it to both.
"Bob Meiser is the American author of the switch rod. The term “switch” got that moniker because a day of casting multiple types of fly lines to ascertain the best performing combination for that “new” short Spey rod resulted in a comment about so damn much “switching” and voilà, “switch.”
The first switch rods were nine foot, nine inches and made by Meiser for angling friends who were sick and tired of physical demands created by double hauling in preparation for each single-handed cast. That was in the mid-1970s.
The first switch rod ever sold as a company product was by R. B. Meiser Fly Rods. That was in the mid-1980s."
Highlander Switch Rods - R.B. Meiser Fly Rods
Yes you can switch back and forth with single and double hand casting and switch from high sticking nymphs or indy fishing or swinging streamers with a switch rod where you won't with a longer spey rod...but that is not where the term is derived from.
In the end it is a wonderful tool that has opened my eyes to a completely new way of fishing and for it I am grateful. I have become a much better angler and caster because it has made things easier.
Whether this praise be to Mr Meiser or some nameless gentleman from the UK that first made a shorter bamboo double handed rod 100+ years ago...... is really irrelevant. I'll give it to both.
coug
Well-known member
Uncle Stu
Well-known member
I must be one of the few... I fish an 11'6" switch almost all the time nowadays, and somwetimes I do find myself casting it one handed, but rarely. Not sure why, maybe because my two hand casting still sucks for the most part. However, doing that defeats my whole purpose of fishing 2H which is to pamper my bad shoulder. Whenever I cast my switch rod with one hand, my shoulder complains. So I go back to two. (Side note--I'm not spey casting, I'm casting overhead with two hands in the surf)
Uncle Stu
Well-known member
Chet--I don't have a rod for sale, but I got my Echo Classic switch from Gig Harbor Fly Shop for a good discount, and they still had them last time I checked... on Fleabay.