One nice tip to save you the potential pain of breaking your spey rod, is using electrical tape around the ferrules. Pretty simple way to assure your sections don’t separate. Why tape?
As opposed to single handed rod casting, which is a pretty straight back and forth type of motion, with spey casting, there’ a lot of side to side twisting and turning. There is more of a tendency for your ferrules to loosen up with a spey rod.
Cut off a 4″ section of tape, put together your ferrules snugly and wrap the tape, covering both sides. Worried about glue residue? It’s really not a big deal at all. I have never had a problem with the glue sticking to anything.
When you are ready to break down your rod, just undo the tape half way, then take apart the sections and wrap the tape back over the 1st half. It will be ready next time you put your rod together. You can use the same tape for a number of trips before it starts getting worn and need to be replaced.
Conclusion
Grab a role of electrical tape and throw it in your gear bag. Make sure your rod is dry and wrap the ferrules with tape. Thats’ all there is to it. Rest easy knowing you wont have to check our ferrules all day long. If you like this, hit the tweet button below to help share the good word. Thanks!
Hi Dave
I always tape my rods. Additionally I also rub a piece of candle on my spigot joints. This makes a good fit, saves wear, easy to take rod apart in cold weather, and prevents sticking joints.
Best regards
Chris P
Another very good tip. I lost track of that one but happy that you took the time to chime in. Yes, candle wax does a great job and is just as important as taping the ferrules. On another note, I’m looking into getting a switch rod. I probably don’t need one since I’ve already got a 10′ rod plus my regular spey rods, but want to test out a new style. I’ve been getting a few questions on switch rod use lately. Are you familiar with the switch rods?
Hi Dave
Over here we use a switch rod in preference to a single hander for better line control. Spey casting is easier with a double handed rod and when fishing in low water, a #10 weight line is just a bit heavy.
In low water and when fishing for Grilse (1 sea winter salmon around 5/6 lb) I like use my 13ft 6in Sage Axis line #7 casts really well when matched with Rio AFS shooting head 7/8F 460gr 30gms.
Hope that helps.
Chris P
Yes, that’s great information Chris. I think the Switch rod is nice when you do as much nymphing as swinging. For steelhead, there are a good chunk of people that use the shorter rods for nymphing steelhead. But, when given the chance, swinging for steelhead is my fist choice. We luckily have pretty good fishing for summer steelhead as well here which has very similar tactics and flies as the swinging you do for salmon. I’m looking forward to using and tying more of the patterns that work well for you guys for salmon. Cheers!
Would this go for a 6/7 11ft switch rod too ?
Cheers Billy..
I think you could do it on a switch rod but probably not as needed since you won’t likely be doing as much spey casting or at least you’ll be mixing it up more.
Also, you might note that many people don’t use tape at but just make sure to secure their Ferrules very well. You might try using your rod without tape for a few outings and see if the road is loosening up. Check it throughout the day and if it doesn’t loosen up at all, maybe you don’t need tape.
Thanks for the Comment and checking in!
dave