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Lately I have been jonesing to swing a fly with one of my double handers, unfortunately I don't live close enough to GL tribs for a Saturday afternoon drive. So, the next best thing? The Delaware for wild rainbow trout. I headed up to The fabled east branch of the Del armed with my sage z-axis 5126 Spey rod. Some folks feel that a 5 weight Spey rod is overkill for trouting applications, and for fish under say 15" you won't get much bend in your rod. However, the Del is known for uncharacteristically strong rainbows.
So I arrived to my destination and laced up the 5126 with an airflo #5 tactical steelhead @ 390 grains. I removed floating tip and attached a 13' type 3 sink tip @ 77 grains and a large hairwing streamer of my own design. That day the flows were high due to recent rains so the sink tip seemed like a great choice. I stepped out into one of my favorite runs with wide banks and begun swinging. The 5126 combined with this particular line is a match made in heaven, the tactical steel line gives me incredible versatility for use with tips heavier then poly's. As I started swinging I began to get in the zone, using pull mends I could feel the fly slipping into the bucket. Only after a half a dozen casts I felt an explosive pull, the 5126 bent so hard I could swear it was a steelhead
after a long 5 minute battle I tailed a beautiful 17"-18" bow. It was truly amazing how hard this fish fought, leaping in the air multiple times and screaming downstream almost taking me into the backing.
After this I moved down to a slower moving run and removed the type 3 tip and replaced it with a 13' intermediate tip @ 77 grains with a similar hairwing. This rig behaves much more like a scandi, snake rolls and touch and go technique is a dream with this setup. Swing step, swing step, enjoying the casting ease and wonderful turnover I got many strikes but didn't hook up, (I told myself it's b/c I de-barb my hooks
) I finished up the day on this setup but didn't bring another fish to hand. All in all that one fish was totally worth it, and rekindled my faith in swinging for trout.
How do you folks feel about 5 weight DH rods for trout? After this experience I don't feel I was over-gunned at all, it seemed the tackle was perfectly matched to the conditions and fish.
So I arrived to my destination and laced up the 5126 with an airflo #5 tactical steelhead @ 390 grains. I removed floating tip and attached a 13' type 3 sink tip @ 77 grains and a large hairwing streamer of my own design. That day the flows were high due to recent rains so the sink tip seemed like a great choice. I stepped out into one of my favorite runs with wide banks and begun swinging. The 5126 combined with this particular line is a match made in heaven, the tactical steel line gives me incredible versatility for use with tips heavier then poly's. As I started swinging I began to get in the zone, using pull mends I could feel the fly slipping into the bucket. Only after a half a dozen casts I felt an explosive pull, the 5126 bent so hard I could swear it was a steelhead
After this I moved down to a slower moving run and removed the type 3 tip and replaced it with a 13' intermediate tip @ 77 grains with a similar hairwing. This rig behaves much more like a scandi, snake rolls and touch and go technique is a dream with this setup. Swing step, swing step, enjoying the casting ease and wonderful turnover I got many strikes but didn't hook up, (I told myself it's b/c I de-barb my hooks
How do you folks feel about 5 weight DH rods for trout? After this experience I don't feel I was over-gunned at all, it seemed the tackle was perfectly matched to the conditions and fish.