[Moose]

I understand that the Grandspey lines have been re-rated and some re-designed, and with the old 7/8 (I have 2, one floater, 1 cut for tips) that is a good thing as it really was too much for a light spey rod. Even on my 15' 7/8 Winston DBF (not really light, is it) I was having to strip the color change well beyond my reel hand to get decent performance. Another problem with that was, if you have an 80 foot head and have to strip 10 or 12 feet or more of it in to get it to work you really are only throwing a mid belly. Another issue was that the turnover wasn't so great out to the tip and guys I know were cutting them a few feet back.

I don't bring this up to beat a dead horse, but to compare the old to the new. I'm wondering what qualities and performance anyone out there is finding with the new 7/8 and on what rods this line is excelling. And with that I have a few questions:

I downloaded Rio's new catalog to find that the new 7/8 is 700 grains, but what is the belly length, and is that measured from the color change?

Does the new line need to be stripped in to have the color change in hand or is it now able to be cast with the end of the rear taper up in or beyond the guides?

Any very different changes in taper?

Simon?

 

[Speybro]

Hi Moose

As you probably know a new spey standard was adopted at the FFR show in Denver in September. This gave manufacturers a similar standard for spey lines as single hand lines.

We redesigned the GS to fall into these new guidelines. The head of the 7/8, as you say, is 700 grains and is 75 ft long - that is to the end of the back taper and to the color change. All the GS have been adjusted so that they now follow the guidelines. The 8/9 head is 800 grains and 80 ft, the 9/10 is 900 grains and 90 ft, the 10/11 is 1100 grains at 95 ft and the 11/12 is 1300 grains at 100 ft.

We made the lines thinner and changed the taper slightly to get the new weights to cast well. I love the new design and particuarly the new 7/8 - it is so sweet on the 13 ft #7 T&T I use. Mind you, don't take the manufacturers word for it, early reports are very encouraging from Dana, Kush, Juro and Nobuo.

Hope this helps.

Tight lines
Simon

 

[fishingd0]

Just out of interest, how much of a difference is there in the grain betweed the new 10/11 GS and the old one.

Hopefully its'not far off the old Accellerator 10/11. That would be real progress. :smokin:

Gordon

 

[MJC]

The "old" GrandSpey 10/11 according to the Rio catalogue was listed @ 1500grns.

 

[Speybro]

Hi Gordon

Nice to hear from you again. Makes me a little homesick when I read of your local rivers!

The old 10/11 Accelerator only had a head length of 82 ft which weighed 1000 grains. The new 10/11 GS has a head length of 95 ft and weighs 1100 grains - just to give you an idea of the difference.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes
Simon

 

[juro]

The Grandspey is the long belly spey line I've been waiting for Simon. What I notice right away is that the taper still turns over sharply whether short line casting or full belly, which is important for fishing. When I am airing it for the fun of it (unlike Dana and Kush who get to fish those monter casts the lucky dogs) there is no choking up with these lines as the are all business - a long smooth stroke with an abrupt stop and they cast themselves in classic long belly fashion.

I was loving the match up of the 7/8 with the Steelhead Specialist while Kush and Nobuo were throwing moonshots over the pepsi machine and into the far wall with the bigger grandspeys on the Salars and Thompsons at Denver.

I've since cast them on the river with the rest of the rod models from the Solstice 7/8 15'2" (GS 7/8) up to the Specialists. These lines cover a wide range of rods, or vice-versa because the long taper allows adjustment of the length of line carried during the cast, and the balance of grains freely shoots additional line smoothly and effortlessly. Some rods like the back taper to the hands, other rods like the taper at the tip guide, and still others can go either way depending on stroke. Very versatile.

The taper feels good all through without any stalling of energy transfer and I immediately noticed that when my long stroke was on the money the shape of the loop was like a dagger. Even the blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.

My next endeavor is to match sinking tips to them for winter fishing without the repeated stripping of sort belly lines. This can be especially burdensome on cold days when the guides ice up more with the amount of water being passed over them (stripping). Also the use of gloves is a real plus when casting with long belly heads and little stripping if at all.

