I think back on fads in fly-fishing that have become more obnoxious seemingly every year. The first one that I think really made no sense but somehow people bought into for a year or so was the non-felt sole thing. Let’s basically build a rubber work boot that serves zero purpose in a river setting so that we can feel like we are “doing our part” to not spread didymo and other invasives that we weren’t spreading in the first place. But it sounded good and the superficial crunchy granola side of this sport created the marketing opportunity. New boots for everyone, work boots that have the grip of a greased dildo when put up against the bottom of an average river. When the greased dildo analogy became real and widely experienced, the solution was then putting 10 screws with a wholesale value of 50 cents in your defective work boots that were in a simms bag priced at $50. Next to the plastic bin of nail clippers priced at $120. However, the collaborative sacrifice made by anglers along with the swift engineering of this industry’s finest worldwide to prevent the spread was breathtaking let me tell you.
Trout spey to me initially was in the same category. They gotta come up with something new and this was it. Lets add 3 feet to a rod to glorify fishing a wet fly that I could cast with my ordinary 5 wt. Admittedly, part of my judgment at the time this concept initially came out was due in part to the anglers I knew that were promoting it most. These were people that already overemphasized the two-handed game. And they were trying to justify other applications for it to be able to do what they were partial to already doing. I still feel that way in some respects. I’m not walking to the river with a 12ft anything when I’m expecting heads. I’m not running the beach for the fall striper run to later set my base and try and go high level bombing spey casts 150 feet when the fish are at my feet in the bubbles. There are most definitely times where a two-handed fly-rod doesn’t make sense and people try to make it seem like the best of both worlds. BUT- and a big BUT, there are times and situations where the trout spey thing truly does make a lot of sense. (Alex Trochine with a big brown swung up last April)
First, for those that hate nymphing- trout spey is a beautiful substitute. Most people who hate nymphing hate it because they hate the fact the cast doesn’t matter. Flipping a bobber oversimplifies something that angler wants to especially glorify. The cast. What better of a substitute than the trout spey. Bomb casts all day you’ll fit right in with the two-hander. But in all seriousness, it does create an effective substitute for the nymph averse angler. Not only does it provide a legitimate substitute, but it allows you to cover water even the nymph angler cannot cover well. Gun to your head, most people would say they think the biggest fish in most rivers is holding in the gut of a run. That part of the run that is hard to wade to, cover on foot, and which most often a drift boat is actually rowing over while the angler in the front is bombing one handed casts to the bank fishing a similar streamer imitation. Ironically, the place most anglers think the biggest fish in the river are holding gets covered the most poorly by most anglers on any given river system. Out of habit, limitations placed against the wade anglers confined to the shallows nymphing where they cover the head (but not the gut) of the run, and by boats glued to the bank when it comes to their focus.
You then have the water temp factor. Early season is painful for the streamer angler that wants to rip flies off the bank. Even the most disciplined of anglers can only stick with the slow mini strips for so long before getting more aggressive in the way they work the fly. And honestly I think on pressured rivers there is a dilemma generally with early season conditions and streamer fishing. The fish in pressured waters don’t get that dumb again where they start from square one just because winter gave them a short (if any) type of break. They went mildly hypothermic for 3 months and then remember in about 3 days after coming out of their hypothermic state that it sucks to live in the river they reside in. The best fish in a pressured river aren’t coming out of a log jam to t-bone a fly every again on 99% of rivers in the lower 48. That doesn’t go away. Top end fish need to still be deceived with something that causes them to make a quick decision or something new. Cold water and trying to work at their slow speed in cold water temps, but fast enough to fool them, is difficult as pressure has become a more meaningful factor in the equation for getting big smart fish to make that mistake.
All of the above supports the argument for the trout spey game. A deep, slower presentation that strikes a balance between a dead drifted presentation and a fast stripped active presentation attempted by nymph and streamer anglers alike. Add in the fact that many rivers have baitfish enter the river that are DEAD to begin with, and you have a serious argument for why a swung fly better imitates what the fish are actually eating than an actively retrieved fly. But the biggest factor in my opinion always comes back to the gut of the run. The part of the river the nymph angler on foot gives up at because it’s a little too slow or deep, the part of the river the boat is rowing over in favor of the down tree tight to the bank. The spot we all think the biggest fish is most likely holding. The place you will undeniably be able to cover and likely run your fly through if you can get over the hump and give the trout spey thing a shot.
