New to Spey and a thanks...
Hello all,
I posted some of this on another site and forum but this one I wanted to say some things on to thank some deserving people.
I'm an average fly fisherman and… I was told… I have a decent tight easy casing style with better than average control and distance. I have and use a 4, 5, 6, and 8wt one hand set ups (Actually, the 5 wt is the wife's).
At a family gathering last year, I expressed an interest in trying out a Spey casting. From the questions asked I should have known… because on Christmas I was presented with a rod and reel. Both are off brands but seem acceptable to try Spey casting The rod is a Northern Guide Spey Fly Rod 13 Foot 6 inch 8 9 WT 4 Piece Sage and the reel is a AB Large Arbor CNC Aluminium 9 11 Salmon Fly Fishing Reel.
Certainly a poor man’s starter setup but I’d be reluctant to spend more at this time after adding the cost of the fly lines and a lesson.
The reel is out of the UK, but there are no markings as to its origin…maybe China or even India possibly a Brytec. It’s fully machined from billet aluminum. There were some post on a UK site about them, but I think they were all the cast/machined versions. Their comments were the reels were OK for the most part.
The rod, as I said, was a 13' 6" Spey 8/9. I was able to track down where bought the rod and they were nice enough to take it back and in exchange for the 12' 7", 7/8 version.
No one I could find knows anything about the Northern Guide rods and it had no grain weight listing. Knowing nothing about Spey I was undecided on which lines to use as a beginner… however, I was leaning toward a Scandi after doing a little web searching. I would like to try a traditional short head some day.
I live within twenty minutes of the California delta and less than hour from the Lower, lower Sacramento and American Rivers.
I spent some time at Kiene's Fly Shop in Sacramento the other day getting the feel of different Spey rods. Ironically, when doing a direct cast flex comparison the Northern Guide felt closest to their CF Burkheimer 7127-4 7 Wt. So much for thinking that would help…I’m not sure you can make that sort of comparison.
I was also, with Kiene's help, able to get in contact with Jeff Putnam for lesson. That lesson was this past Monday afternoon but since we were having a bit of a heat wave (104 to 109) ... we rescheduled for earlier in the day. He promised to bring a number of lines for me to try so that with his help, I could see what line worked best for me and this rod.
Mind you, I’d never touched a spey prior to lesson with Jeff, and I was quite happy with his patience plus his method of introduction into Spey casting. We worked through the basic “D” loop, then into a single Spey cast, and followed that with a double Spey, then a snap “T” along with direction change.
He gave me an excellent foundation for setting up my “D” loop, anchor point, anchor point shape, and key ‘eye point triggers’ for timing and moving from each phase of the cast to the next. He answered my questions, and continually reinforced the key points of the cast, then finished with an excellent summary.
Jeff brought, as promised, different weight lines for me to try and we settled on a Rio Scandi Shooting Head 450gr 34ft. Then after the lesson I stopped at the fly shop (Kiene’s) and bought that line. I also decided on a Rio shooting line .035, though this may be considered ideally better suited for a 575gr plus head it felt better in my fingers for retrieval.
At Jeff’s suggestion, I also pickup three Rio Spey VersiLeaders in a Float, 3.9 IPS, and a 7.0 IPS 24lb. to complete the setup. Jeff, on his own, called Kiene’s before I got there to assure I got the right shooting head and weight. My thanks’ to Jeff and the people at Kiene’s
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Originally Posted by Rick J
the addiction has begun!
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