Spey line/reel advice?

[Dave Jamieson]

Hi all-- I just picked up a new toy: My first spey rod. I'm excited to play around with it; I just need to pair it with something. The rod is a 13'3" eight weight. (Specifically, a Redington CPX 8133.) I'm still wrapping my head around skagit, scandi and the various other line options for spey. I'd like to take it up to New York for steelhead and salmon and also mess around with it on the Potomac. I thought maybe I should get a skagit set with interchangeable tips to cover a variety of options? Any advice would be appreciated. From what I gather every spey rod is a little finicky as far as what lines pair best. I did find a handy chart from RIO that recommends grains for most rod models (550 in my case), but I'm still not sure which general setup I should go with for what I'm looking to do.

And lastly: I'm assuming I bump up a reel size for this rod, to maybe to a 9/10 large arbor? 

Best,

Dave

[Terry C]

Dave, I am only a year into the world of spey fishing. One newbie to another I will offer not to buy anything until you cast several lines. John B. is a great resource for people in our club. He has several types of lines and has been very gracious with his time and expertise . He often meets people at Fletcher's on Sunday mornings. He was just there yesterday.

[Adam Soller]

+1 for JB's acumen and tutelage on the land of spey and fly fishing in general.

[John Bilotta]

Dave, 

 That rod will happily toss a 550-600 grain skagit. A tip set will give you options here and in NY. I would focus on your C-spey and Double spey casts off both sides of your body. 

Dan or Richie can get you set up.

Come down sometime for a club casting session and we can go over a few things.

John

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[Yambag Nelson]

I'm not sure what your NY/DC split will be, but I would say that most NY steelheaders tend to go with Scandi set ups.  There are certainly some guys that use skagit, but I would say they are the minority.  Seems like Skagit is favored out west. 

[Rob Snowhite]

I've been using Rio Outbound and Skagit Short for about four years now. No complaints whether swinging flies in NY or Gravelly or tossing huge flies over waves at the shore. I liked the heads on the Echo\, Cortland, and Scientific Anglers lines I played with at IFTD last week. The color of the Rio Skagit short really stands out in nasty weather too.

On Sunday, July 20, 2014 8:07:17 PM UTC-4, Dave Jamieson wrote:

[Dave Jamieson]

Thanks to everyone for the advice -- I really appreciate it. Looking forward to getting down to the river for the next spey session with John. Best,

Dave

[John Bilotta]

Great, and yes on bumping up reel size.

John

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