[Grampa Spey]

I will be soon be buying Rio's new MidSpey line with tips for my Sage 7141.

Currently I'm now using my Mid Spey floating 6/7 and Wind Cutter 6/7/8 with the tips. Both do a good job, but I want to make my life a little more simple with this rod and just have one line on one reel and no spools to worry about during the winter months.


On the Yuba river we have great surface activity with the Skalwa Stone Flies in Jan/Feb. My last trip to the Yuba a few weeks ago these flies were out. Also, many of our rivers in California are great for skating flies. So a good floating line is needed by us in the winter months as well as sinking tips/lines.

Is there any difference in the weight of the tips in the new Mid Spey 6/7 or new Mid Spey 7/8 or are they the same re weight.

 

[Speybro]

Hi Grampa Spey

Thanks for your support of Rio and for buying so many of our lines.

The new lines have the same grain weight as the old lines and the same taper - there is no change there, just in the running line color (and the addition of the new sinking tips).

The MidSpey 6/7 tips weigh around 95 grains and the 7/8 tips weigh around 109 grains - regardless of sink rate. The MidSpey 6/7 has the same tips as the WindCutter 6/7/8 and the MidSpey 7/8 has the same tips as the 7/8/9 WinCutter.

I hope this is what you are after, but please don't hesitate to let me know if I can help you further.

All the best
Simon

 

[Grampa Spey]

Speybro

Thanks for your response. I will buy your Mid Spey 6/7 with the tips for my 7141. Since I have the sinking tips with my older WC 678, this will enable me to have two choices for each tip.

Re me buying so many Rio Lines. I keep all the boxes and spools of any lines that I buy for storage, to help me remember what the lines are and for buyers of my slightly used stuff.

I have so many Rio Boxes, that my son while looking at them last week, said my closet looked like a fly shop with all the Rio Boxes.

This week I will be replacing your 10 weight Versi tip for the winter Delta Striper fishing with your Striper 26 ft DC, 350 grain line. The currents and tides are so strong in the Delta that the floating shooting line on your Versi tip and the Teeny's prevent a fast and good drop. My son, the expert re Striper fishing, recommended that I buy and try your Striper 26 DC 350. Which I did, and it will be installed to day.

By the way he has made two 30' shooting head sinking tips for his Rio intermediate shooting lines out of your new R14, I believe that is the product. He really likes this product. With your shooting line and the tips, he bangs out 100' casts like most people fire out a 40' cast.

On Thanksgiving morning he used one of these new heads and caught 16 nice Stripers in about 4 hours of fishing. If you ever want someone as good as a guide but not a guide to test your Striper lines and other Striper accessories, you might want to consider him.

Thanks for your response re your Mid Spey's. I will be ordering the 6/7 with the tips this morning.

 

[Speybro]

Thanks again for your great support of RIO I hope that you have as much success with the Striper 350 as with your spey lines. It has certainly been a very successful line in the Delta.

I also appreciate your offer on behalf of your son. I will keep that in mind as I have to experience the West coast Striper fishing one day.

That T14 has been superb in the Bay area, and the great lakes. The steelhead boys there seem to be getting hold of it for making different length tips. At $11 for 30 feet it works out pretty cheap!

All the best
Simon

 

[wet fly]

Question for Speybro

Simon, Is it possible to buy a wincutter with just one splice to attach the tips? I never take out the 15 foot middle section. This way one would have only one set of loops going through the guides. Jerry

 

[fredaevans]

Re: Question for Speybro--Add on question.

Simon, Is it possible to buy a wincutter with just one splice to attach the tips? I never take out the 15 foot middle section. This way one would have only one set of loops going through the guides. Jerry

If no to the windcutter, what wt. forward RIO line would you recommend for a 'snip and loop' for this process? I've been using a DT line, 2 line wt's over the rod # for this but it's a far less than a 'perfect combination'..... but far less expensive that a three tip system which rarely gets used as such.
fae

 

[Rick J]

Custom loops

If you just buy a regular WC you could cut it at the 15' mark and make your own loop - using the 30# braided stuff slipped over the line core - I think there is an easy description of this floating around on this board somewhere - I think Juro wrote it up. There are even cleaner methods but I have had no trouble with this loop passing through the guides. I have cut a number of my lines and have been using the tips from my old WC 8/9/10 - these tips cast well even on my Scott 1287

 

[fredaevans]

Rick, do you 'up-line' the windcutter to add wt

to the head? Example: you wanted to toss heads on a 9wt 14' sage. Which WC would you use for the 'base line?' I ask as I've always thought (sounds like I'm wrong) that the short heads on the WC's would be short on grains/head length to 'fling' a 15' sink tip.
fae

 

[Rick J]

Hi Fred,
I think I might upsize one - I only have one WC - the 8/9/10 multi-tip that I got when I first got my Scott 1409 - I have since upsized to the Scott 1509 and I think that the 8/9/10 would be a bit light for that rod - probably go to the 9/10/11. The Accelerator 9/10 with tips works ok on the 1509

I prefer the longer bellies even with tips - I have both the Midspey and Airflo long delta for my Scott 1287 (they are both 7/8 wt lines) - I have cut them and added loops and they handle the 8/9/10 WC tips quite well

Best regards,
Rick

 

[fredaevans]

Man, that was fast! You're obviously taking a mental

coffee break too!

Mark B's got the WC lines on sale right now so will give him a call and maybe he can also recommend and do the 'circumcision.' (sp?) before he sends same out to me.
tnx!
fe

 

[Speybro]

We have had a few requests for a WindCutter with only one loop to loop join, but nothing like enough to make these lines. The lines are made in three different pieces, thus we make all the bodies of (say) a WindCutter 8/9/10, then at another stage we will make all the Tip 2's and so on. So to make a line with only one loop in would mean re-designing and re-programming the machine. If we only made the line as a whole, then cut to make the interchangeable tip lines, it would be easier to make the occasional line with only one set of loops.

With regard to Fred's query, that is a tough one. However, I would say that the Steelhead line would be the best alternative. Most of the other weight forward lines we make are too short to be using on a spey rod....that is if you don't want to go ahead and get a regular WindCutter (as suggested by Rick) and snip and loop that one - which would be the best option.

By the way, if you are going to use a Steelhead line on a spey rod, you need to "up line" by 2 or 3 lines to get it to load the equivalent spey rod.

I hope this helps
Simon

 

[Grampa Spey]

Speybro re Rio's stripper 26 DC 350

Simon, I just got back from testing your Rio's striper 26 DC 350 with Bob Meister's two handed 9/10 Rod.

With the intermediate shooting line it drops the fly like a rock. In fact I lost 4 flies trying to bring the flies up close to enduce a strike.

I roll cast the 26' head out and then used a two handed overhead and put most casts 70 to 80' out. I was fishing from the bank. I believe that casting from my son's casting deck on his Striper boat, that 90' foot casts will easily done. The important thing was how the line sunk the big striper flies with the running line sinking right with the 26' head.

I can't wait to try this combo on the Delta fishing for Stripers.

Also, if we ever get any rain and the steelhead this winter hole up in deep pools, this combo will probably be my rod and line for those deep holding steelhead.

Kudo's to Rio for another great line.

It is obvious that fishermen design your lines, not some engineer who has never fished.