Can't help you with one of those two handers that I'm curious how much luck you've had swinging.
Well I got one steelhead on my two day trip. I did buy a light full sink 10' head, but I thought the 40 degree water would make them active instead they were on full spawning.
Never the less. I found my 11'6" switch rod to be so much more of a tool that does better job then I thought. I kind of seeing this outside the box. This is my third trip of using this rod and really the first time with a proper Skagit setup.
I caught my fish doing traditional nymphing with split shot 40" from my fly. I caught it with about 35 feet of line and a 10' leader on a light floating moh tip.
My nephew with his similar rod caught a nice steelhead with traditional nymphing about 50' away. I couldn't believe we could effectively and easily handle these distances.
So I now have a spare spool and a 150 grain Skagit Head and a floating tip to use with my 10' 4wt rod. I found that not casting and just roll casting made nymphing with splt shot or under a bobber super easy. I never tangled my lines. Mending was on steriods and getting a drift easier.
I am traditionally a upstream fly fishermen. I never see people doing switch cast upstream but already in vision it fixing so many of its short comings. It's easier to cast longer casts, easier to handle and more importantly get longer effective drift from upstream.
I see a 11'6" 3 wt trout Spey in my future for trout and smallies.
