[MT-]

Do any of you have experience fishing these rods with skandit, scandi or mid-bellies? Any line recs for the 13'4" 7/8 would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[peter-s-c]

Do any of you have experience fishing these rods with skandit, scandi or mid-bellies? Any line recs for the 13'4" 7/8 would be appreciated. Thanks.

In the past I've tried the 7/8 with a variety of lines and found that when going conventional, go light. It's been a while since I've last played with the 7/8 and conventional lines, so there's a lot of dust on the neurons. I don't have an opportunity today to shake the dust off with a trial, but if you're not in a hurry, I can do some testing over the next few days and report back.

 

[MT-]

Thanks Peter, I'd really appreciate that. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what you find. Very cool that you can do that for me.

 

[tyfish]

That's a great rod when I owned it I fished a 480 skagit compact a 390 Scandi compact and a 7/8 delta I think a 6/7 next cast WA 45 would also be a great choice .
Tyler

 

[Pere]

Certainly can't go wrong with delta. I wish I had more in the mint green.

 

[peter-s-c]

Today there's a bitting, howling upstream wind, rain, and damn cold - perfect steelhead and line testing weather.

When going conventional on Dredgers, I like to go light enough to have them feel more like crisp Scandi rods, yet not so light that distance suffers and I have to start pushing the cast to make it work.

I've found that when casting overhead, Dredgers like their upper rating number in single hand, overhead lines. So I tried an AFTMA conventional line (Airflo Striper) and a distance taper (Echo Sphere) WF-8-F. The rod could overhead cast both a decent distance into the teeth of the wind, though they suffered when I tried a Single Spey into the wind. Crosswind, the distance taper wasn't bad with a Circle Spey, but the shorter tapered WF-8-F didn't do much. The conclusion from this was the WF-8-F distance line was best overhead and marginal as a Spey line. A WF-9-F distance line would probably be a better all round line.

I also brought a 9wt. Airflo 40+ Extreme that turned out to be bang on for Spey casting. The head on this is very close to 400 grains, which I think should be the target for a Scandi head. Unfortunately I don't have one yet, but I think that the 390 Compact Scandi would fly on the GLX 7/8.

I could drive a Single into the wind with the 40+, getting about 60' with half-decent leader turnover. If I had had a fly on the end and not a big piece of yarn, the turnover probably would've been better. Crosswind when using the Circle went a whole lot better, getting well over 70'. Nice crisp feel with no Skagit heaviness, yet loaded more than well enough for distance without feeling the need to push it.

So conclusion: WF-9-F Distance line if we want a mix of overhead and Spey casts, a Scandi head around 400 or an Airflo 40+ Expert or Extreme 9 wt. for mainly Spey casting.

 

[MT-]

Thanks Peter, I owe you one. I'll sometimes stand back from the river and make a few overhead casts with a short line when I enter a run, but then I get to spey casting as soon as possible. I wasn't familiar with the Airflo 40+ Extreme but I'm going to look into them further. I think I'll start with the 390 compact scandi. I'm pumped to try it out. I think this rod could be awesome year round. Thanks again, I really appreciate.

 

[peter-s-c]

Thanks Peter, I owe you one. I'll sometimes stand back from the river and make a few overhead casts with a short line when I enter a run, but then I get to spey casting as soon as possible. I wasn't familiar with the Airflo 40+ Extreme but I'm going to look into them further. I think I'll start with the 390 compact scandi. I'm pumped to try it out. I think this rod could be awesome year round. Thanks again, I really appreciate.

The 40+ Extreme is a full line which I find advantageous when working a mix of short to medium casts as there's no loops sliding in and out of the guides. It's worth taking a look at down the road if a lot of your fishing is done with the back end of the head in the guides.

 

[sixrivers]

GLX Dredger...

Just put the 7/8 away for the steelhead season end of March. I have always liked a heavier line- so the Rio Flight 525 felt ok although the 480 skandi(shd) with Rio's 10 ft floating Versileader and around 12 ft of leader seemed perfect.