tips for a 6wt spey?

[etacada]

Well a purchased a TFO 6wt 12.5' spey rod for nymphing and love it! My question is if I bought a sinking tip system will this rod be able to cast em'? :shrug:

thank you, :tongue:
cb

[rob allen]

if you want to fish tips buy an 8 wt..


That's just my opinion If i were a manufacutrer I would consider using sink tips on a spey rod lighter than a 7wt an abuse of the rod that would void the warentee.. but again that's just my opinion

[Slow and Low]

I fish tips on a 7. You will proabaly have to modify a line. Rio makes a 6-7-8, if you cut it down it might cast skagit style.

[Sauk]

Why not? Rio makes their windcutter spey in a 5/6 or a 6/7/8. If I were paying $150 for a line, I'd try to go to a local shop to see if they'd let you try a line out . . see how it casts with your rod. What are you fishing for a line right now with it?

[santiamflyguy]

Polyleaders.

At $10 a pop, a heck of a lot cheaper than a new multitip line and they cast better...

Get the 10' Type VI trout versions for your rod...

Trimming your floating line about 2' in the front will turn them over a little better, too.

[etacada]

right now I have a windcutter 6/7/8 line and use it mostly for nymphing on the big D. But i was curious if my 6wt spey was stout enough to turn over a sink tip.

cb

[LunkerFish]

i was curious if my 6wt spey was stout enough to turn over a sink tip.




Sure. As long as you are careful to set it up with the proper grains for your rod. At one point in time I had a 5wt single hand rod set up with a modified shooting head and sink tip system and it worked well. The trick is lifting the tips out properly at the dangle before starting your sweep.

[rob allen]

It's all about the grains as far as casting goes but there is a lot more involved than just casting...


I am not trying to be mean here just pointing out a bit of reality.. Sure you can do a head gasket job on a car with a crecent wrench But i promise you don't want to!!!

[M'kay13]

Enlighten us, rob. Enlighten us.

[rob allen]

OK here is the thing...

a fishing rod is a tool nothing more nothing less, it's purpose is to manipulate a line and fight fish that is all it ever does.. Every rod has a different purpose they do not have interchangable roles in life.

likewise lines perform specific tasks... the task of a sink tip it to get the fly down to the fish's strike zone for this purpose they are heavy therefore you need a rod that can handle the load not only in casting but in lifting the line out of the water. If a line is so heavy that it is continually pushing the rod to it's maximum. as i expect a sink tip on a 6 wt would do then the line is too heavy for the rod and should not for the sake of the rod be used. continually pushing a rod to it's maximum is asking for breakage.. If i was a manufacturer i would not honor a warentee on a rod that broke in such a manner it is 100% angler error..

That is why i would recommend purchasing a rod designed to lift and cast a heavier line..

Like it or not fishing is very much like golf , every club has a specific purpose, sure you could play a game entirely with one club but you wouldn't do very well..
simply put a 6 wt spey rod is NOT a good all around rod.

[SSPey]

Don't buy a system. Buy a RIO Skagit 350 and use 10-15' of 10 wt tips. The Skagit 350 head is recommended for your rod by RIO. It weighs around 12.7 gr/ft. Its a modified shooting head system that makes casting tips easy. A WF12 line will also work, cut and looped at 27'. It weighs the same as a Skagit 350.

[Old Coot]

OK, after decades of demonstrating my ignorance and ineptitude in a wide variety of disciplines I have no pride left, so I'll freely admit I'm confused. I'm not being argumentative, just making a couple of observations and I hope someone explains it all to me.

I'm operating from memories of old technology from the 60's, 70's and 80's; I haven't kept up on the techno end of fly fishing. I thought that when the tackle manufacturers switched from the old line rating system, like "DGD Floating", to the numerical system now in use, like "DT6F", the new numerical indicator designated a specific measure of weight for the first 30 feet of line. Specifically, for a 6 wt, the target is about 160 grains, with a variance of 8 grains either way. Thus, the first 30 feet of a 6 weight line should weigh between 152 and 168 grains.

