Switch Rods?

[thefisherking]

I have been sitting on the sidelines for the last little while watching the great debate on switch rods. At the last spey gathering, max let me have a go with his and i really liked it. So i staring doing a little research. The weight of the rod for over head casting seemed to be the biggest issue. Most people said that they were to bulky and heavy. With that in mind I started to look at rods. I looked at few different types, deer creek, beulah, loop, meiser, gloomis and a sage zxis. I checked out a deer creek first, and found the rod to be a little soft and bulky to cast over head. Next was the beulah and meiser. I never actually had a chance to try one of these rods, but they are based on the same design as the deer creek so i ruled them out as well. The loop blue line is a fairly heavy rod so i crossed that one of the list. That left me with the sage z-axis or the gloomis glx. The reviews for both rods seemed to be positive. I was leaning more towards the sage until my fishing buddy tyfish picked up 6/7 gloomis glx dredger spey rod. I was blown away at the fine detail quality. If you lay the butt sections side by side there's no comparison, the loomis is far superior for relatively the same cash.

 

So as it happens, last friday i stopped fishtales to pick up couple things i needed before heading to the river. I knew they had the rod at the shop, but i was almost afraid to look at it. I have the syndrome of, if its in my hands and i really like it, and it has something to do with fly fishing i will probably buy it. But i asked foolishly anyways and once the rod was in my hands i knew it was sold. I ended up picking up the gloomis glx roaring river 11' 5wt. and matched it up with a danielsson FW 5eight reel. This set up was incredibly light and i couldn't wait to get to the river to try it out.

 

I spent half the day nymphing with an indicator and the second half with an intermediate sink and streamer setup, single hand casting most of the day. This rod preformed amazing well and i was quite surprised considering all the bad feedback about single handing switch rods. I had no trouble at casting this rod single hand all day. It was very similar to casting my 9' 6wt. I was a little disappointed in getting the big shut out on the river, but it was blast trying to figure out the new rod.

 

Made it out fishing with tyfish on saturday. We fished a spot with a wall of trees behind us. I guess today was going to be the day to figure out how to spey cast this rod. I will admit i tried a few time on friday and had some trouble. But after a couple of hours of swinging the rod, things started to come together. My biggest problem was that i was treating it like a small rod and not a spey rod. We fished for 4 hours, i manged to break the hymen on the rod with one fish to the net while tyfish put on a clinic right beside me with 10 landed. On a side note, i was wondering if anyones thought of clubing there fishing partner while they pull out fish after fish.

 

 

So after sitting on the fence for a couple of months, doing some research, and now owning the rod, I am blown away at the options this rod will give me. It truly is one sweet stick. It will make a nice addition to my 9' 5wt and my 12'6 7wt spey. So if anyone's sitting on the fence and is a little unsure, PM me and we can go out and you try it for your self before you decide.

 

 

 

 

 

[toolman]

I have heard good things about the G Loomis GLX Switch series. What line are you using on yours?

[thefisherking]

I rigged it up with the rio windcutter 5/6 with the interchangeable tips. This is my first G Loomis rod and i'm very impressed.

[SilverDoctor]

I looked at few different types, deer creek, beulah, loop, meiser, gloomis and a sage zxis. I checked out a deer creek first, and found the rod to be a little soft and bulky to cast over head. Next was the beulah and meiser. I never actually had a chance to try one of these rods, but they are based on the same design as the deer creek so i ruled them out as well.

 

Small point, the Meiser is not based on the Deer Creek. It's the other way around. Bob Meiser was asked to design an inexpensive version of his rods for TFO. The Meiser and DC are not in the same class, quality or category. Looks like you made a great choice with the gloomis, heard a lot of great things about it.. you'll have a lot of fun with that rod, congratulations.

[thefisherking]

Your right silverdoc, its really not fair to compare since i never really held the rod in my hand. I did have few ads on other sites and i was approached by someone interested in selling a meiser system 4. I almost bought the rod based on all the info i could find about meiser. They seem like a top notch high quality outfit. The main reason i didn't buy the outfit was because this fella was selling this rod because he upgraded to the z-axis. In his opinion the rod was not fast enough for him. I myself prefer faster rods and that's partially why i ruled it out as well. If anyone's interested in purchasing a meiser system 4 switch rod, pm me i'm sure i could put you in contact with the seller. It was a really good deal as far as i was concerned.

[maxwell]

sweet dude! shpould be a fun stick too mess around with for trout!!!!

[ogilvie]

Good to see you guys playing with the "ladies rods"... Gordo? And not so surprisingly we now see all the "big" manufacturers putting effort into the Switch Rod market . had a chance to play with many new Switch rods over the past few months and really like what I see. Since Meiser and Beulah began this revolution fly fishers have been able to adapt many styles with Switch rods. The real bonus for we fly fishers is that lines have had to really change to meet the demanding requirements needed. Thus we have the Elixir lines,the Outbound lines , small Skagit lines and so on.

I will be at the new fly shop in early April(3 and 4) and will have a full range of rods and lines available to be played with. There are 3 rods that stand out more than any these days and they are the new Beulah Surf Rods...called a "SURF' rod but anything but....at 11' and especially well designed are going to change the face of Switch rods..

C