RODS AND LINES
My willingness to give the trout spey thing a shot was an indirect result of becoming intrigued by swinging for steelhead. Fall brown trout fishing in that timeframe where the dry fly fishing was shot, but steel weren’t around yet created the perfect void to start trout speying in preparation for the steelhead season that couldn’t come soon enough. Initially, I had some switch rods and lines that I experimented with that were all very simplified retail fly fishing products. “Switch Rod” paired with a “Switch line 5wt”. For anyone that has any understanding of spey fishing, or even if you don’t and want to learn the first most important thing, its getting the right set up and making sure it is balanced. This oversimplification was meant to fail as it did not involve products that were actually meant for two handed casting. Most “switch rods” were just long fly rods meant for nymphing- and did not have the backbone for turning over a spey line and tip along with the fly. The switch lines were perhaps the biggest disgrace though, as they were basically just heavy weight forward lines with a little extra weight to try and justify it all. The same people that thought us wearing rubber work boots would stop the spread of invasives worldwide of course were responsible for this similarly and equally flawed idea.
Things got better though. As trout spey became a real thing, the products got better. A few fake switch rods later, I ultimately became a firm supporter of Beulah’s trout spey rods for several reasons. First and foremost, for the simple reason they were actual two-handed rods. They were designed and intended to cast in a two-handed manner. They had the backbone to turnover a skagit line with a tip to get down and meaningful fish heavy water with a bigger fly. Which brings up an important point- what rod is appropriate for trout spey?
A 12 foot rod seems like a lot and in my initial year or two or talking to people about the trout spey rods they had, I often heard people saying they were using an 11ft 3wt. Very rarely did I hear someone say they were using a 4wt. Almost never did I hear someone say they were using a 5wt. Because the concept was new, people were just figuring that if the rod was longer, lets go lighter to even out the feel of it all so I’m not bringing a gun to a knife fight (the knife fight being a 14’’ rainbow “swung up” on a size 16 soft hackle). Before going further a 12ft 4wt is a good all around rod to start with. You need the backbone to throw the bigger stuff and fish legitimate tips to get down in the water that holds the fish that justifies doing all of this, rather than swinging a size 14 royal coachman on your soft Winston 8ft 6’’ 4wt. For lines, scientific angler and rio are two lines that I have used and found to be legitimate skagit trout spey lines that turn the flies over well.
There is no point to “trout spey” if the goal is to swing wet flies for regular sized trout. If this is the goal, I think it still makes the most sense to just fish a one-handed rod and swing your soft hackle like a gentleman. You have more touch, can fish lighter tippet and less likely to break off a fish when you get a take, and can cover the same amount of water.
Flies and Fish Size
The point of a trout spey rod is to fish bigger food items on the swing in the hopes that you can take some larger fish. Can this be done on a one-handed rod? Absolutely. But the bigger the water gets, the harder it is to cast a larger food item out and depending on the weight of the fly you would need to cast a tip as well to get it down and create the presentation you are trying to achieve to get a slow swing in the gut of the run. It’s easier to do this with a two-handed rod. Sometimes impossible to do with a one-handed rod if the river is large in size or deep. Add in a river that’s high where you are wading and confined to the bank or back cast room is limited, and the spey becomes useful even on a medium sized river.
Flies I think are selected based on knowledge of what the river population is in terms of browns vs. bows. Buggers and smaller to mid sized patterns tend to help you hedge your bet when dealing with a mixed population in the east, though out west bows seem to take on a more aggressive personality that doesn’t necessarily rule out what eastern anglers would consider brown trout only patterns. Last summer, windy conditions out west often justified the spey rod over looking for heads during my early July trip. Johnny King was in the process of refining his Halo bugger at that time which was a fly we found was taken well by both browns and bows on a large western tailwater. Even when fishing larger 12 ft spey rods in 4/5wt, cast ability is something you always think about. Going with larger flies that soak up water and are not aerodynamic take a lot of the fun out of the process. Sparse and aerodynamic patterns that still draw attention from fish (in this case crayfish allowed us to fish brown-rootbeer versions of the fly below) help limit the labor that comes with covering big water well with the method.
Presentation for Browns vs. Rainbows
You never get a clear answer on anything in spey fishing. This is no different. But, my general experience is that rainbows are more prone to take a fly on a pure swing than browns. Pure swing meaning no action is imputed to the fly with the rod or line strips as the fly is swinging. I’m sure there is a spey bro out there that can refute me. I won’t try to argue back. These are just my observations. A lot of guys I know that put in time swinging for browns have said they have noticed the same when it comes to having to trigger the browns with subtle but meaningful action of the fly at various points in the swing.