Simply put.. I love 'em!

Since it's almost Xmas, I would make just one wish... a 6/7 or even a 5/6 under the tree if I am a good boy? :lildevl:

 

[Moose]

Juro

My quest on another thread for the light, long belly monster might just be the Solstice 15'2" and the new 7/8 GS, huh? :smokin:

 

[Luv2flyfish]

Moose, you and I are definately tracking on the same wave length.

The 6/7 XLT is about 770 gr. The new 7/8 GS is 700 - This might be the answer. I have yet to throw an Airflow Traditional (hope I can get one before the reserves are all gone) but that is also an option in the lightest one made.

 

[JDJones]

Hi Simon

Read my lips. (from another post) "A line capable of picking up and re-casting a Bomber or a Waller Waker, 100 feet out. Without stripping line." And I don't like to hold skinny line. It slips out of my hand too easily. So,,,,with a 15 foot (rod length) leader, this means a working belly of 85 feet. (anything less is a midspey to me :chuckle: )Plus a rear taper somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.5/14.0 feet. Hopefully, we wont need a broomstick to cast this line. And if it has a tip daimeter with enough mass to turn over 10 feet of T-14, (even if I have to cut it back 10 feet to get the diameter) all the better.

You short rod guys can have your mid speys. Just leave me alone.

 

[fishingd0]

Hi Gordon

Nice to hear from you again. Makes me a little homesick when I read of your local rivers!

The old 10/11 Accelerator only had a head length of 82 ft which weighed 1000 grains. The new 10/11 GS has a head length of 95 ft and weighs 1100 grains - just to give you an idea of the difference.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes
Simon

Simon

The grain of the new GS sounds more like what I was looking in proportion to the head length.

Why did Rio not incorporate the hinge into the GS design. I haved notice a number of people on the forum opted away from the Accellerator because of this.
Surely this would help turnover (especially at long distance)? Does the stepped front taper in the GS cater for this equally?

When will the new GS be out in UK? :lildevl:

Gordon

 

[Lohi]

...We redesigned the GS to fall into these new guidelines. The head of the 7/8, as you say, is 700 grains and is 75 ft long - that is to the end of the back taper and to the color change. All the GS have been adjusted so that they now follow the guidelines. The 8/9 head is 800 grains and 80 ft, the 9/10 is 900 grains and 90 ft, the 10/11 is 1100 grains at 95 ft and the 11/12 is 1300 grains at 100 ft...

Hmm... Theoretically according to the SpeyLine Calculator,

7/8, 700 grains @ 75 ft is a 8.5 SpeySTD
8/9, 800 grains @ 80 ft is a 9.3 SpeySTD and interestingly also
9/10, 900 grains @90 ft is a 9.3 SpeySTD
10/11, 1100 grains @95 ft is a 11.1 SpeySTD and
11/12, 1300 grains @ 100 is a 12.6 SpeySTD,

So there is some difference to the published STD, unless I have got it totally wrong , or is there a typo somewhere (9/10 GS specs?)?

 

[kush]

As Simon says...

I really like the new GS. I have have been very impatiently waiting until Simon unveiled that there was a new taper involved in the GS. Now that he has I will say that after a season fishing on the Thompson (albeit a shortened one) this line is awesome. I won't go into the technical aspects of casting - I just like to "huck it out there" and this line does "huck"!

I haven't had the opportunity to fish the GS in any but the 10/11 version on my 16'7" Thompson Specialist, but I cast the others in Denver and I am ordering the full range of the Grandspeys. All I can say is well done Simon.

 

[Speybro]

Hey all

The reason we didn't incorporate the hinge into GrandSpey, Gordon, was that it didn't work as effectively at the longer distances we had designed the GrandSpey for. We went through more than a dozen profiles; tweaking and changing things. The earlier versions had the power hinge in, but when we tried a design without it the extra distance we got was impressive.

