[Grampa Spey]

Right before Christmas, I snagged one of these rods at a great price. The owner tried it once, and he hadn't Spey Cast before. He didn't like it.

What Rio Lines do you like with this rod? It will be used for Winter Steelhead in N. Ca, and early fall Steelhead in SW Oregon. Also, it will be used for Shad Fishing.

If our rivers ever go down, I will be testing Rio's Grand Spey Floating 8/9, and I have my Grand Spey 7/8 with tips to try on it.

I prefer either the Mid Spey or the Grand Spey type of lines.

One final question re taping the ferrules:

I have got conflicting opinions on taping the ferrules. Do you or don't you tape with the ARC rods?

 

[Carl]

Long ago,

I had an ARC 1409, and did fine with wax on the spigot ferrules. On the other hand, I was a rookie spey caster and probably never pushed the rod to its limits. I think you'll be fine with wax if you check your connections enough. However I didn't have the ability to fling a whole Grandspey. Good luck!

 

[Rick J]

I had the 1409 for a while but replaced ith with the 1509 to get a bit more umph for throwing tips - I used a WC 8/9/10 on the rod and it did great. I would think that the 8/9 GS would load it with no problems - I would just go out and try both your GS's on it.

I rarely tape the ARC rods though Scott suggested you do so. I check periodically and generally just wax and have never had one come apart and I throw long belly xlt's on both my ARC rods - the 1509 and the 1287.

 

[Grampa Spey]

Rick J

Thanks for this advice:

"I would just go out and try both your GS's on it.

"I rarely tape the ARC rods though Scott suggested you do so. I check periodically and generally just wax and have never had one come apart and I throw long belly xlt's on both my ARC rods - the 1509 and the 1287."

I intend to try my GS's, Mid Spey and even my old Accelerator 9/10 with it. The Accelerator without tips 1 and 2 connected to the sinking tips makes a good running line and should work well with this rod.

I will just wax the ferrules and have a roll of tape with me in case I need it.

Thanks again.

 

[flytyer]

Grandpa Spey,

The GS 8/9 will badly overload the rod, it is the line I use on my T&T 1510-3. You really need to drop a line size with the GS with most rods; therefore, the GS 7/9 would work well. Remember that the GS weighs a lot more than an XLT of the same wt designation and that the Windcutter is a lot less weight than the GS. The Windcutter that Rick uses (the 8/9/10) or the Mid-Spey 8/9 would be fine.

 

[Rick J]

I forgot to add that I used the Accelerator 8/9 on that rod also and it loaded fine so the GS 8/9 would likely be on the heavy side as I am sure it is more grains than the old Accelerator

 

[Grampa Spey]

Carl, all

Carl, waxing the ferrules on my Scott ARC 1409 worked very well.

Yesterday, I used my Grand Spey 7/8 with the floating tip, a 13 foot furled leader, 3' of tippet and a size 4 steelhead fly.

The rod worked well and was able to handle most of the line better than my Sage 7141 and was less tiring with double spey casts. For some reason, it didn't feel that it was loading with the few Snake rolls I cast.

If we don't have another Frog drowner, I will try the Grand Spey 7/8 with tips tomorrow. An unplanned "Honey Do this!" got phoned in today, and that eliminated any casting today.