It’s been a while since we’ve ran a poll on the Deneki blog.. 144 days to be exact. That’s too long, so today it’s poll time!
We love hearing from you, our readers, about your gear of choice.. And so do your fellow readers! So, without further ado, today’s poll topic is Switch Rods!
What’s Your Favorite Switch Rod
We really like fishing switch rods. They’re versatile, effective, and just down right fun to play with, but there are tons of options out there! We’ve used them for everything from grayling to king salmon, and have even swung flies for tarpon (but we’ll be the first to admit that was a bit of an uphill battle).
We also know that asking for your favorite, is a bit of a loaded question.. But that’s the point! We want to know:
- What’s your favorite switch rod/rods of all time and why?
- What species do you use it for?
- Do you use it to spey cast, cast overhead, or both?
Leave us a comment below to let us, and your fellow readers know!
NOTE: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to tell us about your switch rod on our web site.
My favorite switch rod is an Orvis Helios 2 in 7-weight (11′). Matched with an Airflo Skagit Switch line and Rio Grip Shooter running line on an Orvis Mirage reel, it provides effortless casting when fishing for steelhead, salmon, big rainbows or Dollies in Alaska. I usually use it Spey casting, but sometimes will use it overhead if fishing from a boat. I also use it bass fishing when back in the Lower 48.
I also have an Orvis 8-weight switch rod that I use for bigger salmon and a Sage One 5-weight switch rod for trout fishing.
I tend to use my 7-weight more often than I use my full sized Spey rods.
10′ 10″ Echo SR in a 5wt with a 350gr Ambush. Throws a clouser on the beach for pinks and coho and streamers for trouts and dollies in rivers.
my favorite is the only one I own. Scott A3 11′ 8wt. I’m still in the learning to cast/ fish with it phase….so no cool gear tips or fish stories….yet
My favorite and only switch rod I built from Batson Rainshadow RX7 10’6″ 6 weight – 4 piece switch blanks matched with an Echo Ion reel loaded with a Rio Steelhead Scandi 280 gr Shooting Head and Amnesia 25 lb mono running line. I have used the rod primarily for nymphing and swinging for Steelhead and Browns in Lake Ontario/Erie tribs and Trout/Smallmouth Bass in the Pemi and Androscoggin Rivers in New Hampshire. This Batson switch blank is a sleeper.
Sage One 6116. 390 grain Airflo Skagit switch head/Airflo Scandi Compact 360 grain and 25 lb Amnesia, paired with a Lamson Litespeed 3.5. t8-t11 MOWS/IMOWS/Poly Leaders. Use it for swinging for large trout in Montana. SMOOTH.
Loop Cross S1 7 weight, 11′. Swinging – is that the same as ‘down and across’? – fishing for Atlantic salmon and sea trout on Scotland’s rivers. Great fun as an alternative to the ubiquitous 14-15′ spey rod, with enough backbone to cast a large fly and control seriously angry fish trying to crash dive into deep rocky gullies that will part your leader in an instant on the sharp edges. Rio Switch 6/7 line with tapered 12′ salmon/sea trout leader.
Burkheimer 7117. Used for summer and winter steelhead, depending on the river. Surprising amount of power for a rod this size. Covers large runs with little casting room. Great actions and feel.
Sage TCX 8119. Matched with a nautilus 10/11. Spey cast with AFS 7/8 or a Airflo skagit switch 510 for salmon and big South American seatrout. I also love the 7wt too
Sage Z-Axis 11ft 6wt. versatile rod with enough back bone and power to catch the biggest Alaskan trout. Enough finesse to cast acuarately and feel the rod load. I paired it with a hatch 5+ mid arbor.
Can’t decide between my Sage ONE 11’6″ 7 weight and my Winston Boron III – TH 11’6″ 6 weight, so I rig the Sage with a Skagit Switch, a tip and a tube fly, and the Winnie with a Rage, polyleader and wet fly or skater. No switching out reels/heads as the sun moves on and off the water.
Forgot to mention the Rio Short VT. Brilliant switch line and caught my biggest fish on a switch rod. 22.5lb South American seatrout.
Easiest line I have ever cast
Thanks for the input everyone, great stuff!
Keep ’em coming!
