Single Hand not Spey

chrome/22

chrome/22

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I really don't know where to start this thread, so I'll begin it here. Was playing around with swinging a wet fly on my local river. There's this one riffle I see from the highway as I'm coming & going that looks especially fishy to me.

So I devised a plan, take the Watermaster on a float, beach above the riffle and wade out to the inside of it and attempt to swing up some native red band rainbows.

Casting distance was relatively short which is a plus for me.

Gear was a 9.5' Redington CPX in 6 wt that I got for beach coho. Was running a 5 wt Outbound short full float to a 7' fast sink poly leader then a short 4' chunk of flourocarbon 8 lb to my fly.

My choice is a beautifuly executed Kaufman's coal car in classic Spey style on a Alex Jackson #7.

The casting was unpolished for sure but the sinking head simplified it to a chuck & duck overhead cast.

Now to the fishing itself, it played out as I'd imagined it. My 1st was too short & inside to be effective, but cast 2 hit it right. Thru a big upstream mend in at the top to sink everything then grabbed the line against the cork and let it swing thru. The jolt of the tug completely caught me by surprise, reload for #3, same result this time I was just slightly behind the fish it went airborne & spit it.


Finished up with 1 to hand, multiple hook ups and then lost, and a few more tugs

Pretty cool when a plan comes together.

c/22
 
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My combo of a weight forward 5 wt floater on a 6 wt that thinks it's a 7 wt might seem odd to some. I lawn cast it a bit by itself to see if it would load the rod, it casting feel was acceptable & I realized adding the weighted poly leader would be a casting amplifier.

My clunky approach actually worked out for the short range needed on my chosen piece of water.

Anyone else ever looked for an unusual gear choice to solve a problem?
 
That actually sounds about right, that 5wt OBS weighs in as a 6wt line, plus the sinking leader, it probably launched like a slingshot casting overhead!

That fly is my favorite summer steelhead choice. I used to tie a version with a bit of extra flash for the Grand Ronde. I called it a Runaway Coal Car.

Sounds like a great outing!
 
Always liked the look of the classic Coal Car. Asked member @Bongoman to tie some up Spey style for me. Then we consulted on adding extra flash into the wing.

The one I fished was the smaller size AJ #7 in their dark blue hook color.

It had the peacock green underwing, looked perfect in the sunlight mostly black with just enough flash movement for my eye.
 
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