Anyone try single hand spey line?

[Redfish]

<p>Question for the club of the buggy whippers: Have any of you tried the single handed spey line which you can use on your normal fly rod? Been doing some research and it looks very promising. I fish a lot of small streams where a back cast is very limited, therefore this looks more powerful to reach long distant spots than the traditional roll cast with a DT or WF line...</p>
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<p>Your thoughts? Also, if you have used this, which brand of line would you suggest?</p>
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<p>Thanks</p>

[smskagiteer]

<p>Redfish, I use the Scientific Anglers Skagit Single Head for single handed rods. Rio also makes a skagit. I have been using it for 2 years and that is the only line I use now for SM. It is great with heavy flies, roll casting and increases overhead cast. Its really just a shooting head with a running line.</p>

[Redfish]

SM, can you do spey casting with a regular weight forward line? Or is it necessary to have the spey line? Thanks....

[smskagiteer]

<p>I started playing around with Spey using regular WF line and you can learn some of the spey casts but you really need to over line your rod. The reason the Skagit works so well is the weight of the line. The Skagit is different from the traditional spey and works so much better especially with heavy flies. A full Skagit costs $100-150 but just the head 23 ft., is only $50. You have to use a running line with it but thats all full skagit is. A 6 wt. is 320 grains. It is great for me because I am lazy, no double hauling, false casts, and takes very little space behind you.</p>

[FlySlingerCole]

<p>I have the Wulff Ambush single hand spey line for my 5 and 7wt. I can&#39;t express how much I love to use these lines.</p>
<p>They are basically a 3 or 4 uplined version of your line with a short 20&#39; head and some running line. (so thing shooting head, but made for spey casts) It is so much fun, once the weather gets nice I plan on filming some video of how the system works and what casts are useful in the river while fishing for bass.</p>

[smfisher]

I just uplined my 8wt to a ten and have no problem throwing big hair bugs at all . I also have an 8wt with a 9wt line WF with the first&nbsp;7 or&nbsp;8 &#39; cut off I can roll cast hair bugs 50&#39; with that set up with no problem .

[smskagiteer]

<p>It is fun. Glad to see some guys on here using it. They have a Spey forum and I think it is a thing of beauty watching them cast but I just couldn\'t get into those 15 ft. rods. When they came out with the skagit lines for the short rods and spey casting I loved it.</p>

[FlySlingerCole]

I have a 13&#39; #8 as well for swinging flies to stripers here on one of our local tailwaters. It is a very wide river with some heavy current and loaded with stripers in the 10-40lb range.&nbsp; Man the long rods are a blast, just not practical for everywhere. I have gotten all of my friends into it as it is just so **** addicting.

[smskagiteer]

<p>Fly, Sounds like your the man. We are for sure gonna have to get together. I don\'t know if these old folks can handle that 13\' rod. From what I hear using 2 hands and the proper technique it isn\'t bad.</p>

[FlySlingerCole]

Nah man, it&#39;s not bad. We need to get together, not many people out there who are taking advantage of the lines / rods etc... It&#39;s all about keeping the fly in the water where the fish are, you don&#39;t have fish jumping out of the water for your perfect fly cast... if you know what I mean. Most creeks don&#39;t allow single hand casts that much anyway with how tight some places are, why not take advantage of a different style of casting and get to those out of the way, tight places where it seems like fish hold. <img title="Smile" src="/site/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif" alt="Smile" />

[smskagiteer]

<p>The Traditional Spey guys look down on the Skagit guys. They say you can take a monkey and a bucket of bananas and teach him to skagit cast in a day. Takes no talent or practice. That sounds like a positive to me rather than a negative. Like you said its all about having fun and catching a fish or not.</p>

[FlySlingerCole]

The problem with the traditional guys is they are just not functional here in the south. The long belly lines require a big D loop room and it most places just don&#39;t have the space, plus like you said it is easier to learn.