While rainbows are more prone to take on the pure swing per my trout spey bro surveys, there is also the pressure factor that must be considered generally. Because you don’t fish a two handed spey rod to catch dinks, you need to fish heavier tippet when swinging when compared to nymphing. Even a 15’’ wild fish taking a fly on a tight line swing is likely to break 4x. 3x I think is the lightest you can swing flies on for trout of a size that justify a two-handed rod in the first place. 3x on pressured waters is obviously still heavy even when using Fluro, so we have an issue there. I think going bigger on the fly and playing the proportion game helps minimize that if you want to stay “light” with 3x. Bigger fly makes 3x seem less thick. But, some rivers are just raped to the point of no return and no fish there is dumb enough to not see 3x. Those are sections you want to avoid with the trout spey. You want either current or favorable conditions with high water/early season/ dirty clarity on pressured waters, or just unpressured fish generally. I have been on the odd occasion (such as the San Juan in new Mexico) surprised where extreme pressure did not impact the willingness of the fish to eat on the swing. Theory being that when a fish has been gang raped by tandem size 24 zebra midges 365 days a year for its entire life, they don’t see the size 8 marabou leach as a threat? Bottom line is some rivers that receive a lot of pressure oddly have fish that still respond well to swung flies, but generally pressured sections of river= less takes on the swing IMO because of the heavier tippet/slower presentation speed used with this approach.
THE VALUE OF TROUT SPEY FOR FISHING STREAMERS IN A TRADITIONAL OFF THE BANK WAY
The more you experiment with the spey rod in a trout setting, the more it becomes inevitable that you keep an open mind with how you are going to fish on any given outing. Sometimes, you are just getting some line out there to get started and when stripping it back in to recast you get a take from a good fish. You realize the strip is working. You keep doing that and keep getting takes. You say alright forget the swing I’m catching fish just retrieving my fly like a regular streamer so I’m going to keep doing it. On a bigger river, the spey rod lets you get it over to the other bank on rivers you otherwise would not be able to get it close, and with half the effort. Sometimes, I have just side stepped down a pool shooting casts to the other side hitting the bank and retrieving my fly back getting takes within the first 1-5 strips off the bank like an ordinary streamer fisherman would on a good morning. You don’t approach fishing with a trout spey the same as you would steelhead fishing saying I’m going to swing my fly, take one step down after each swing, and repeat for a length of a pool. You switch up the way you are fishing, and over the course of even a dozen outings will find you take fish in a variety of different ways. When you have the two-handed rod, do you want to get fish on the pure swing to feel like you are doing the real thing? Of course. But trout spey isn’t pure spey fishing to begin with. It’s just another way to get a streamer or larger fly out there, sometimes further than you otherwise could with a single-handed rod. And you don’t apply the same ridged formula to covering the water as you would when fishing for steelhead, atlantics, or other migratory fish you commonly see the method used.
A DIFFERENT LOOK AND COVERING WATER OTHER METHODS DON’T COVER VERY WELL
A final point on the trout spey goes back to a recent issue every angler has to consider. Pressure. Perhaps no other method better educates and conditions fish not to make the same mistake twice than streamer fishing. We all have seen the gradually less impressive photos of fish coming from the white and other famed big brown streamer rivers throughout the country. Rivers that were known for throwing the meat aren’t what they were anymore almost entirely across the board. Spey fishing allows anglers to switch up the look they show big fish that likely have not seen much of it beforehand.
Also, think about the volcano worm dunker pool on your river of choice that looks so good but you never pull shit out of. Why don’t you do well there? You know the answer- your streamer even with a heavy sinking line is 8’’ below the surface and the fish isn’t coming 8 feet or more off the bottom to come get it. Trout spey allows you to methodically fish these areas more effectively and if you put some thought into fly design along with your rigging, you can present food items to the fish you know are holding in these areas in a method and manner that raises your chances. A deep indy rig with a tandem pheasant tail isn’t getting the 30’’ fish at the bottom of the volcano pool to move for it. Neither is the streamer that is skimming surface and which you are fishing half-heartedly in the first place because you know they aren’t coming up off the bottom for it. Trout spey causes you to think about these pieces of water that you know are not well covered or fished by the angling scene on that water and gives you a viable approach to feel like you are at least in the game. You will think harder and creatively about flies you are fishing, the lines and tips you set yourself up with, and improve that over time as you put in a few days trying to best figure out how to fish one of these types of spots. And for me, taking a fish out of one of these areas after years of writing it off is one of the most rewarding things in fly-fishing. To experience this, you will need a real rod, a real spey line, and a balanced set up. After that, there are no hard rules other than no dinks or lighter than 3x tippet. And regardless of whether you find joy or practical use in this method, putting in some time with it will improve your understanding of fly lines and the mechanics of propelling a fly line, reading water, and overall will make you a better fisherman.
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