A lesson learned on grain weight ...

[Snap T]

I bought my first spey rod a year and a half ago, an Echo TR 8136. The employee at the shop was about to sell me a 550 Rio Skagit Compact to match the rod, when i told him that the Airflo chart on the Echo website recommended a 630! He frowned but said he would call Echo and find out what that was all about, sure enough they said 630 and i walked out with my new toy My cast, i thought, was coming along quite well and after a casting lesson from one of BC's best casters i felt pretty good about the set-up as well as my casting as he told me several times that "the line was perfect for the rod". It wasn't until a month ago and a trip to the Vedder with a very experianced caster that my spey world flipped upside down lol ... my buddy was watching me cast and i was bombing out casts but blowing every third cast or so, as i had always thought this was normal when learning. He grabbed my rod and to my surprise could barely cast it ... "100 grains too heavy" he said. he lined it with a 540 Airflo he had and WOW it no longer felt like i was picking a wet towel out of the water but the rod basically cast itself as the skagit line and T-14 tip launched out everytime with ease. I had learned a great lesson on casting styles and the wide range of preferances in the spey game! Just because one person tells you something it may not be "right" for you... i encourage any newbie to cast a few different rods with a range of grain weights on the water to really feel the HUGE difference in feel and result from line to line !

Ty

[herkileez]

I've heard some good things on that rod....How do you like it with T14 and big flies?...would you buy it again?

[herkileez]

Line weight calculations. Here's a formula from Steve Godshall, who builds custom lines for Meiser, Gary Anderson and many others:

"Line Weight Calculations (Steve Godshall)

My formula for base line weight in grains on Scandi and Skagit heads, is my rod power X60 (scandi) and X70 (skagit), yielding 510 mid point scandi and 588 mid point skagit. Gary, Bob and I find that 90% of caster will fall between X55-X65 on scandi and X65-X75 on skagit. This gives you a window of 462-546 Scandi @ 2.5 to 2.65 X rod length, and 546-630 Skagit @ 1.8 to 2.0 X rod length. The first rod length factor could be considered "compact", the second would be "regular or standard".

Makes sense to me....and puts your 550 grain right on target.

[bub1]

nice formula...!! never heard it before... does makes sense to me aswell. The lines I have for my two handers works with that.... Love to hear about the echo 8136.... I'd like to try one out to see what all the rage is about. No one carries them around here....love to take one for a test drive. Sure can't beat the price!!!

[SalaR]

A very good post...I am a bit disturbed about some of the rod manufacturers recommending way too much line weight for their rods..rod length,ability and quality play a big part of the formulas. The multiples formula works well until you get into the much longer rods and conversely on teh shorter rods. Was talking to Bob Meiser last evening a bit about this ,and we both concur that the more experienced you become the less weight you demand in you line selections. Scandi lines are very sweet for beginners after they have used Skagit for a while and realize theer is so much more to learn and enjoy. Recently I have been playing the Scott MacKenzies new DTX heads and would suggest for casters to use or at least play with these a bit..they are very nice and cast extremely well.Sometime in the next coupleof months we will put together a spey casting forum on the mainland ..will keep you all posted

I bought my first spey rod a year and a half ago, an Echo TR 8136. The employee at the shop was about to sell me a 550 Rio Skagit Compact to match the rod, when i told him that the Airflo chart on the Echo website recommended a 630! He frowned but said he would call Echo and find out what that was all about, sure enough they said 630 and i walked out with my new toy My cast, i thought, was coming along quite well and after a casting lesson from one of BC's best casters i felt pretty good about the set-up as well as my casting as he told me several times that "the line was perfect for the rod". It wasn't until a month ago and a trip to the Vedder with a very experianced caster that my spey world flipped upside down lol ... my buddy was watching me cast and i was bombing out casts but blowing every third cast or so, as i had always thought this was normal when learning. He grabbed my rod and to my surprise could barely cast it ... "100 grains too heavy" he said. he lined it with a 540 Airflo he had and WOW it no longer felt like i was picking a wet towel out of the water but the rod basically cast itself as the skagit line and T-14 tip launched out everytime with ease. I had learned a great lesson on casting styles and the wide range of preferances in the spey game! Just because one person tells you something it may not be "right" for you... i encourage any newbie to cast a few different rods with a range of grain weights on the water to really feel the HUGE difference in feel and result from line to line !

Ty

[KeltheFlyguy]

Wow thats a big eye openner I know I was givin the wrong advice on my line I've been having issues blowing cast to its very frustrating when your trying to learn I wish I wasn't so Dam broke because I know c @ Nile creek would fix me up and get me going in the right direction. But even tho my line is like casting a wet towel it stii doesn't stop me from going out at least once a week

[BCBound]

Sometime in the next coupleof months we will put together a spey casting forum on the mainland ..will keep you all posted

Hope I'm not working!

[Snap T]

I really love the Echo and its warranty! The TR is a great learning rod... its advertised as being a fastish action rod with a stiff butt section which allows me to put some oomph in to it, but still having a soft feel. I was using it for Kings last year chucking 630 skagit head 15ft of t-17 a HUGE fly with a worm weight to get it down and it had NO problem! However my body hated me lol. I really know what C means by benefitting from learning on a skagit and then dropping to a scandi and opening a whole new world! What DTX line would you suggest for my rod C? Thx.

Ty

[fredaevans]

Oh So Yes Ty. Here in Southern Oregon we have a fellow (Steve Gotshall) who builds custom cut spey lines. If you get a custom rod from Bob Meiser or Gary Anderson you're 'odds on' you will get a custom cut line AFTER you talk to Steve about your 'casting style.' Steve knows darned near every 'name brand' rod and has them 'dialed in,' what he doesn't have dialed in is "you." After that call, you will get a line that's 'just yours and the rods.'

Line won't cost you a penny more than something off the shelf, but you'll get a 'Dear God This Puppy Hunts' from the first cast. Most out of the box lines are really very good, that's why we have so damned many. ;>)

With Steve's, the rod can handle a (pick numbers) 300 to 550 grain line of some config. You will be run through your paces as to 'how do you fish, for what, where, casting conditions, etc., and etc. What you'll get is a 422 (again picking numbers) grain line at 38 feet 4 inches (or some other appropriate set of combo's).

Just trust me, you really can tell the difference from the first cast. No 'Poop.' If you want his phone number, PM me.

fae

[KeltheFlyguy]

Hi guys I don't fully understand the line formula I have a greys grxi 8/9wt 13 ft Spey I bought from the nanaimo whole salesports store and being a complete newbie at the time they told me the rio skagit 550 gr line would be the line to go with but it never seemed right and I have had some experts try it out and they all say it's the wrong line for my rod there are so many option I'm totally overwhelmed I could use some help Please lol