Yesterday i added another weapon to my fish catching arsenal. And to me this one rod is one of the few true all round rods on the market today....
I was looking for a rod or rods to accomplish a couple of objectives....First, I wanted a floating line wet fly/skater steelhead rod. I currently own a 13'3" Redington RS4 spey rod. It is a very nice casting rod with either Skagit line and tips or longer floating lines like a Windcutter or GrandSpey. However, on rivers like the deschutes there is often times not alot of room the bigger D loops required for mid to long belly spey lines. Hence why the Skagit is so popular. But as i'm sure alot of you that spey fish have noticed. Delivering a small,light fly on a floating line,although doable is not the strength of a Skagit type line.
Second, I wanted a rod to use on steelhead rivers such as the rogue where alot of our fishing is done both from the bank and boat using a heavy double nymph rig and large indicator. Traditionally i have used a 9'6" 7wt single hand rod for this and it works fine out of the boat, but is limited from the bank due to the weight of the flies and lack of longer distance mending abilities...basically its too much work.
Third, i wanted a rod to replace the same 7wt single hander for large streamer,sinktip/sinking line large trout/bull trout fishing, both in rivers and more importantly in lakes. I'm talking about large brown trout and Bull Trout in particular.
I have done alot of research and decided that i was going to look into a spey. And for my needs it really became a easy choice. One of the big problems with switch rods right now is trying to find the right lines to do the intended job. A famous steelheader once said"there is no bad spey rod, only bad line choices for the spey rod". This seems to be especially true for switch rods.
With the beulah finding a good spey casting line for floating line steelhead work is about as easy as it gets....Simply pickup your rod and grab Beulah's Elixir scandi head specifically designed for the switch and go fishing....After some testing today i will say that it seemingly is a perfect match also. Spey casting this line/rod combo is a dream. The lines are designed to be used with polyleaders and after experimenting with multiple ones i found that for my casting style a 10ft floating polyleader with about 7ft of tippett off the end was the perfect length. Just enough length to "stick" to the water a little bit to help with your anchor, but not too much that it becomes a burden to get unstuck off the water on your forward cast. After a few minutes it felt great as 70+ft casts were almost effortless, very accurate and laid down on the water very quietly, almost like you were casting a 5wt single hander to rising trout.....awesome....
The big suprise to me and the reason why i bought this particular rod was when i switched to a shooting head sinktip line that i frequently use on the lakes and on the Metolius for big streamer fishing....The comparitively short rod length and lighter weight made this rod effortless to cast single handed. And cast a LONG ways. It was as simply as one back cast, a little single haul on the forward cast and the line and fly zipped across the water like a arrow....ALL the line. 90ft casts were as easy as a 60ft cast with a 6wt. I was giggling as i thought about using this on Lake Billy Chinook in another month for Trophy Bull Trout.
The third component was the heavy double nymph rig. This was one where i wasn't expecting alot yet. The Elixir line is not designed for this so i knew ahead of time that i was going to have to experiement with different lines to the one for nymphing. I was suprised though that the elixir actually casted it pretty well. The timing for spey type casts had to be a little faster then normal because the line isn't designed to pickup heavy flies out of the water. The head is also a little short for longer distance mending and line control. But it casted it pretty well. I think that once the right line is found it will be cake.....
In closing i will say this. This rod will not be for everyone, Although they due have a skagit type line called a Tonic Line for throwing sinktips and bigger flies in my mind this rod is not the tool for that. This rod is probably not the tool for 120ft floating line steelhead applications either. However, if your like me and want a rod that when properly lined can floating line steelhead fish at reasonable,realistic distances.....When properly lined comfortably fish a heavy double nymph rig and be a stillwater streamer superstar.......Then this rod is worth checking out.
Never mind the fact that it retails for less then $400 and the fit and finish is comparable or better then most $600.....