I was looking for some advise on buying my first switch, decided on the 11 foot and 7 weight because of using it for smallys and steel. My budget is kind of tight and since I am new to two handed fishing wanted to stay below 300.00. Any advise is helpful thankss philip lozon
Hi Phillip,
Happy to hear you’re thinking about picking up your first switch rod. As you’re probably well aware, your options are a bit limited under that $300.00 price point, but that’s not say it’s not doable! Redington makes a Switch/Spey series called the Dually that has received great reviews and retails for $249.95, with an 11′ 3″ 7 weight model, and that would be a great choice. Also, Echo makes an 10′ 10″ 7 weight switch called the “SR” that would be a great choice as well, and retails for $329.99. There are other great options out there, but personally those are the direction I would go in. Hope that helps!
Check out the LSI Switch rods from Cabelas. On sale now for $145. Great reviews.
My favorite depends where I am. If I’m on the coast fishing for salmon/steelies, it’s my Sage TCX 7119. If I’m on a decent sized river in Montana/Wyoming (Miracle Mile, Colorado, or some such) it’s a TCX 5119. Both SING with a well matched Scandi Compact. (420gr and 330 grains respectively). On small creeks, using an indicator, my 3wt Echo SR 3106 is a freaking death stick. (but happily I release most of them!).
For distance, I ADORE those TCX switch rods!
This is absolutely useless for a buyers guide. Unless you have fished and casted all of the top rods in the same weight class like loomis, Burke, whinston, sage, behula, orvis then how can you compare ? How great would it be to have a non biast professional and decent amateur caster fishing all of these rods for a season then pumping out a honest review. I would pay to read that !
Hi James,
Thanks for your comment. Please note that the content in this post is in no way meant as a buyer’s guide meant to persuade anyone towards a particular rod. Rather, a resource for folks to share rods they’ve enjoyed for their particular fishery, and why. Perhaps someone who shares the same fishing experience may find someone else’s comment useful. Furthermore, spey casting by nature contains far more variables pertaining to individual caster preference that traditional fly casting (casting tempo, preferred casting style, even height). Thus, while an unbiased review of every rod available from the same caster would surely be interesting, it still might not translate the same to every caster. Therefore, trial and error off of recommendation remains one of the best options we have in determining a suitable stick. Thanks for reading!
Thoughtful comments, James and Kyle. I love this blog, Kyle, I could read it all day. Switch rod under $300? Try building one. I’ve built two Batson Rainshadow RX 6 or 7 rods in 8 wt. Buy a kit. Add Struble stripping guides for an extra nice touch. There is a continuous learning curve, but that keeps the brain going. Can’t say I’ve compared these rods to others, but they worked for me and no one who has used one complained. Lots of Kanectok salmon caught with them. No one will take your unique rod with your name on it by mistake, either. Mostly just over head casting, but it always easier with 2 hands. Especally with a big rod, natch. Feels very different from my Echo Ion, of course.
Interesting reading! I’ve just bought a Hardy Swift MK2 11’6″ #7 for a bargain – probably because it’s a discontinued rod. It’s mostly for small Scottish salmon rivers where I have found a 10ft too small to handle spring salmon. I’m trying to identify the best line for the rod. Does anyone have this rod and can offer some advice?
My wife and I picked up a pair of Thomas & Thomas SW1008-4 (10’ 8wt) Switch Rods from T&T’s shop after getting the chance to try one out on the Salmon River in Pulaski NY. The gentleman was a friend of our relative who is a well known guide up there. So he stopped by to say hi and had it with him because he was doing a review of the rod. They were just getting them ready to start shipping them out and we’re nice enough to sell us a pair of them early. Their Switch Rods seem to cast any and all of our lines and is a dream to cast. My wife has a slower delicate style casting stroke and I have a more aggressive (beating a bear with a baseball bat) aka stuck in Saltwater surfcasting mode cast lol. It seems to work well all around and I can make farther casts with that Switch rod than I can with any of our 14 Spey rods. We have over 74 rods, 50 different lines in our collection (I build rods and enjoy collecting anything fishing) and this rod has been great with every line within the grain window which is wide compared to a lot of our other rods. We picked up the Rio Switch Line (now called the In-Touch Switch Line) that came out at the same time. We also picked MOW tips, Poly tips and the Airflo Tactical Compact Scandi Shooting head and Loop Custom’s .029 running line for it. We have swung big streamers and nymph-indicator rigs without any problems. I highly recommend trying out the T&T Switch Rods.
