For those of you who are thinking about a spey rod.

[hookedupanglers]

I love to fish for steelhead, and I love to swing for them. Up until last month I had never even held a spey rod let alone tried to cast one. After all my buddies got hooked on spey fishing I felt a little left out. Not anymore, I picked up a new z-axis 7136-4 spey rod from kienes a few days ago. Last night I finally had some time to play with it for a while. I was amazed by how easy and friendly the rod performed. It was easy to load and I was able to send a good amount of line out over the run I was fishing. This is my first big spey rod so I really don’t have much to compare it to. I was impressed with the ability to cover good water I couldn’t reach effectively with my single hand. It was like a light bulb came on and I could see the river in a whole new way. Being able to shoot a fly 70+ feet to a slow deep run against a cliff is great. Being able to mend the fly and bring it to a complete stop at that distance is even better. Line control is awesome with the longer rods available today. The combination of a spey rod and a casting lesson from Jeff Putnam is a fun and new way to get after those winter Steelhead. If you have ever thought about trying spey casting, don’t put it off any longer. I wish I had tried it a long time ago.

[Paul B.]

If I keep reading reports like this it's going to wind up costing me a lot of money. PB

[Rick J]

They are great new toys - I started around 6 years or so ago and have never looked back - I rarely use a single hander anymore when steelhead fishing - just another aspect to try and master which is lots of fun!

And a great idea to try and get lessons - this will cut the learning curve down a huge amount and Jeff is as good as an instructor as you will find!!

[Adam Grace]

gs1dad, spey outfits are a little bit more expensive than single=handed setups. You could get started for around $500-600 for a complete setup. With more inexpensive spey rods being manufactured these days you can pick a rod for much less than a few years ago. The reel need to hold about 2 line sizes above the required spey line, and these bigger reels are also cheaper now. The lines can be pricey around $150 for a multi-tip line but that line is really all you need.

Rick, I agree. Spey fishing is great!