If that is correct, then shouldn't the front end of a sink-tip 6 should weigh the same as the front end of, say, a DT6F? I don't understand where the referenced weight variance comes into play. I thought that a line-weight-rated sink-tip sinks because it is of a narrower diameter than a comparable floater and is thus able to better penetrate the meniscus and overcome subsurface bouyancy. If that is correct, it seems to me that lifting a 6-weight for a backcast is lifting a 6-weight for a backcast. I readily accede that water resistance at pick-up is significantly increased with a sink-tip, but the discussion has been line weight. Parenthetically, I don't recall ever seeing a rod rated for a this-weight-floating-line-but-only-that-weight-sink-tip.

Now, if I wasn't bone lazy I'd stir out of this chair and throw a micrometer on a couple of my lines for comparison, but my only 6-wt sinker used to be a floater before I stepped all over it and cracked the coating, so the mic test wouldn't work anyway.

To comment on a second issue, ever since my arthritis set in about a decade ago, I have routinely over-lined my rods by at least one, and often two-or even three-, weights to make casting easier. My reason for mentioning this is that I haven't had any rod failures from over-lining the rod. (1 rod failure in that time, caused by a shifting load in the back of my truck) Thinking this through,I'm not sure I understand why it would be abuse of a rod to over-line it by 20-40-60 grains, but it is not abuse to expect that same rod to routinely land fish in the 8 to 20, or even 40, pound range.

Is this due to the physics of the extra length of a spey rod, (which I confess I have never touched outside of a store but would dearly love to try), coupled with the extra length of a spey line? Are spey line weight references calculated differently from standard lines?

Thanks for any info. Bedtime.

[SSPey]

I routinely cast T-14 tips (14 gr/ft) on a 6/7 wt spey. It can be done, and the rod isn't stressed. I've done if for a whole season now on a 6/7 wt CFB rod, and Rob hasn't seen this rod come back to their shop, broken from stress. Its all in the line design.

spey line weights are calculated differently. Spey rods are designed to cast longer and/or heavier lines. If you google "spey line standards approved" you'll find the new official standards.

The 30' of line that is used to rate single handers does not apply to double handed rods. The standards for two handed rods are much heavier than those for single handers.

But really the key is to ignore the rating, and stay within the overall grain window that will flex the rod appropriately. It doesn't matter that the sink tip isn't a 6 wt tip on a 6 wt rod. What matters is that the overall total flyline has the correct mass to work the sweet spot of the rod.

Skagit style and other shooting head lines are very short, usually 3 - 3.5X the overall rod length, around 45' in many cases. The average spey line is 65' long. With a shorter line (45') compared to the longer lines, the mass is packed into a shorter package. This directly translates to more mass per foot of line with the shorter skagit lines. This way, you can cast heavier sink tips than you'd normally expect.

It works wonderfully, and takes very little effort, so it is especially well suited to those who don't want to stress their bodies working a heavy long rod all day. in truth, it takes LESS effort than a single hand rod, effortless.

hope that helps

[wade]

This is a reeeally cool topic, thanks .

Kevin

[etacada]

I think i'm gonna try the skagit line for the tfo 6wt spey. I just cast the rio skagit on a scot arc 9wt and holy cow you can zing out line! it's performance is very dramatic, and i dont consider myself a great caster, i just stick with double spey and c casts.

I'll give a report on it's performance.

cb :tongue:

[Slow and Low]

You'll be happy fishing skagit style. One guy did make the gold club argument and he's correct. At some point you will tire of stripping and shooting. My point is you make find you actually prefer to carry 55-65' feet of line in leu of stripping shooting having line swirl below you sink tangle ext.
Start looking for a long bellie line as well.

My .02 :wink:

[Klem]

The grain weight of a sink-tip and a floating tip should be @ the same. The differents is the specfic gravity of each. Replace the floating section with the same amount of grain in what ever sink rate you wish and you can cast the line. The casting method changes slightly. The sunk portion MUST be brought to the surface before you cast overhead or do a spey type cast. Consant motion is the key when the line is finally on the surface. Keep the line moving for both overhead type and spey type cast. A standard practice is cast with a more OPEN loop which means a little larger casting arc within the casting stroke.

Klem
FFF Certified CCI and Two-handed instructor.