Michael Exl
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Posts
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Tim,
A skagit 550gr. with a 5ft. cheater for your main line. As far as tips go, 15′ 150-grain type 3, 6, & 8. Also some T-14 from 10′ 15′ in length would be good too. Also if you want you can get the floater tip for a skagit in 8wt. I think Rio does have a skagit 550gr. VersiTip now, so that could work as well.
-Mike
First, you need to go to http://www.speypages.com . This is a great forum site with a lot of guys that know all aspects of using the two-hander. I started fishing two-handers three years ago. My advice before you dive into getting a rod is go check out a spey clave. Here you can find out all the information you will ever want to know.
One piece of advice I will give to you is that if you are thinking about a switch rod, get some what good at fishing a longer rod. Many people think that the switch rod is the best of both worlds, but there are a several big of disadvantages to the rods. To start with you are limited to the lines that you can throw, along with the distance. Also having the shorter rod makes it difficult to use heavier tips.
As for rod selection I would stick with these companies; Sage, Echo, Meiser,GuideLine, and G. Loomis.
Walker’s Cay without any doubt. It’s two bad that it got cancelled. I actually have the two lost episodes that were being shot when it was cancelled.
I have trouble watching most of the fishing shows that are on now. For the most part if it’s saltwater they are fishing for billfish or goalith grouper. Half the time the shows are back to back. There are two shows that really rub me the wrong way. The first being Offshore Adventures. Here is the basic concept of the show; I have a lot of money so watch me show it off and spear a lot of fish and eat. That sums up that show. The other show is Tred Barta’s. For whatever reason Tred really doesn’t like fly fishermen. He has been pretty vocal about it on the show.
Now don’t get me wrong there are still some good shows. I like Spanish Fly a lot, Jose is just a neat guy. TU’s On the Rise has its moments, although the steelhead episode out west irked me. Its not always about catching a steelie, anyone that is a hardcore steelhead fly fishermen can tell you about that. I thought that it was pretty sad having to resort to a spinner to stick a fish. For steelhead its about the chase. Familar Waters is pretty good as well. I do like to watch Fly Fishing the World when it is on. It’s just neat see all those exotic places that most of use dream of going. The Hunt for Big Fish is also a great show to watch. Although, I’m a little sick of that slow motion footage right when the fish comes out of the water.
Grant,
One common mistake people make when tying these flies, is that they use to much material. Take what you think you need and half that amount. In this case more is less. Also taper the length of the material as you build up to the head of the fly. Another thing is to comb the material out before cuting in your desired shape. Hope this helps, I’ll try to post some pics later today as well.
-Mike
Today it was -14 with a wind chill of -30 walking to class here in central Indiana. I’m so ticked I turned down a trip to Florida this week. At least I have Chile to look forward to in March for spring break.
-Mike
The Ross CLA is a great choice in size 4. Another good choice is any of the Sage reels such as the 4580 and the 1880.
-Mike
I have 4 Sage Xi2 rods and don’t overline any of them. I am using Rio lines on most of them except for the Sage Equater Taper II on my 8wt. They all work great.
-Mike
We have some in the shop, they are nice sticks. I personally think Scott over priced them, but they are good rods. My boss has fished them for largemouth in Mexico and loves them. He fished both sinking and floating lines and had no issues.
I landed two lake trout and three carp the other day out of Lake Michigan, other then that slow going here.
-Mike
Thought I would offer a different perspective on this topic. I know a lot of people my age, college kids, which are freaking out. It sucks right now for finding a job. Heck, I thought I was all set for when I graduate in May, but I just found out my contract may be revoked. The job I took was awesome and it looks like I may be out of luck. Nature of the beast I guess, but sucks when you bust your ass for so many years to put yourself in a position to get a great job and get your legs kicked out from under you. I personally am ticked off at the unions right now. Lot of people doesn’t realize what a big role they are playing in this, especially with the Big 3. This is what is affected my job right now. I personally thing that the bailouts are ridiculous from the point that almost all of these industries put themselves into the place that they are in, and it wasn’t something that was all of a sudden. This stuff starting happening over a decade ago for some, but it didn’t matter because they were making money and only cared about the short term.
-Mike
I should be getting mine shortly. I’m putting that bad boy on my 8129-4 Z-axis, its going to look sick. I got to play around a lot with the reel at a spey clave and had it on the 10150-4 TCX and that was awesome. Pretty cool feeling having two grand in your hands.
-Mike
For Michael, for the A3 being a revamped A2 with a new paint job. Nothing could be further from the truth and I would suggest doing more research before posting.
Do a little more research before posting??? Let’s see I fished a fair number of the rods from that line a couple of months ago with different lines and sink tips, and in different situations. I even fished the two-handers and switch. I talked in depth to the rep about them, not to mention some of Scott’s Pro Staff about the rod line. We were all in agreement that it was an A2 that had been done over. I never said that it was a bad rod. The action, feel and weight are almost identical. I fished the A2 1308/3 right after the A3 1308/4 and it felt that I had the same rod in my hand for the most part. The A2 and now the A3 are the best rods on the market for thier price range, no doubt about it.
Scott has some issues in my opinion. First off you know there are problems when a brand new rod comes from the company and the ferrule is broken, it was on a X2s. Having the same rod break in the same section twice. My brothers LS2 in the butt section, once on a fish and the other setting up a cast, not loading, but setting up a cast. Also when calling to place a order. One, they shouldn’t say they have an item and really don’t, has happened to me a couple of times. Not good when you have a client going on a trip and they need that rod. Two, they should never laugh over the phone at you for asking for a rod that they don’t have in stock. This happened on an S4, that we had ordered for the shop and the person at Scott, not going to name names, was laughing about not having the rod in stock. I don’t know how much having an investor from Ford is affected their situation, but I’m sure that it has had some. This being said, Scott did take care of every issue that came up.
This is really a hard issue for me since the shop I work for carries Scott. By no means am I saying that Scott rods are garbage, they are not, but there are issues that need to be resolved. To me it was evident that something was going on by looking at the new products that came out from Scott, and there wasn’t much.
I picked salt flats, but my favorite is stalking the flats on Lake Michigan for carp. I wish it was spring already.