Hi Lohi. I presume you are talking about the new spey standards? If so, the standard that has been accepted is based on a weight at 80 ft. The AFTMA standard is as follows; #8 is 710 gr, #9 is 780 gr, #10 is 860, #11 is 950 and #12 is 1050. At 80 ft (or 75 ft in the case of the 7/8 the new GS's weigh: #8 = 700 grains, #9 = 800 grains, #10 = 830 grains, #11 = 926 grains and #12 is 1040 grains. The standard has a tolerance of +/- 30 grains, so you can see that all of them fall into the new spey standard.

As to when they are availble in the UK, Gordon, you will need to check with our distributor Guide fly fishing (01757 210160), but all GS's made since September have this new design, so everything Guide are getting now in will be of the new design. Not sure how many of the old model they still have in stock, though.

Tight lines
Simon

 

[fishingd0]

Its all clear now

Hey all

The reason we didn't incorporate the hinge into GrandSpey, Gordon, was that it didn't work as effectively at the longer distances we had designed the GrandSpey for. We went through more than a dozen profiles; tweaking and changing things. The earlier versions had the power hinge in, but when we tried a design without it the extra distance we got was impressive.

Hi Lohi. I presume you are talking about the new spey standards? If so, the standard that has been accepted is based on a weight at 80 ft. The AFTMA standard is as follows; #8 is 710 gr, #9 is 780 gr, #10 is 860, #11 is 950 and #12 is 1050. At 80 ft (or 75 ft in the case of the 7/8 the new GS's weigh: #8 = 700 grains, #9 = 800 grains, #10 = 830 grains, #11 = 926 grains and #12 is 1040 grains. The standard has a tolerance of +/- 30 grains, so you can see that all of them fall into the new spey standard.

As to when they are availble in the UK, Gordon, you will need to check with our distributor Guide fly fishing (01757 210160), but all GS's made since September have this new design, so everything Guide are getting now in will be of the new design. Not sure how many of the old model they still have in stock, though.

Tight lines
Simon

Cheers for that Simon.

Tight lines and keep up the good work

Gordon

 

[Lohi]

...Hi Lohi. I presume you are talking about the new spey standards? If so, the standard that has been accepted is based on a weight at 80 ft. The AFTMA standard is as follows; #8 is 710 gr, #9 is 780 gr, #10 is 860, #11 is 950 and #12 is 1050. At 80 ft (or 75 ft in the case of the 7/8 the new GS's weigh: #8 = 700 grains, #9 = 800 grains, #10 = 830 grains, #11 = 926 grains and #12 is 1040 grains. The standard has a tolerance of +/- 30 grains, so you can see that all of them fall into the new spey standard.
...

Interesting indeed. #9 is a 9.3, and #10 is a #9.6, the difference being 30 grains (= 2 grams). I have to admit, that I had somewhat different approach to the standard, as obviously one should be able to rate any head lenght and weight combo. I cannot see much use with a standard that says that as long as the line weights xx grains @80, the rest of the head (e.g. 20 ft in a 100 ft head) can weight anything, and it i still a standard line.

WBR, Sauli Liukkonen, Finland

 

[JDJones]

New Grand Speys

Hi Simon,

These new GS lines sound awsome. Two questions.
Do they have a factory loop at the tip (for attaching sink tips/ poly leaders)?
Does the packaging indicate "New" Grand Spey in some way?
I'll be looking forward to trying them (with poly leaders) at the Sandy Clave.

How about the new Skagit lines and Skagit cheaters I've heard about?
I'm going to be busy trying out out all these new lines.

 

[Speybro]

hi lohi

I see you point of view, but the standard was left open after the set lengths as this is where the line designers can tinker!! If we all had to have a set weight and a set length, there would be less room for tinkering, and we like tinkering!!!!

All the best
Simon

 

[speyrd]

Hi Speybro, When the new improved versions of the Grand Speys are avaiable are you going let the people on the board test them like you did the first ones?
Best,
Leroy.............................

 

[Big K1]

Good idea Leroy.

 

[MJC]

Hmmm, I was under the inpression that the new "GrandSpey Lights" as I call them were already available. I just shipped 3 out yesterday. When I ordered them from Rio I was assured they were the new models although I see nothing on the box to tell me this.