Almost done dialing in my 5wt

[Adam Grace]

I had a great evening on the American tonight, no fish caught but I have finally balanced my 12' 5wt Echo TR to the point that each cast "sings" to me. The joys of spey casting were with me even more tonight.

I have to exclaim my love and enjoyment for the Airflo Rage heads. The 420gr Rage tosses medium sized sink tips wonderfully and even turns over fairly bulky trout sized streamers, even tube flies. The Rage also has enough of a front taper to also make some fairly delicate casts, especially when a longer poly leader is added. Speaking of a more delicate cast, tonight I borrowed a Rio Steelhead Scandi head from our "Kiene's spey head library" and I enjoyed it very much when fishing light flies and using the single spey cast. The Rage is great with a Snap-T, the Scandi was great with both the Snap-T and the Single Spey. The only line type that I am missing is a good long belly line or head for full-on Single Spey style of fishing. I haven't tried the Nextcast Fall Favorite heads yet. I want to try the 5/6F line because I hate all the stripping of the running line when I'm "greased-line" fishing. I'd rather carry a longer head outside of the rod tip and strip less when I'm using small flies like when I fish for spring run steelies.

Does anyone have a recommendation that has worked for their small spey rods?

[sfspey]

You might like a ballistic vector line

[Adam Grace]

sfspey, thank you for the recommendation. I'll check out the specs for that line.

[Ben J]

I loved the fall favorite 5/6 on my Redington cpx 6126. Makes me want to try it out on my 5120 vxp. That little rod seems to handle everything I try on it... great line for the klamath... I really liked the TR 5120 when I tried it out

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I want to try a Nextcast 5/6 Fall Favorite 45' head on my 6 weight Spey rod.

[troutless]

I don't have experience with the Echo rods, but I use a Vector 5/6 on an ACR 1195-5 and it works well.

The NextCast lines run heavier. For floating work, the FF 45 5/6 I like on a six weight, or even a seven, the 6/7 on a seven, and so forth. For tips I might go to the heavier rating.

Roughly speaking the head weights of the Vector are similar to NextCast one line size lighter, the Vectors lengthening faster with line rating:

Vector 5/6: 390 gr@45'
Vector 6/7: 440gr@49' FF45 5/6: 460gr@40'
Vector 7/8: 500gr@52' FF45 6/7: 510gr@42' FF55 6/7 520gr@51'
Vector 8/9: 570gr@55' FF45 7/8: 570gr@44' FF55 7/8 580gr@53'
Vector 9/10: 650gr@60' FF45 8/9: 630gr@46' FF55 8/9 650gr@55'