Switch rods

[wgmiller]

Anyone have one? Anyone ever use one? Pros/cons?

 

[Acristickid]

Not me. But uhmm..I think Fred has.

 

[jdaddy]

Anyone have one? Anyone ever use one? Pros/cons?

Somebody got sucked in by switch and spey on the SR this weekend I would say. LOL.

Fredrick definitely has experience with them and I am sure he will chime in. Think Jerry uses one too, but it's on 10 ft wide streams so his experience is not real.

 

[bam]

I have a Reddington CPX? 5wt. Good backbone for controling fish, yet they have a slower action which makes for good nymph fishing. The reach allows you to mend line easily. They chuck lead well and can sling a weighted streamer across a river with ease.

Cons. They're heavy and will wear on you. Don't get caught with one during a hatch.

 

[gfen]

Cabela's 11'3" LST 6/8.

In a word: Meh.

In a paragraph: Meh, but probably less so if I owned a proper spey or skagit line, or even a 7wt DT. Useless with a 6WF, overloads like a mother with 8WF, and I found that I was hucking a full 7WF line with it, all in regular overhand casting. Which makes me wonder "why bother?" Its heavy, and kinda floppy, and I don't see to have the timing for two hand overhead, and spey casts are baffling.

 

[gfen]

jdaddy wrote:
Think Jerry uses one too, but it's on 10 ft wide streams so his experience is not real.

Actually, its my "big water rod," and I use it on the Lehigh. Also tried ocean side this year, _that_ was a mistake.

I receive more pleasure from my 10' Jim Teeny, but again, I'm not doing two handed stuff with it, so its kinda wasted.

General consensus on spey boards, from my light reading, is if you're gonna do it..do it right and buy a spey rod. Switch rods keep the hands too close for the cool spey stuff.

 

[mrflyfish]

I own a Beulah 6/7 10.5' switch It is the bomb on big water such as the Allegheny River. I must say one needs to do quite a bit of research on the rods and lines. All the rods out there my require vastly different lines. 100+' casts are the norm.

 

[wgmiller]

jdaddy wrote:

Anyone have one? Anyone ever use one? Pros/cons?

Somebody got sucked in by switch and spey on the SR this weekend I would say. LOL.

Yeah, you could kinda say that! :-D I can see where the spey/switch guys had an advantage on such a river. But I was thinking for other places that I fish on occasion as well that it might come in handy (Sinnemahoning Creek, Susky, etc.). I'm just intrigued by being able to cover water that a normal fly caster can't.

But I also don't need to get into a whole other set of lines, tackle, etc. If I could toss my Allen reel onto a switch rod, then I'd be talkin'! I don't want to be like someone else and have rod boxes sitting outside my garage for the trash man to pick up

 

[jdaddy]

Hey, I'm just lucky she didn't pull off the invoices on the outside of the boxes. I think she knew better.

I remember when we were in the upper fly zone, saying something along the lines that a switch rod is simply putting your toe in the spey water. I can see where the switch could be beneficial to some degree (after all the fly rod I used on that trip as 10'6") however, the switch rod really doesn't have the true 2 hander capacity like the spey with all it's cool 100 foot casts. A long single handed rod or a true spey seem like the logical choices to me i.e. what Gfen said.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

I got 13'6 8wt. It's frustrating as hell but the 6 outta 10 casts I pull off with it is frigggin awsome. Gettin my chops up for a trip up to the "Cat" next year big swing water up ther.

 

[Acristickid]

What is the difference between a switch rod and spey rod?

Different uses? Can you nymph or dry fly fish with these rods?

 

[gfen]

Not sure if this is a loaded question meant to provoke introspection on the nature of fly fishing, and man's desire to classify and nuance things until the romance is dead and only cold, hard and impersonal information is remaining.

Or, if you're really asking.

Coz, well, the answer goes anyway you want, I guess.

A spey rod is specially evolved rod to lend itself to two-handed spey style casting, but you can do spey casting with one hand on any rod ever made.

You can also overhand cast a two-handed spey rod, but due to the size and weight of it, its pretty much not a one handed rod. If you gave a spey rod to a giant, he could effectively use it like a single hand rod.

Could you fish dry flies or nymph? Sure, but given the size of a spey rod, I'm not sure the effectiviness of a size 8/0 Adams on the local trout.

So, what's a spey rod? A fly rod with two handed use.

What's a switch rod? A fly rod with optional two handed use. To steal Dungeons and Dragons nerd terms, a switch rod is a hand-and-a-half rod.

 

[gfen]

in case my PM never makes it, sent something to ya, wsender.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

gfen wrote:
If you gave a spey rod to a giant, he could effectively use it like a single hand rod.

:-D

 

[gfen]

Heritage-Angler wrote:

gfen wrote:
If you gave a spey rod to a giant, he could effectively use it like a single hand rod.

:-D

Point, you.

 

[sandfly]

I use a 14' 9/10 old fenwick and have a lot of fun with it. its soft for doing double speys but will throw over 100 foot over heads also. top heavy for sure. got to tape the ferrules together so I don't blow the top off. lots of fun just has its place, like using a 00wt. rod has its place too..

I have a 10'8" switch too. great for pine creek even through drys during a hatch. you need to get the right line for what you want to do. and that could cost you, trying out different ones to see which is best for what you intend to do with it. For fishing steel its great for swinging flys on places like the Catt.

 

[afishinado]

sandfly wrote:
I use a 14' 9/10 old fenwick and have a lot of fun with it. its soft for doing double speys but will throw over 100 foot over heads also. top heavy for sure. got to tape the ferrules together so I don't blow the top off. lots of fun just has its place, like using a 00wt. rod has its place too..

I have a 10'8" switch too. great for pine creek even through drys during a hatch. you need to get the right line for what you want to do. and that could cost you, trying out different ones to see which is best for what you intend to do with it. For fishing steel its great for swinging flys on places like the Catt.

Sandy,

Do you two-hand cast with the switch, spey cast, or use it most as a single handed casting rod?

Sandy can spey or two-hand cast with the best of them, but I find many guys buy a switch and use it as a single hand casting rod. If that's the case, a 10' conventional fly rod would be a better choice for most. It's lighter and easier to cast and fish a conventional rod and line.

If you want to cross over (Sandy goes both ways), I would bet that he would give lessons. :lol:

 

[sandfly]

Yeah I go both ways just ask beadhead2.lol.....I cast my switch both ways I like doing 2 handed cast (takes to hands to handle the -------....) I do give lessons for both too.. with the right line spey casting is fun, but the overhead is really what the switch likes..

 

[Acristickid]

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