have you tried SH spey style casts with the rod, and what weight line were you using? The reason I asked, is this rod sounds like it may be a bit more rod than the 4/5 Beulah switch...of which I have one, love it, and recommend it highly.
Beulah switchers aren't real fast action rods, more relaxed than most/many SH tapers. Maybe you can get a Beulah tryrod and see how it compares to the rod you have before you start tearing the whole SH rod down to the blank, etc.

another easy way to tell would be to get a 4/5 elixir line and try it on your SH...if it works, THEN tear down the rod. If not, get the switcher-and you'll already have the line.
Poppy has a great Beulah package deal by the way, the red shed rules!


BTW, I built a mini switcher 2 yr ago on a fast 10 wt 9' blank, and it's super fun with a short 500 gr head, just not super useful haha

 

home made spey rod

I converted a 9 wt tfo into a 2 handed spey rod but never got a line for it.
Ended up giving it to a friend of mine as a birthday present. Would rather do the single hand spey then the double with a rod that short.

I also made a 200 grain skagit for my single hand 3/4 wt. This skagit was made out of a belly of a 11 wt dt spey line. With this line you will throw flies that you never thought of throwing on a 3/4 wt.( i use it for shad fishing)
I have also done some spey casting with this rod using a 4 wt fly line. Once you learn how to do some spey casting you will use it on your single hand rods more than you think.

I do alot of single hand spey casting. The number one thing is learning not to over power the cast. Really easy to do.

I would practice with your single hand rod just the way it is before you cut the end off of it.

If you decide to do it, I cut about a 5 inch butt off the end of a spinning rod (with cork grip) epoxyed a 8 inch peice of rod into the butt. Then epoxyed the butt into the rod.
Hope this helps.


Dan

 

It is rather easy to make removable extension if you find a piece of scrab rod which fits inside female ferrule which is inside current reel seat. Perhaps reel seat should be removed it your rod does not have any lenght of fighting butt and ferrule made stronger wrapping it with thread.

Perhaps just filling the cap between reel seat and blank with epoxy is enough. But if it has a fighting butt it might have some blank inside it and tying thread does not reguire reel seat removal. Just building new rear handle.

Interesting new line is Wulff Ambush with only 20ft (tapered) head which should be versatile with pylyleaders and other tips for short rods for light Skagit and Scandi.

 

Had Bob Meiser do this for me a few years back.

Rod was a 10' 7wt Sage. What he did was cut off the last cork below the reel seat, take a section of rod (6"?) that would fit in tightly. Glued the new bit in and re-corked the bit below the reel seat and extension.

Worked a treat ....... until I closed a car door on the poor thing!:saevilw::saevilw::saevilw::saevilw::saevilw::saevilw::saevilw:

 

Been doing it for years.i have an 20 odd tear old #5/6 german blank originally set up as a single hander .
Found a peice of spare carbon blank which fitted up the butt built a handle on that and found the fit was good enough to work without glue.
It roll casts beautifully,with DT and WF lines.
Guess over all its now 11'8",is this a switch rod?:Eyecrazy:

 

Been doing it for years.i have an 20 odd tear old #5/6 German blank originally set up as a single hander .
Found a piece of spare carbon blank which fitted up the butt built a handle on that and found the fit was good enough to work without glue.
It roll casts beautifully,with DT and WF lines.
Guess over all its now 11'8",is this a switch rod?:Eyecrazy:

Indeed it is Andy, indeed it is.

Fred

 

Hey, thanks for the replies. I like the idea of just adding a small chunk of graphite off an old rod onto the butt section and then corking over that to make the bottom handle. I know I will have to get out and test some lines to see what best fits this rod but I am open to suggestions for what you think might work. The rod is a 10'6" 6/7 weight. I would say the rod is a mid flex or moderate action. I have an old 9 wt line which I could cut and use the back end as running line. Maybe then I could buy a scandi or skagit head, of the right grain weight, and be set to go. Thanks again.


SL2

 

Line for rod

What kind of line are you thinking about using on this rod?(skagit, scandi or traditional)
For a skagit the going weight is 300 to 350 grains. There line weights are designed for single hand skagit casting. 300 for 6 wt and 350 for 7 wt.
The 9 wt line might work for traditional casting.
No experience with scandi.
Hope this helps you out some.
Let us know how it works out for you.


Dan

 

Check this post out..

Took me a bit of digging, but here (I think) is a great PDF that Carl posted awhile back. It's a good step by step with photos along the way. Hope that helps.

Scott

http://speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=27037&page=2

 

Thanks guys, I will be sure to let you know how the experiment goes. I have a heavy load of summer classes, I am working on my Masters, so it could take me a little time before it is all said and done. I really appriciate the feed back and good info.


SL2

 

I have three old Fisher rods I made up when I made rods from blanks - a 10' 7wt; 10' - 8 wt and a 10.5' 8/9wt. Since I no longer have any stuff I asked Bill Kiene if he knew someone who made up rods and he turned me on to his barber who does stuff part time so I gave him the rods and he just took off the butt caps and installed a back grip around 6 inches long - sorry one photo is a bit blurry

I really love these rods and have them rigged with a couple of Vision Ace lines and short skagits - they are really a kick to use and I tend to reach for them now over my two-handers much of the time

 

I found a cheap 10' 4/5 blank on eBay I'm planning to build up as a light switch/spey/euro-nymph rod with a similar grip to that shown above. I SH Spey cast quite alot so it just seemed to make sense. Figuring out what line will work it as a two hander will likely be a challenge, but I've got a few to pick from.

I'm fairly ignorant on Skagit lines. Would a WF6F Lazer with some of the front taper cut off work with 4-8' of T8 on such a rod?

 

switch rod conversion

I have two 10 ft older Powell rods that I had changed to switch rods. A shop in Chico, Ca. named Raptor Rod Works did a great job at a very reasonable price.