Two Handed River Fishing

[ginkyhackle]

Does anyone use a two handed rod for river fishing -- that is, warmwater river fishing, not steelheading. Two handed casting seems to be worming into some very unorthodox settings. Our local flyshop owner spey casts for smallies on the lower Brandywine!

 

[Maurice]

Thats queer....this is to say...weird, unusual or unnecessary....not that there is anything wrong with that! :lol:

 

[Fredrick]

I don't really see the need for it on the Brandywine . But I see that it could be use full on the Susky and Schuykill when you want to get your fly out there :-D

 

[ginkyhackle]

Queer as it may be, it seems a kind of cool option for the lower Delaware and Schuylkill (and Fredrick points out). Plus, spey techniques on even one handed rods seems well suited to rivers. I have had lotsa fund doing a modified spey cast with my 8wt in local rivers. I wonder if two handed rods might give someone improve leverage on warmwater lakes. After all, this was quite a widespread technique in the last century.

 

[sandfly]

I've used a 15 foot 9/10 wt on the lower delaware for stripers,tiger trout, sea run browns(fight like atlantics) and smallies..even use some atlantic salmon patterns...Used to wake flies too. try it...

 

[ginkyhackle]

There are sea run browns in the lower Delaware!?!

 

[pete41]

Why not 9' 8 or 9wt. with shooting heads?
Other than the novelty of something different or tradition whats the advantage of a spey rod?
Just curious.

 

[tomgamber]

pete41 wrote:

Other than the novelty of something different or tradition whats the advantage of a spey rod?

I think you answered your own question.

Although, I have seen spey rods cast only twice and there were some impressively long casts.

I also was curious about the distances...check out this site..
(its British but..) it appears the difference in casting distance between an 8 or 9wt and a two handed rod is about 60 to 70 feet. I guess thats why?

http://uksf.sea-angler.org/bfcc/bfccresults.html

 

[sandfly]

Yes the are some in the lower river, have to where and when....


spey casting is great if you are tight to the bank and want to fish out passed 50 ft...useing the double spey cast you can fish a lot of water from one place...check out some of the spey sites...even here on pine a small 12'6" for a 6wt would work wonders on skiddering caddis drys...right now the october caddis is coming off a size 10 fly skiddered across the surface is a killer on trout and bass..using a spey to control the fly would be alot better than a standard rod of 9 or 10 ft..once you try , you'll find out much easier it is to fish...

 

[ginkyhackle]

It seems like long rods are underused on warmwater stretches of our local rivers. When you look at very old instructional manuals on fishing rivers from the last century two-handers were the norm. I suppose they fell out of use because one handed rods got better; however, with improving technology and construction methods it seems they're coming back and folks are using them for the ancient purpose. If you look at books and illustrations of Philadelphia "black bass" fishing in the early 1800s you see a lot of top hatted dandies lifting lunkers with spey-style rods.

"The Book of the Black Bass" which is now in the public domain and available on google books is full of stories of two-handed bass fishing in the us.