[Grampa Spey]

Mark's latest news letter, has an interesting article on the lighter spey rods and the recommended rods.

It is a very interesting article.

What I found interesting is that with the new Sage 7141, that Mark did not recommend the XLT that is getting all of the publicity here on Spey Clave. He recommended the Air Flo Delta Spey 7/8.

Why the Air Flo Delta versus the highly touted XLT?

Here is the link to Mark's article in his latest news letter:

http://www.flyfishusa.com/newsletter/current/

Mark if you are monitoring this, why the Air Flo over the XLT?

Mark, thanks for all that you do for us at the various levels of Spey casting.

 

[flytyer]

Grandpa Spey,

Perhaps it is for the same reason that I like the RIO Midspey on 13 and 14 foot rods. It is simply less work to cast the 65 foot belly on the shorter 13 and 14 foot rods than those with a belly of 75 or more feet. On the 15 fot and longer rods, I prefer the lines with bellies 75 feet or longer.

Don't misunderstand me, I use the RIO Accelerator on my 13 foot GLX Loomis a lot as a dry line. But I would not recommend it for most people because the timing has to be just right and the anchor placement and lack of line stick is critical with the longer belly. Several friends who have tried my this rod and line combo had real problems getting it aerialized because of the timing and line placement. When done right, the long lines zip out, when done wrong, they die right in front of the rod.

 

[Grampa Spey]

Flytyer re the Air Flow lines and Sage 7141.

I'm a newbee with all of this stuff, and I agree that the Mid Spey is one of those great lines with the 13 to 14 foot rods.

I have a Mid Spey 6/7 that I use with my Sage 7141 and Sage 7136. Once I get in the grove on a fairly windless day, I can cast either rod for hours with minimal effort. With 60 to 65' foot of line outside of the end of the rods and leaders from 10 to 14 feet, that is all the distance that I need with most of my fishing.

When tossing a Boles indicator using Scott Robinson's system, I can use the very ugly Grampa Spey lob and chuck cast system with the Mid Spey and easily put it up stream 45 to 60 feet. Then it mends effortlessly. This enables me to fish the fly under the indicator for up to 80 to 100' foot controlled drifts with both rods. I find that I prefer the Mid Spey for this very ugly but very effective system over the Windcutter.

On my new Sage 10151, I have the Accelerator 9/10. Again, as you point out with the longer 15' rod the Accelerator works well if you are paying attention to what you are doing.

A relative has suggested that I try the Accelerator 9/10 floating tip with my Sage 7141 for skating and waking flies. He feels that in low wind days and with care, I should be able to boom it out.

Thanks for your input. At age 63 and a bad right shoulder, I don't want to be having to work that hard to cast something like the XLT. If I can get an evaluator xlt line for a week or so, I will try it. Other wise, the Mid Spey 6/7 works well with my 7141, and the Wind Cutter 678 with the upgrade heads works well enough for now with the 7141.

As I'm selling off my single hand rods, I'm giving away a lot of lines that didn't work that well for me or didn't perform any better than other lines, in spite of the hype.