Light Weight Trout Rod

[Isgrigg]

I have a friend whose wife loves to trout fish, but has had trouble with her arm lately.

My friend thought she might be able to use a light weight Spey rod ... like a 5wt, but also light in weight.

Of course cost is an issue as well ... any suggestions?

Stephen

[MJC]

The Beulah 10'6"-4/5/6 switch rod. It sells for $368.00 and should fill the need very well.

[Jamey McLeod]

Give the Loomis 13ft4in 5/6 a try, very light in hand with a fairly light action also.

[Isgrigg]

I will pass on the imformation ...

Thanks for the Help

Stephen

[2HandTheSalt]

Temple Forks has a new 11' 5-weight one-hander with an add-on bottom grip which makes it into an 11'6" two-handed rod for WF5F fly line. To clarify this is built to the weight-forward standard, not the heavier spey standard. As such, it is a very lightweight rod. I think it is about $ 229.

It might not be listed on the website, but I know it is available for ordering through your local TFO dealer.

Jay Horton
Advisory Staff
Temple Forks Outfitters

[Jamey McLeod]

Jay,

Does that rod come stock with a longer add on butt? Or are you talking of building rear grip for it?

[Skilly]

Call Bob Meiser and talk to him. I am sure he will send a rod that your wife could try. He makes a series of light two handers for trout. He is on the Sponsors list.

Skilly

[Grampa Spey]

Originally Posted by Isgrigg

I have a friend whose wife loves to trout fish, but has had trouble with her arm lately.

My friend thought she might be able to use a light weight Spey rod ... like a 5wt, but also light in weight.

Of course cost is an issue as well ... any suggestions?

Stephen

I have a rotator cuff that has been shredded over time at least 3 times. Last May, I tore my bicep head where the bicep and rotator cuff join.

For a large part of last year, after months of PT, I could only use my Meiser 5/6 Switch Rod and/or my Sage 5120.

I use the Rio Outbound WF 10W Floater on both rods with or without the Rio 7' sinking leaders or a 15' leader with the Sage or a 10' leader with the Meiser Switch rod.

Both are effortless to cast and can easily handle trout from 1 to 6-7 pounds.

I prefer the Sage for longer distance and a more delicate presentation with the 15' leader. The Meiser 5/6 easily reaches out to 50-60', however, I can use it for high sticking, nymphing and casting from a boat or small personal craft or tight casting situations with brush and trees all around me.

Last night a friend met Bill Malin and I on our local river. The friend had brought a single handed rod instead of his 7/8 switch rod. Bill loaned us his Beulah 5/6 switch rod, and it surprised all of us as it handled a Skagit 450 with an intermediate sinking tip after pulling in about 4-5' of the head past the rod tip before each cast. It will probably really do well with a Rio Outbound WF 10W.

If your friend will casting in areas without brush and trees and needs to reach out 50+', go with a 12' or longer rod like the Sage 5120.

If she will be casting to a closer range with limited back casts and wants to nymph or use the rod while in a boat or personal watercraft, go with a 5/6Switch rod.

Reel wise, the Redington CD 9/10 balances these rods perfectly and costs less than $150 bucks. Some of the Striper guides in the California Delta are using these reels for striper fishing with their one handed rods.

The Rio Outbound lines cost about $65, and they may be best buy IMHO for the smaller spey rods. You can spey cast with them, skagit cast with them, roll cast with them and reach way out with overhand casts. Last night Bill Malin had one of the Beulah trout spey rods with a Beulah line. It was obvious the Beulah line was not loading the rod. I took my OB WF 11F and Redington CD 9/10 reel off of my Sage 6126 and let Bill put it on the Beulah trout rod and rig it up.

Suddenly, the rod came alive for Bill and was loading properly and without straining. After Bill was happy with the OB line, I tried the 3 basic Skagit casts and was able to shoot 2-3 rod lengths of shooting line plus the 37.5' head, leader, tippet and good size practice fly with no effort. Then, I tried it overhead with 3 rod lengths of shooting line. Bang the line popped against the rest of the line in the reel, as the fly went all the way out. The same thing happened up to about 5+ rod lengths of shooting line, and the line was still going all the way out and banging tight on the reel. The Redington CD 9/10 reel balanced this rod perfectly. That rod might be an alternative. I don't know enough about it as I only cast it at the end of the evening. However, it was effortless to cast.

