naw, they probably had several too drinks last night and decided to do a drunk post...
Aside from longer casts, what are the benefits of a 2-handed rod?
- Thread starter downriver79
- Start date
Donkey Talk....the ramblings of a Donkeynaw, they probably had several too drinks last night and decided to do a drunk post...
JayB
Steelhead
I got a double-hander at around 47 for the same reason I decided I wanted to start fly-fishing when I was seven: seeing someone standing right next to me do it and catch way more fish than me. In my particular case this happened on back-to-back trips to BC several years ago.
There were just so many scenarios where I couldn't get to the water that I wanted to because I was dealing with high banks, bushes, trees, etc in the back-casting zone. While it's *possible* that I could have roughly approximated the kind of distance my partner on those trips was getting with his spey-steup if I strained myself, seeing someone effortlessly achieve my max-casting distance with a single sweep + a forward cast *and* delivering flies/tips that would have been very unpleasant - if not impossible - to cast anywhere near as far with a single-hander convinced me that it was long past time to invest the money/time necessary to add that to my arsenal. There was also the fact that he hooked/landed about 3-4X as many fish. A great deal of that was due to the fact that he was just a better fisherman than me but, to my mind at least, some of it had to do with the fact that the two-hander was just a better tool for the job.
I should also add that deciding I wanted to learn how to put a two-hander to use felt like it revived some of the raw enthusiasm I felt for fly-fishing as a kid. I've never *not* been enthusiastic about fly fishing, but the process of clawing my way up the learning curve definitely brought back some of the magic that I felt when I was a teaching myself to fly-fish by checking books out from the library, reading how-to's in "Outdoor Life" magazine, etc. and connecting the dots in-practice out on the river. I can generally get my fly where I want to most of the time, but I've realistically got years of practice before all of the Skagit-casting variants feel automatic the way single-handed casting does, let alone Scandi casting (which I have yet to even start). At this point in my life that translates into quite a few more years of very gratifying and hard-won "aha" moments when I start to feel like I've gotten the hang of something that I've been working on.
The satisfaction that comes along with learning new skills and putting them to use - however imperfectly and fitfully - has made picking up the two-hander worth it in and of itself, and the fact that the process can deliver some practical benefits out on the water has just made it that much more enjoyable.
There were just so many scenarios where I couldn't get to the water that I wanted to because I was dealing with high banks, bushes, trees, etc in the back-casting zone. While it's *possible* that I could have roughly approximated the kind of distance my partner on those trips was getting with his spey-steup if I strained myself, seeing someone effortlessly achieve my max-casting distance with a single sweep + a forward cast *and* delivering flies/tips that would have been very unpleasant - if not impossible - to cast anywhere near as far with a single-hander convinced me that it was long past time to invest the money/time necessary to add that to my arsenal. There was also the fact that he hooked/landed about 3-4X as many fish. A great deal of that was due to the fact that he was just a better fisherman than me but, to my mind at least, some of it had to do with the fact that the two-hander was just a better tool for the job.
I should also add that deciding I wanted to learn how to put a two-hander to use felt like it revived some of the raw enthusiasm I felt for fly-fishing as a kid. I've never *not* been enthusiastic about fly fishing, but the process of clawing my way up the learning curve definitely brought back some of the magic that I felt when I was a teaching myself to fly-fish by checking books out from the library, reading how-to's in "Outdoor Life" magazine, etc. and connecting the dots in-practice out on the river. I can generally get my fly where I want to most of the time, but I've realistically got years of practice before all of the Skagit-casting variants feel automatic the way single-handed casting does, let alone Scandi casting (which I have yet to even start). At this point in my life that translates into quite a few more years of very gratifying and hard-won "aha" moments when I start to feel like I've gotten the hang of something that I've been working on.
The satisfaction that comes along with learning new skills and putting them to use - however imperfectly and fitfully - has made picking up the two-hander worth it in and of itself, and the fact that the process can deliver some practical benefits out on the water has just made it that much more enjoyable.
Several years after taking up the spey rod, I was out one day with a fellow that didn't have one. He was unfamiliar with the river so I was basically doing a walk-in guiding thing. Finding spots where a back cast was doable suddenly made me realize how much water having a spey rod had opened up for me. The only thing I regularly concern myself with now is over hanging branches. They have cost me a few rods.