[Norseman]

In need of some advise...Please

Good day to everyone: I have been prowling this site now for a couple of weeks, and I am happy to say you have convinced me to try my hand at spey casting. I live in Nelson BC, I typically fish the Columbia river for resident rainbows that run into the teens. A typical spring fish would range 4-6 lbs, but thanks to the Americans, we will soon have triploid steehead showing up in our waters, in the next few years that easily tip the scales at 14-18 lbs. I also fish the Dean, Vedder and want to start on the Thompson.

My question is this. I am limited to approx $800 Canadian dollars ( I know that this equals about 400 US dollars....grin grin). I am looking at three different outfits now and would like your advise;
I have decided that the 8/9 weight setup will be my choice

1- Loop blue or green series spey in the 12'4" 8/9 with either a Loop traditional 3Wide spool or an Evotech 8-12

2- Orvis Trident TLS in 12'4" in an 8/9 Wt. With an Orvis Battenkill large arbour # VI size

3- Guideline ( Loomis GL-3 made for Norway) 13' 8/9 Wt with a Hardy Salmon #2 or Hardy Disk 8/9/10

I am an experienced caster and have tied for nearly 35 yrs. All of my gear so far is Sage one handers and all Hardy reels.

I am not rich enough to afford a sage Spey, and not afraid to think outside the box, hence the loop selection

thanks in advance

Best regards....Paul

 

[Andy T]

Norseman,

If you're on a budget you may want to consider building your own rod. You're correct in that the Loops are very good deals for the technology and quality. Their factory rods are already a good deal. You could save even more by buying a blank & components and building your own.

For me I just enjoy rod building. The only downside of building your own rod is that the factory warranty only applies to the blank.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Andy

 

[Norwegian]

Think about considering the Scott SAS 13 ft for line 8 (8-9 in my view) also. It is a great rod and have a proof warranty as well.

Good luck.

 

[ChromeFever]

Loop Rods

I own a couple of Loop spey rods and for the money you cant go wrong. Just remember they have a limited warranty as opposed to say Sage that has a Lifetime Warranty. But thats why you pay the big bucks for them as well. I would stay away from the black line when it comes to the loops. But the rest of there lines are actually quite nice for the $$. Good Luck and Tight Lines

 

[Norseman]

Thanks for the responses

Norwegian and Chromefever.....thanks for the advise I appreciate all the input. With so many outfits to choose from its nice to have some other opinions from those with experience..I look forward to many years of spey casting. Seems like a great bunch on this forum....thanks and best regards......Paul

 

[tackleman]

A few comments and a reccomendation. I think your choice for a rod is pretty good - it should fish the waters you've indicated well although I'm going to suggest you move up a little in line weight. There have been some suggestions for rods under 14' which I would argue against. You are fishing some very big water and can use the extra reach that a longer rod can provide. If you haven't considered a Redington rod have a look at the 14' Red.Fly rod. Good value and performance for the money. There are still a few Redington AL and AS series reels in larger sizes in BC shops. They too are great value for the money as they are discontinued but still warrantied. That will give you some more $'s to play with for lines, leaders and sink-tips that become an important part of fishing success on 'big' water.

 

[ChromeFever]

Loop

I dont want to knock the loop company because overall I really like some of there products. But I, as well as a couple friends of mine, have had problems with a rod that we all own in there black series. At first I thought maybe it was just a one time issue with the rod that I had. But after talking to a couple of friends of mine. Who own the exact same rod as the one I have in the black line they had the same problems? Eventually we all got the issue resolved but It was a somewhat painful process. I have some of there reels as well as other rods in other lines and never had any issues at all with those products. Good Luck and Tight Lines.

 

[nevada caster]

I would like to echo that if you are looking at heavier rods, i.e. 9wt plus, that you look at rods 14' or longer. If you are going to do traditional casting, the extra length is important, and nice for fishing (mending). Shorter rods are more common in the European type rods for overhead casting.

 

[JDJones]

Rods

I would suggest you look at two rods. First is St Croix 14ft 9 wt at about $240 US. The other would be a Cabelas in the same size and weight. There has been a lot of speculation that Cabelas rods are made by St Croix. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen. Never the less, the Cabelas rods are a good deal for the price as are the St. Croix. And they both have lifetime warrenties.

 

[kush]

ChromeFever

ChromeFever,

Out of curiosity, what was the problem with the Loop Blacks? While I've fished the Blues, Yellows and Greens, I've only fished the Black briefly and am interested in the problem you guys had. If you'd rather not do it on the open forum please feel free to PM me. Thanks.

 

[flytyer]

You might want to take a look at what is available used here in the forum or on ebay. This way you could possible find a Sage that you can afford. That said, the Loop rod and the Redington RedFly spey ($250.00), or the St. Croix ($240.00 for the 14 ft.) are hard to beat. And building your own offers even more choices for the money you have to spend, as Tackleman also suggested.

I also agree with Tackleman regarding rod size, you may be better served with a bit longer (14 or even 15 ft.) and heavier rod (9 weight) for the waters you are gong to fish with the rod and the size of the fish you are targeting.

 

[t_richerzhagen]

CND

If Kush can get us access to CND rods, that would be a great choice too.

 

[Norseman]

CDN rods??

Wouldnt that be great...all I have read about is how great they are...but no one seems to know when they will be making their debut. Who is the company producing these rods? is there a webiste or any other info out there?.

Kush, Dana...can either of you shed any light on these rods.

Thanks and best regards....

Jake

 

[Norseman]

Chnaged my mind

After all that I cant get the large arbor Battenkill and they have no projected date for ordering from the mfg....so I have decided to go with the Loop 12'4'' 8/9 and the Loop reels.............ah. just what the Dr. ordered


__________________
Jake