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And really, the way a dungeon is fished, isn't on a swing. Lose the whole point of that style of fly if you're just swinging it.

The prizes were for a specimen brown and rainbow trout.We wanted to get some good looking fish photos. I think we achieved that. We will be applying for grants over the winter to support the Bow River fishery. Having raised funds to support our initiatives will assist with applications.

Good! I have a moderate action 7wt and the bow river trout put a great bend in the rod! As good as a small steelhead does!

I've been fishing an OPST for a long time and they're definitely great shooting heads for single-hand rods and short switches. But, I think it's a lot easier to learn the casts on a two-handed rod first then apply that knowledge to the single-handed rod. I learned to single-hand spey using a rod with a fighting butt and any time I was unsure of the casting motion I'd put my left hand on that as though it were the lower handle of a two-handed rod. So if the OP wants to do some steelheading in NW BC the 7wt two-handed rod is ideal and he can use that to learn the casts, then later get the OPST head for a single-handed rod on the Bow. Personally, there are some days I like to go out with the micro spey on the Bow and others where I take my 9'6 7wt with an OPST setup on one reel and indicator line on another.

Just a heads up from another rookie, I went down your path about a year ago settling on a 13' 7wt spey to ease throwing big dungeons on the bow. I am certainly not a great double hand caster but immediately hated throwing a heavy streamer with my spey rod. I stopped using dungeons on my spey rod because it was so clunky and frankly pretty difficult to throw for a beginner in the two hand world. This was with a 540 grain head & 10' of T-8. Plus I was pretty put off by how those big hooked dungeons can mess up a little fish.. I now prefer unweighted or lightly weighted flies and vary my depths by changing sink tips. Caught some monster fish this way too. SeanD on here even started tying unweighted dungeons for his spey rod and he loves it. Just wanted to caution you that while these big skagit heads were made to turn over gigantic, heavy intruders, it's no prettier than single hand chuck and ducking and you very easily could still get a hook in the back of the head on a windy day if you set your anchor on the wrong side of your body or flub a cast

What are you talking about? I use my spey rod to chuck tricos on Stauffer all the time! I agree with what Bron and bcubed have already said. My suggestion would be if you're going to start with one rod, go with a 7 or 8 in 12'6 to 13'6 neighbourhood. It'll be good for steelhead and you can still use it on the Bow but it'll still be a little overkill. Then if you decide you like it enough you can branch out and get a smaller 4 or 5 for the Bow and possibly a larger 8 or 9 for chinooks and atlantics (full disclosure: I have never fished for atlantics but I suspect you'd want a long rod with floating line for them). I've got my 12'6 7wt TCX for steel, a little 5wt Winston Micro Spey for the Bow, and a 14'3 9wt Z-Axis for chinooks. I think that gives me everything I need. Another thing to keep in mind that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. Spey casting is not entirely about distance, contrary to popular belief. It's about keeping your fly in the water longer because you aren't doing a ton of false casting. You don't need to be bombing 90 foot casts to catch fish, even steelheading.

Think you need to make a decision. There is a pretty big difference between 30-40 inch steelhead, and the occasional 24" bow river rainbow. A 7 or 8 weight would do you a lot better for steelhead then trout, and you can always just deal with having a big rod. If you go smaller, like a 5 or 6 weight spey to have more fun for tout, you're going to be undergunned in a big way for steelhead (to the point you probably shouldn't use it, unless you're doing dries on the Morice or half-salts down in the states). If you were just trout-spey fishing, i'd say look at a 5 weight as you can easily turn over big streamers with that as it's rare that you're using big sink tips on the Bow. If you're looking at a do-it-all, a stiff 7 like a TCX would be a better option. If you're leaning more steelhead, then an 8 would probably be a better choice. Also, 'big' streamers doesn't mean much. Are you talking about 4" intruder style, 6" sex dungeons, or 10" monster bugs. They're all completely different in how they cast and what will turn them over. I remember when the spey fad hit here in a big way and guys were using 8-9 weights so they could turn over massive bull trout flies, until they realized that a 13' spey rod was essentially useless on the oldman/sheep/highwood. If you're just wanting to chuck seriously big bugs, you're not necessarily looking at the right tool for the job..

Hi Mate From Gorseinon ( Swansea ) originally. Now live in Thailand. Will contact you near the and perhaps we can meet up for a few drinks. Mike

Pull them inside out. Go into a completely dark room with a good flashlight inside them. Circle light spots with a sharpie.

I turned mine inside out, rubbed dish soap all over them and inserted a leaf blower as I held the top tight around the blower shaft. Bubbles right away, just go easy with the blower as you don't want to,damage any seams. Hope this helps