Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Surf casting / Two handed rod advice

Rick Kustich's new book — Modern Spey — includes sections on using two-handers for overhead casting. He uses this approach almost exclusively for musky fishing. Highly recommend the book. 

I got the Sage X for surf casting. I put the Rio Outbound Max intermediate on it to cut through the chop. Worked fine. Ended up dong a lot more Spey fishing with it. Both Spey and surf are kind of doing the same thing—throwing a lot of weight with no false casting. To do this, need a stiff tip to lift the line off the water and a softer mid section so mere morals can cast it. 

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On Aug 7, 2023, at 07:43, alan burrows <aburrows53@gmail.com> wrote:

A few years ago I met a guy while fishing for stripers on Cape Cod.  He was using a spey rod and was casting quite a long way.

On Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 4:46:48 PM UTC-4 Augie wrote:

Thanks Ken.  Makes sense.  I guess my main question is: do people think a rod that is meant for actual spey casting is going to be useful in a surf application (eg at the beach do people like to spey cast, or does it not really work so well there), or would two hander that is more oriented towards a overhead cast (basically a bigger more powerful version of what I already do) be a better bet?  I understand the former to usually flex more down the rod to maintain tension and load through the traditional spey cast, whereas the ladder is a stiffer and faster rod design to fling overhead with a back cast.  I love the idea of getting into spey casting, I just don't want to get a rod designed for it if that actually is not a great option in the surf.

On Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 4:29:07 PM UTC-4 Ken Fugate wrote:

You can cast a single hand line (WF or DT) with a spey rod.  Go up two or three line weights, i.e. 6 weight spey would use a 8 or 9 weight single hand line.  The two handles will make the casting long distances in the wind more effective.

You can also use a Skagit/Scandi head as a shooting head.  With a good double haul the line will shoot a long distance.  I've done this with switch rods. 40 years ago I used to fish with single hander 8 weight with shooting heads for west coast steelhead.

Ken

On Sun, Aug 6, 2023 at 10:59 AM Augie <augie...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey everyone, interested in any advice or experience re: two handed rods for surfcasting.

I currently really like to surf fish for schoolie stripers and on the fly I use an 9' 8wt weight one-handed rod, throwing closures or similar.  This rod is also great for just about everything around here which is why I bought it (from Dan Davala in about 2008, when he was telling me about this Google group he was planning on starting!).  It's great for estuaries and light beach conditions. 

But I'd like something heavier duty for throwing longer in wind and surf.

I'm looking at two handed rods.  It seems like the options are a stiff two handed overhead casting rod (like an Echo beach boost on the budget end) or a rod marketed more as a Spey option, of which there are many and also probably has more flex to do a traditional Spey cast.

Any thoughts / experience on which type of option is the better bet?  I'm open to doing / learning Spey casting for sure but not if it wouldn't be useful for the reason I'm buying this rod:  east coast striper fishing on surf.  On the other hand, if Spey would work great on surf and be usable here that is perhaps even better (I get the sense these stiff  overhead 2h beach rods would not be ideal on Potomac).

The bottom line is, I love fishing my 8wt but it just gets a little overwhelmed on a windy day when there is a decent amount of chop in the water.  So thinking about adding to the stable and just want to pick the right thing.

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