having won the snowbee XS-P 14 9/10 in the recent auction, i figured i owed the spey pages a review. this is a nice rod to look at and it casts well too, although i have probably put it to uses that were not those for which it was specifically designed. as indicated in my profile, i had an accident a couple of years ago and lost most of my right hand. my left handed casting was inefffectual and i became a double handed rod user because i really had no choice. those of you who fish for anadramous fish in cold water probably think i am commiting fly fishing heresy for using a spey rod in tropical saltwaters but it lets me fish.
anyhow,when i got the snowbee i followed my normal practice of using it with a regular weight forward line and i overlined it rather severely. you should understand that there are damned few spey users in south texas and that none of the fly shops stock spey lines.(i did mail order a spey line but it turned to spaghetti almost immediately) the snowbee performed pretty well with a wf 12 but the wf11 was much better and i have no trouble casting 80 to 85 feet, which is more than sufficient. yesterday, i was casting into a northerly breeze(courtesy of hurricane katrina) with little effort and even picked up a couple of speckled trout and a nice redfish.
the rod has a rather different action from the thomas and thomas and tfo rods i normally use. it is, i think, a pretty fast action rod but the whole rod flexes rather more than i expected. i guess this would be called a progressive action but it worked well once i got the hang of it. i am not quite ready to try this rod on tarpon off the boca chica jetties but it should be suitable. i imagine that bowing to a tarpon with a 14 footer will be an experience. if i can get one of the snowbee 2 or 3D lines it should also be suitable for the bull redfish migration in october or november. who knows i may even learn to spey cast. anyhow, i like this rod and hopefully will be able to try some other sticks in the snowbee line.
jack
