Switch & Spey Rod Lines Made Simple

[Jeff Putnam]

Hi anglers! Hope everyone is getting time to fish...what a year and fall its going to be!
I put a page on my site which addresses the most asked question I get... besides "how do you cast them?" are "What rod, line, reel, tips and why?"
Lines reels and rods are constantly changing and being at the forefront of such a quickly evolving sport and working with manufactures has allowed me to make it very simple to explain which lines and tips go on which rods. The question you'll have to ask yourself is how many grains should my line weigh? It depends on the overall feel and the size of fly and conditions you're fishing. If I want to cast a 7 weight spey rod with a huge fly and heavy tip, I'd better have enough grains in the line (480-530) to tow the tip and fly to my target.

Hope it helps and please pass it on.

http://jpflyfishing.com/groupclasses/castingclasses/line_leader_config.index.htm

Thanks, JP

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Very nice...........thanks Jeff.

[Grampa Spey]

Good job, Jeff.

As a two handed hacker over about a decade, it seems like the rod manufacturers constantly under recommend the grain weight for mere mortals to cast their rods. Their recommended weights probably work for the great casters who appear at the SpeyoRama contests and the really good casters on the American (some are the same good people).

However, for the rest of us, the weight/grain recommendations seem to be on the low side.

Two of my favorite rods fall into your recommendations and a tad heavier. My Sage ZA 7110/7136 perform very well with Rio's Skagit Flight 550, (I don't use the regular Rio Skagit anymore). Rio's Versi Tips workl, but the Rio T11 MOW tips seem to work the best with these combos. For non deep water, with my ZA 7136, if I use my AFS 7/8F 480 grain head, Rio's 15' Floating Spey leader @ 56 grains or their 15' 1.5 IPS leader @ 75 grains put those combos just a little over your recommendations, and they work well with a good size range of flies.

Finding a line heavy enough but not too long of a head for my Death Star was a real challenge. Fortunately Steve Godshall took pity on me at a SpeyoRama and cut/sliced/diced/fine tuned one of his SGS Skandit lines for me. The weight is way past 7 weight recs. It and the T11 MOWs make my Death Star manageable and enjoyable.

You might want to try the MOWs to see how they fit in with your recommendations. The MOWs and the Skagit Flight make life easy re what to have with you and what to use.

Again, Good job Jeff!

Best Regards, Dave



"The question you'll have to ask yourself is how many grains should my line weigh? It depends on the overall feel and the size of fly and conditions you're fishing. If I want to cast a 7 weight spey rod with a huge fly and heavy tip, I'd better have enough grains in the line (480-530) to tow the tip and fly to my target.

Hope it helps and please pass it on.

http://jpflyfishing.com/groupclasses/castingclasses/line_leader_config.index.htm

Thanks, JP

[gitt]

What length did you end up with on the T11 and what did you have for your loop connection? I tried the poly tips and noticed quite a bit of cracking and separation on their sinktips on the outer core- sometimes the separation was 3 inches while one continued to grow to over 6 inches within a few days of fishing.

Thanks in advance.

[Lance Gray]

Nice Jeff, Hell I even pick up a few things. I hope everyone uses it and learns from it.

Lance Gray
530-517-2204
http://www.lancegrayandcompany.com

[Flash101]

Jeff, your article recommends against using versileaders with Skagit heads - why is that? I commonly use the 15' versileaders and it seems to work fine. Just curious why you reach this conclusion - thank you.

[Rick J]

Flash - normally full tips - either floating or sinking (15' types or any T-type tips including MOWs) are normally used with skagit heads. Polytips/versa leaders replacing the standard tips are generally much lighter in grains than typical standard tips and the abrupt change in grains per foot between the front end of a skagit head and the grains per foot of a versa leader normally does not react well and will not provide smooth transition of power and turnover.
You can use these tips to replace your mono leader

[Flash101]

Thank you, Rick.

[Jeff Putnam]

Rick, well said... also you'll notice the anchor really sticks when the tip is closer to 12' and weighs around 100-140 grains depending on the weight of the skagit head. Versa leaders are my go to Scandi Head Tip (40-60 gr.) and can sink up to 6 ips....perfect for med to small flies!
Lets go steelhead fishing! Rogue again next week! JP