[BCOrchidGuy]

Hi, I'm Doug from the Vancouver area of BC, I'm just recently back into fly fishing and am giving some thought to a spey rod. Money is tight so I won't be spending a ton of $$ of the higher end stuff but am curious as to what your veiw(s) are on the St. Croix Imperial spey rod. I'm looking at the 15 foot 10/11 wt or the 14 foot 8/9 wt. Most if not all my spey fishing will be on the local rivers for coho/springs/steelies/ etc etc... any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Doug

 

[juro]

In addition to those fine rods in an affordable price range, I would also take a peek at the CND 14' 9/10 Expert which retails $345 USD, or some of the Loop spey rods also in a lower price range, both sponsors of this site as well.

You can be sure these spey rods were developed by spey fishermen for spey fishermen.

 

[ChromeFever]

New to Spey

I know that Juro doesnt like to toot the horn to loudly for CND rods as to not upset some of the other MFG's out there, but I wll! They make a very fine rod that is reasonably priced and would make a great rod to start out with. For other options you may also want to look at Lamiglass. They also make a fine rod. Good Luck and Tight Lines!

 

[Whistler]

BCOrchidguy,

I would suggest the a 9 weight over the 10 unless you are primarly fishing for Chinook, Chums or Thompson Steelhead. Even so a 9 weight will handle all of the above quite well, with the added bonus of being a lot nicer to fish. I agree with the two suggestions as per Loop and CND, both are fine rods. I would call them mid priced rods that perform like top priced rods. If you wanted something a little bit cheaper(@$400CDN) I would strongly suggest the Redington Redfly 3 piecerods. IMHO this rod, in either a 8/9 or a 9/10 is the best spey value going and in a lot of cases outclasses rods double it's price range. The reason-Loop designed it! these used to be the Loop Adventure series and are one of the lightest speys on the market. When Loop went to all 4 piece speyrods Redington bought the mandrels and presto-you have an amazing rod for what amounts to less than $300 US. There is a little bit of a trick to lining these rods but when they are set up properly you really cannot throw a nicer loop-no pun intended.
Brian Niska

 

[t_richerzhagen]

Contact Dana

Welcome to the forum, as this seems to be your first post.

You can shorten your learning curve by contacting Dana or other instructors in your area for lessons. Dana would also have a number of rods you could try with matched lines.

Check the forum for "claves" in your area. They can really help you get up to speed quickly, as well as meeting a bunch of great people.

 

[Hammer]

i have a couple croix's that i'm going to have to put on e-bay,am looking for reels ,lines etc.as always,heck ,have any 9 ft. or longer oars,anyway just a thought,personally i've taken quite a liking to scotch,rods that is,,,check the for sale area,ebay,etc.if you are just starting out,i'm doing it the hard way,if i started over i'd get with someone who has a pile of rods and whip a few around, preferably on the water,where you can relax,,,,quite a bit of dif. in these long rods,,as far as action,,,well there ya' go a full two cents worth,but you better get at least one cause they ARE fantastic,even better than i thought, once you finally get out there alone in the river and come to terms with them,they'll blow your mind,as for the croix 14, i mostly use one rigged with flattened mono runnig line and various heads i've made up for overhead work, i guess i like the slower full action,read heavy rods,at least for full lines,wich is another longwinded tale:hehe:

 

[BCOrchidGuy]

Thanks everyone who took the time to reply, I appreciate all the advice and will be looking at the other options.