alhuger

Why would you stick it out for an hour if he was messing your water up as such? I assume that the fishing was good enough not to care? al

I was lucky enough to fish the 13'5" 720 grain for a full day (thanks Brian). It's a *fantastic* stick. It can move a ridiculous amount of line (and that mattered where we were at the time) and play nice big fish really well. It's got plenty of strength so you can play large fish but still feel every movement or head shake on smaller fish. If your in the market for this sort of rod you should give it a shot it's got a pretty unique feel to it. I did not get to fish the 520 but if it's anything like the 720 I am buying one at some point. Cheers, al

That is cool, I would not have thought of using the scandi but that makes perfect sense. I will have to try that. Which switch did you go with? al

All, I'm looking at a new rod for summer runs and chum. I like the price of the Temple Fork 7/8 130 4 Deer Creek 7/8 Wt. 13'-0. Any opinions on it? I have a DC 12.6 5/6 which I really like. Is the action similar? Also, any feedback on line recommendations would be appreciated. The grain window they publish looks quite wide, makes me wonder if it's closer to an 8 than a 7, I know my 5/6 is certainly more 6 than 5 (if not 7). al

FWIW, I fumbled around with a spey rod for quite a while before I took lessons from Brian. I was pretty much unteachable but Brian managed to get me casting well enough to not embarrass myself. The group class is also a great place to meet other anglers who share your interests. al

Wow. You are officially my bow river hero. This and that massive bow a couple of years back. Truly awesome.

Oh my. That would have been phenomenal. Awesome fish.

That is awesome, what was the fight like? al

Awesome Keith, thanks!

All, I've been tying sculpins lately on tubes for the bow. Problem is though I realized I have no idea what sculpins tend to look like size wise in the summer months on the bow or frankly, in general. My only experience with them on the bow is in the fall when I have seen them up 3-4 inches or more and typically in the late evening is when I see them. Any insight is welcome. al

I am now vaguely embarrassed about keeping photos on my iphone of fish.

Lots of thoughtful commentary on this thread, which is cool. For my part, I pumped once and I botched it. Likely killed the fish. I no longer pump. I see plenty of guys do it though (especially in Jack's neck of the woods and there about) and I see plenty of dudes there fumble the fish as well. Makes me a wee bit uncomfortable. I personally would not do it but that's because I do not trust myself. Also, the argument that 'biologists' do it and therefore it's safe does not wash with me. I've watched and fished with biologists and seen fish 'mishandling'. Maybe that's because they know the fish are more durable than we (without the benefit of a formal education in it) seem to think. Or maybe they get overly familiar with fish handling and get a little cavalier with it all. al

Thanks Jack.

I echo Marc on the 5126 Z-Axis. I *love* that stick. I also like the Deer Creek TFO 12.6 5 wt.

The poke dumps all the line in front of you so the act of picking it up loads your rod. You can power out a cast without as much of a d loop required. Or so I think. I tend to do it when I am situations like that because it gets the line in front of me so I can perform a cast, perhaps it's more of a roll cast now that I think of it (mine, not the actual poke). You can definitely reach cast with a spey rod, I am sure you can perform pretty much any cast you wanted to. al