Every year I fish with people who have came here hoping for a shot at either Kings or Silvers on their Spey rods. And every single one brings with them rods rigged with Skagit heads. Sometimes there will be a question regarding casting and I have to take those rods and demonstrate either how to or where to...….. I'm an adaptable guy and have managed not to make a fool of myself with the short heads but have been thinking for a couple years that I needed to put a rig together so I could hone some Skagit cred for myself.
I went with the Rio Skagit Max which is the 28 foot head, it's a 550 grain and I keep an 11 foot tip made of Z-9 on it all the time. Combine that tip with a weighted fly and I can effectively dredge most of the channels I fish. I'll be taking it along today in about and hour or 2 because we've had some rain and I have no way to know what conditions will be like. Yes there is a USGS river gage but that gage is 60 miles upstream of where I'm headed. The average speed of current and I mean overall average is about 3.5 mph for those 60 miles so whatever the gage says I am dealing with the water where I'm at not where the gage is...…….. Just this past Tuesday I had been on the same river scouting those 60 miles for the third day. When I crawled into my tent Monday at dark I was aware that there was a snag on the opposite side of the river from my little camp. How was I aware of that snag? One of the last things I did Monday was to shoot a fly over there and become immediately caught on it. Due to lighting, my angle of view and the fact that it was hardly causing a stir on the surface I cast directly above it and behind toward the bank. Oops, the moral of the story is that when I came back out into the rather cold daylight the next day that snag was sticking nearly 4" out of the water.
By the time I had broke camp and used the motor in the Mokai to head downriver I caught up with the high water by 1 PM. That's the nature of the water levels at this time of year so having the Skagit along to throw long heavy tips will be a positive thing I think. Of course there is an official Skagit rod so I won't have to be swapping reels and lines. I can rig the long belly with my homemade intermediate leader system and have the deep set up also. I'm actually looking forward to being able to fish this way and will take some pictures while I'm out today.
I went with the Rio Skagit Max which is the 28 foot head, it's a 550 grain and I keep an 11 foot tip made of Z-9 on it all the time. Combine that tip with a weighted fly and I can effectively dredge most of the channels I fish. I'll be taking it along today in about and hour or 2 because we've had some rain and I have no way to know what conditions will be like. Yes there is a USGS river gage but that gage is 60 miles upstream of where I'm headed. The average speed of current and I mean overall average is about 3.5 mph for those 60 miles so whatever the gage says I am dealing with the water where I'm at not where the gage is...…….. Just this past Tuesday I had been on the same river scouting those 60 miles for the third day. When I crawled into my tent Monday at dark I was aware that there was a snag on the opposite side of the river from my little camp. How was I aware of that snag? One of the last things I did Monday was to shoot a fly over there and become immediately caught on it. Due to lighting, my angle of view and the fact that it was hardly causing a stir on the surface I cast directly above it and behind toward the bank. Oops, the moral of the story is that when I came back out into the rather cold daylight the next day that snag was sticking nearly 4" out of the water.
By the time I had broke camp and used the motor in the Mokai to head downriver I caught up with the high water by 1 PM. That's the nature of the water levels at this time of year so having the Skagit along to throw long heavy tips will be a positive thing I think. Of course there is an official Skagit rod so I won't have to be swapping reels and lines. I can rig the long belly with my homemade intermediate leader system and have the deep set up also. I'm actually looking forward to being able to fish this way and will take some pictures while I'm out today.