[speycaster]

I would definitely consider Gary Anderson - Anderson Custom Rods. He makes a variety of light two-handers from 3 weight to 6 weight that are, in my opinion, the best in the light rod niche. He has at least two outstanding 5 weights and also has rods that can be converted from a 9'+ single hander to a 12'+ two hander. Beautifully made and great casters. They can be had in various grades of hardware and finish, with prices reflecting the grade, but all are quite reasonable for what you get.

541-582-4318 is his phone number.

[Bill Malin]

That's the rod we were using at the end of the evening. This is one of the Beulahs that Bob Meiser had a hand in. An absolute blast to fish. I am wowed by the amount of weight this thing will carry with no strain at all. The 465gr Outbound floater was just about perfection. I was unable to get into the bottom half of the blank using an OB 375gr, but when i bumped up 100gr it really brought the regressive/bottom half of the rod to life. Dave and I were down to the last two dozen coils of running line on the reel and were still snapping the line tight on the cast. I figure we were hitting about 90' at max. (37 ft head 10ft leader 40-50 ft running line) Not bad for a breezy afternoon.

James @ Beulah had this rod custom built for me by Steve Godshall and the fit/finish is excellent, with incredible custom cork-work on the upper and lower grips. I love this rod, it's the most fun of all the rods I own. I strongly reccomend this rod. If you are in the SF Bay area and want to give it a try, let me know. We will be doing a semi-regular casting practice / oppourtunistic Striper session on the Napa river on thursdays around 6:30-7pm.

Best Regards,
Bill

[Grampa Spey]

Originally Posted by Bill Malin

That's the rod we were using at the end of the evening. This is one of the Beulahs that Bob Meiser had a hand in. An absolute blast to fish. I am wowed by the amount of weight this thing will carry with no strain at all. The 465gr Outbound floater was just about perfection. I was unable to get into the bottom half of the blank using an OB 375gr, but when i bumped up 100gr it really brought the regressive/bottom half of the rod to life. Dave and I were down to the last two dozen coils of running line on the reel and were still snapping the line tight on the cast. I figure we were hitting about 90' at max. (37 ft head 10ft leader 40-50 ft running line) Not bad for a breezy afternoon.

Best Regards,
Bill

As Bill noted above we were casting across a good breeze. The breeze was coming upstream and we casting across and upstream about 20 degrees.

I was amazed at how laser like the casts were with minimal effort, just a good hard stop at the end of the forward cast. My overhand casts were kept low because of the wind. There were no false casts. Just a simple roll cast to kiss the water with the head, leader and fly and back for the overhand and then firing the cast out into and across a strong evening wind.

Also, we were not using my line hoster or Bill's home made stripping basket. We were dropping the shooting line in front of us. It was at the end of the day and the OB running/shooting line was coiling up and was in need of pulling out the coils. If we had used stripping baskets or holsters and the running line had been decoiled, we might have gone to the end loop of the OB.

The rod with the OB 11 Floater never felt nor looked overloaded. It was a very poor no go with the Beulah line, Bill had.

The results were very impressive for a so called trout spey rod.

Yet as Bill noted, we were snapping the line at the reel with 80 to 90' casts from the rod tip or 90 to 100' from our feet. When these so called trout spey rods are matched up with the right Rio Outbound WF Floating Line, good things happen.

[salmo]

I like my Meiser 12’6” 4/5/6 trouter. Perfect rod for 3-10 lb Alaskan Rainbows.
It is also a great casting tool and the cosmetics are unbelievable!

[Bill Malin]

I should note that the Beulah line I was using was an experiment to see if the longer belly helped load the rod better. The head was around 380gr, just like the OB 9 I had with me at 375gr, only it has a 50' head. I had already figured out 375 was too light when I tried the OB first. The additional length of line on the water only helped a little. When I tried the Beulah 450+gr head yesterday, I was very happy with the match.
As an end note: Overhead casting with the lighter lines produced some very tight loops with accuracy and delicate delivery on smaller flies, probably will try that again while float tubin', or maybe up on the Yuba.

[Steve Wright]

Meiser 12 ' 6" 4/5/6 should be considered .......

[pcknshvl]

Originally Posted by Grampa Spey

Last night a friend met Bill Malin and I on our local river. The friend had brought a single handed rod instead of his 7/8 switch rod. Bill loaned us his Beulah 5/6 switch rod, and it surprised all of us as it handled a Skagit 450 with an intermediate sinking tip after pulling in about 4-5' of the head past the rod tip before each cast. It will probably really do well with a Rio Outbound WF 10W.

Has anyone tried the 10wt OB on a 5/6 switch?