[Grampa Spey]

Since Rio doesn't make a Skagit 350, I asked Simon to loan me some WC Upgrades, 789 and 8910 and the WC 91011 without tip 1 and 2 to try. I, also tried my WC 678 upgrade with my new Sage 5120.

I used Rio's Sinking Fluroflex 12' Salmon Leader and two' of 10# tippet and size 4 and 6 sinking flies.

To test the upgrades, I used a 36' section of shooting line to connect the upgrades. I felt that 3 rod lengths of shooting line, 30' of Upgrade and 12' of sinking leader would cover most trout water and half pounder water I will fish with the 5120.

The two WC Upgrades including my 678 with 36’ of shooting line were fairly constant in casting the UpGrade and the above leader/tippet and fly. Shooting 24’ , two rod lengths was fairly simple, it became more difficult to shoot the full 36’.

The WC 91011 was a little better, but due to the shorter head length than a standard Skagit, it maxed out at 3 rod lengths.

So I decided to try my Skagit 450.

The best Skagit turned out to be my 450 Skagit. It was the easiest to cast and consistently got 60' to 80’ (including 27’ of Skagit head, 12’ of Rio’s sinking leader, 7 ips, and two foot of tippet with a size 4 or 6 sinking fly.

My 5120 with the Skagit 450 was able to cast* 3 rod lengths of running line with the 12’ leader and fly with no problem. If I timed everything ok, 4 to 5 rod lengths of running line were shot out, often with the line pulling against the reel at the end of the cast. This was done over two days in high swirling winds, an incoming tide, and zero room for a back cast.

Last but not least, with my overhand Skagit cast*, the little 5120 was casting about as far as I can with my 6126 with the Skagit 450 and a lot less effort.

*Warning any resembalance of my so called Skagit Casts to Ed Ward's or George Cook's is totally accidental.

 

[Stampsteelie]

trout skagit

I recently built a 5/6 trout spey. I to went on a search for a skagit line. I built a head out of 10wt floating DT but it wasn't heavy enough. I noticed Riveraddict said he liked 490 gr on the sage 5120. The body of my 8/9/10 windcutter was 300 gr. Add an 8wt tip (109gr) and I had a 409 gr head. Well I was very surprised at how well it cast. I just found out that Speybum has windcutter bodies available. The windcutter body and the skagit head are very similar. So even though there isn't a 350 gr skagit head you can get a 9/10/11 windcutter body and you'll have a 350 gr head. If you build your own lines Riveraddict has a formula for a line for the 5120 if you do a search.

 

[Jamey McLeod]

Don't know if I would call it a "skagit head" or not. But, on my 13ft4in 5/6 Loomis I use a WC 7/8/9 with the middle section taken out, [email protected] using an 8wt Rio tip on the end. Fishes great, but I feel like 400grains would be better.

I just got off the phone with "SVA01" and we were talking how Rio needs to make a 6/7 350grain Skagit, and a 6/7 Scando head. Not just for under hand work, but a hacked back 6/7 would be nice on some rods overhead.

 

[Grampa Spey]

I recently built a 5/6 trout spey. I to went on a search for a skagit line. I built a head out of 10wt floating DT but it wasn't heavy enough. I noticed Riveraddict said he liked 490 gr on the sage 5120. The body of my 8/9/10 windcutter was 300 gr. Add an 8wt tip (109gr) and I had a 409 gr head. Well I was very surprised at how well it cast. I just found out that Speybum has windcutter bodies available. The windcutter body and the skagit head are very similar. So even though there isn't a 350 gr skagit head you can get a 9/10/11 windcutter body and you'll have a 350 gr head. If you build your own lines Riveraddict has a formula for a line for the 5120 if you do a search.

Simon loaned me a WC 91011 without tips 1 and 2. The body on it is 23' long and comes in at 320 gr. I think that the body being 4' shorter than a Skagit line and only weighing 320 gr was not loading my 5120 as well as the Skagit 450 did/does.

Thanks for the input. Simon and I had came to about the same calculations that you had for the 5120.

 

[Grampa Spey]

There may be a market for customized Skagit lines for smaller rods

I recently built a 5/6 trout spey. I to went on a search for a skagit line. I built a head out of 10wt floating DT but it wasn't heavy enough. I noticed Riveraddict said he liked 490 gr on the sage 5120. The body of my 8/9/10 windcutter was 300 gr. Add an 8wt tip (109gr) and I had a 409 gr head. Well I was very surprised at how well it cast. I just found out that Speybum has windcutter bodies available. The windcutter body and the skagit head are very similar. So even though there isn't a 350 gr skagit head you can get a 9/10/11 windcutter body and you'll have a 350 gr head. If you build your own lines Riveraddict has a formula for a line for the 5120 if you do a search.

There may be a market for customized Skagit lines for smaller rods. As more of us buy trout speys or lighter spey rods and want Skagit type lines, we might see some of our better slice/dice/glue guys market specific customized Skagit lines for the smaller rods.

After more testing yesterda, the Skagit 450 works very well with my Sage 5120.

 

[Grampa Spey]

More casting with Rio 450 Skagit with my Sage 5120 yesterday, confirmed that the 450 and the Rio 12 sinking leaders are an excellent match up. I tried Rio's 15' type 8 and it worked well.

Dry Lines for the Sage 5120 continue to be:

Mid Spey 6/7 with the Rio 15' steelhead leader works well unless there is a lot of wind.

Windcutter 678 with Mid Spey 7/8 tip two and one and the Rio 15' Steelhead leader is an excellent matchup when there is significant wind or when you need to get out past 55-65'.