[argos]

I am thinking about building a spey rod for my Dad for Christmas. I just got into double-handers this spring after building a Forecast 13' 8/9 Spey, and have trouble keeping it out of my dad's hands when we get a chance to fish togther. The only problem is he thinks the best way to cast it is to hammer it DOWN with these monster roll casts...OUCH! Time to get your own rod!


Needless to say, he has never done any spey casting. He is a big guy, 6'6" 250, and has tons of experince with single-handers: 3#-12#. He will most likely only be using the rod in the same places I fish: Oregon area. Hopefully, we will get to fish for both winters and summers.

I wanted to try building a lighter rod for him, 6/7#, but I don't think that would be the best for winter fishing either. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any help. I would like to keep the blank cost around $200. Cheap-skate, I know!

 

[MJC]

Fishing should be about one's pleasure and it sounds like your Dad is having a great time. I would leave him alone for now. One day he may or may not want to improve his technique.
As to the rod, I would build him the same as he is using now. If you want a lighter rod you can build one later.
CND has some nice blanks on the market now that are reasonable priced and you are already familar with the Forecast.
If you are in Washington I would contact "Flyshop Kristen". She is in Monroe, WA and has a lot of rod building supplies and info.

 

[kush]

Argos,

I can't really speak to the retail price of the CND blanks, but the 13' 6/7/8 Black Spey blank should be in the low $200 range and the 13'6" 7/8/9 BS should be around the mid-$200 range.

These blanks are state of the art IM8 graphite and the factory rods are sweet casting - so your custom one should be as well.

The blank info is not yet up on the www.cndspeyusa.com website but if Kirsten at All About the fly in Monroe doesn't have the info you could contact Lee or Nancy on the CND website. As well, many of the Spey Pages sponsor shops (click on the sponsor icon) carry CND and could help you out.

 

[jdeckstar]

kush - how much for a Specialist Blank? such as the Skagit?

 

[kush]

The suggested retail is $328 US for the Skagit Specialist.