[P.Dieter]

Mrs Claus got me a 13'6" 8wt rainshadow blank for christmas and I'm anticipating line needs.

I'm thinking a 600gr skagit sounds like the right place to start? but my head is also starting to spin on the whole spey line wt issue.

One other thing I'm wondering is if my "normal" 8wt sink tips will work fine with this rod/line. I'm also thinking a T14 to cut up wouldn't be a bad idea though in addition.

Also my experience with the floating tip on the multi tip lines is that they suck and I got a dedicated floater....does this also apply to spey lines?


thanks for starting to walk me through this new diversion.

Paul

 

[Brazda]

The 600 will be a great start, I have no experiance with the rainshadow blanks, but I have 600 grns on other 13-14 ft 8 wts.
Your 8wt tips will be fine for some/most of the water, you may want to invest in some t11 until you get good at casting and fishing the spey as T14 is a big jump in sink rate from 8wt and you may spend a lot of time re rigging if you start off with t14.
You can throw the skagit 600 with a dry tip if you add some cheater say a 10 foot floater, it will save you some money until your abilities become second nature as to warrant a fancy dry only line.

I agree the dry floater on them does suck but for the spey a simple addition of belly (cheater) will overcome the problem.

have fun and get ya some steel.

 

[Wayne Kohan]

I bought a multi tip 8 weight fly line line several years ago and never really used it, likely because the first time I did, I was icing up in the guides and couldn't get the loop-loop connection through the guides. I have used the floating tip with my skagit lines, throwing it with both a 650 and a 450 and with a long leader added to it, like 10-14 ft, it throws out nicely and effortlessly, or at least as good as I can do. Another option is to buy a running line, just the head of the Skagit line and then a Scandi head for throwing the floating stuff. That is what I did with my most recent rod and I can just change heads on the water if I need to get down. Still trying to figure out that Scandi cast though.....

Wayne