I have 4 and love them all. Rivers I fish for kings, cohos and steelhead don’t need Skagit lines as I usually toss smaller flies in shallow rivers. I’ve learned to rely on scandi and long-belly switch lines.
9wt Helios 2, hardest rod to line for me. Tried a number of lines and always thought it a dud. Called Steve Godshall and defined my fishing & casting styles and he made 2 lines for me. This thing sings like an angel now. It is light, accurate and powerful. Not a beginner’s rod IMO. Pretty and refined but, I always treat it carefully. Easy to break but, Orvis fixed it 2 times. Fast tip/rod.
I have a 2 TFO Deer Creek rods. 7wt for steelhead and 8wt for kings & steelhead. Easy rods to use and, seem to be bullet proof. I’ve taught my wife and 2 grandkids to spey cast with the 7 wt. They have a progressive character and load into the grips. They seem to be tolerant to wider grain wts. I find a definite difference between the 2. The 7 wt seems more refined and accurate and, is more pleasant for a full day of dancing. I’ve cast Skagit on the 8 but most of my use of these rods is with RIO switch lines. The 7 requires the 7/8 (won’t load with the 6/7). The 8 needs the 8/9 (the 7/8 doesn’t fully load the rod). Both rods easily cast the full transition section so, you have a 55 foot head out before needing to shoot. This makes for some deep D loops so, watch 6.
My favorite is a Meiser 11’7″ Highlander 6/7/8 wt. This is a progressive rod with a sensitive tip. It handles a good range of wts. It works well with RIO switch 8/9 but, I usually run RIO Versa Scandi Short 8. I only need to shoot 30′ with this to fish my primary rivers and this is effortless.
To sum up, the Deer Creek are strong rods that take a beating and are easy learning tools that will also keep faith as a caster progresses. The Helios 2 is not a good 1st rod. It needs some experience in casting and care. It is very light! My 9 wt is much lighter than the 7 wt Deer Creek. The Meiser is a treat. In my case it was a Christmas Gift from my wife.
I love fly fishing rods, reels and flies. I have bought and built flyrods and tied flies most of my life. My father gave me my first fiberglass fly rod when I was 8 years old with a Pfuleger Medalist reel. I wish the age induced tinnitus in my ears was simply the soft click of that medalist reel, and all would be right with the world!
I resisted the spey and switch revolution, maintaining my traditionalist spirit as an overhead caster for years. Casting a 9 weight overhand for Steelhead may be a passion when your are young, but it becomes a labor when you are older. Five or so years ago some fishing buddies of mine noted, with much humor and candor, that my dawn to dusk overhand casting deteriorated throughout the day, even with a light rod and line. They suggested I might consider a switch rod to “ease the fatigue factor” – although they were not quite so subtle and polite in their suggestion.
I now have 5 switch rods. I shattered my first, and you need not guess how, as it collapsed landing a salmon about an hour after may have “grazed it” with my conehead Dolly….That event pretty much solidifies the rule about not casting from your windward shoulder, simple as that – amazing how we learn.
While my single hand arsenal still is used, I am always longing for the switch rods, and as a result, have my favorite rods strung with “single hand spey lines”.
But since this isn’t about single hand rods – my favorite, and I know this is presumptuous to say, was my 65th birthday Kerry Burkeimer 4114-4 switch rod. Having drift boated many miles, I have made it a recent goal to wade (with my little pontoon boat tethered to me, as much of the Madison River as can be done over the last 5 years, with my “Burkie” in hand.
You can find all the particulars from the rod “shootout analysts” about this rod vs. a lot of other great rods on the market, and their different nuances and personalities. I will not question their motivation or doubt there skill, but I wonder sometime if there is a necessity to live with a rod for awhile to truly learn the capabilities and compatibility – we truly do adjust to one another (or not).
For me, this rod over my other switch rods, (names not to be mentioned) is my favorite. You feel this rod work for you if you treat it right. That is as technical as I will get, other than to say it does take some effort to match up the correct line/tips. All rods need to be correctly lined.
Honestly, there is also an allure to my “Burkheimer”, at some point you owe it to yourself to just have a piece of gear that combines reward, pride of ownership and sheer enjoyment every time you feel the rod send a loop off to its intended target. If you are not trying to set accuracy or distance records, but want to go fishing with a close friend every day, then find your “Burkheimer”.