Steelhead on the Spey / phone: (916) 838-2496 / email: speybum@gmail.com

                                          Simplifying Spey Lines: Skagit vs. Scandinavian

                                                     By: Jason Hartwick

                     

One of the biggest things I see on a daily basis working in a fly shop and guiding steelhead fishing is the confusion amongst anglers on the difference between Skagit and Scandinavian spey lines. When I first started spey casting, 14-15’ rods and Rio Windcutter spey lines were the norm. I spent many long days practicing my spey casting in hopes I could make a long beautiful cast in hopes of finding my first spey caught steelhead. If we could have had Skagit and Scandinavian lines back then, it wouldn’t have taken 3 months to learn how to spey cast and catch my first steelhead on a spey rod. Oh how things have changed!

The recent trend in the spey fishing industry is growing towards the use of shooting head style lines that have shorter heads that are designed to be cast on shorter rods with a more compact stroke. This has enabled many beginners to pick up a two handed spey rod and learn cast in a shorter amount of time.

Skagit lines were developed in the early 1990’s by a small group of guys in the Pacific Northwest on Washington’s famed Skagit River. The likes of Ed Ward, Mike Kinney, Mike McCune, and Scott O’Donnell all played a role in developing the early stages of Skagit spey lines. These lines were developed out of the necessity to fish rather large flies on heavy sink tips at medium to long distances. Skagit lines started out from old Rio Windcutter bodies. The guys on the Skagit would remove the second tip from the first two tip sections of the Windcutter’s and have a line anywhere in length from 23-28 feet. From there they would add a sink tip and have a shorter line that would cast like a shooting head but could handle a heavy tip and large fly. spey casts such as the Snap T or Snap C and the Perry Poke were created to help cast these new Skagit spey lines.

Skagit lines are a shooting head style spey line that can be found as a head or with an integrated running line. Either way, the head length’s in many Skagit style lines range from 20-32’ in length. Skagit heads are unlike many other fly lines in that they have very little taper and are pretty much one solid chunk of line. This is what helps to carry the weight of a heavy sink tip and large fly at great distances. Skagit lines were designed to throw sink tips, T-8, T-11, T-14, T-17, LC-13, and LC-17. In recent years more and more people are using Skagit lines for year round fishing and are now using floating tips on Skagit heads. The floating tips are 15’ long and vary in grain weight to match the weight of your Skagit line. The important thing about using these tips for Skagit style lines is that they have enough grain weight to properly anchor your fly line to achieve a good cast. Tips that are too light and do not have enough grain weight will cause the angler to pull their anchor and struggle with their casting. A good anchor allows the angler to form a D-loop and maintain load in the rod throughout the casting stroke.

The beginnings of Scandinavian shooting head systems trace back to the 1960’s and Goran Anderson’s cut up Salmon Double Taper fly lines. These lines were designed for lifting and casting long lengths of  Double Taper fly lines for Atlantic Salmon in various European rivers. Scandinavian, commonly referred to as Scandi lines are designed to be a longer shooting head with a long front taper to turn over long leaders and small to medium sized flies with a delicate presentation.

Scandi lines are typically designed as shooting heads but in recent years a few manufacturers have introduced Scandi heads with an integrated running line. Scandi heads vary in length from 27-44 feet. These lines are designed to be used with longer leaders such as mono or poly/versi leaders from 9-16 feet in length depending on the length of your rod or line. Poly/Versi leaders have very little grain weight, which allows for a quick touch and go anchor to achieve high line speeds and tighter loops when casting Scandi style lines. This allows the angler to present smaller to medium size flies with longer, lighter leaders for delicate presentations for Salmon, Steellhead, and Trout.

Now that you have a better understanding of Skagit and Scandinavian style spey lines, its time to go over how and when to use them. While both of these lines have similar lengths and can be fished throughout the year in a variety of situations, they each have their own unique traits. In most cases both lines can be used on almost any spey rod. As a general rule Skagit tapers are usually 20-25% heavier than Scandi tapers. For example, on a 6 weight spey rod I might throw a 450 grain Skagit head but only a 390 grain Scandi head. Both lines load this rod perfectly, but because the tapers and leaders/tips vary in length and weight, they require different grain weights. Some anglers prefer a lighter or heavier load in a rod, so this percentage might change depending upon the individual.

Skagit and Scandi lines each excel in different situations. Knowing which line to choose in the right situation can be the difference between a good day of casting/fishing and a tough one. Since Skagit lines are designed to turn over heavy sink tips and large flies, these lines excel in the fall and winter when you might be fishing heavy flows or dirty water where you need to keep your fly down in the zone of the fish. On the other hand, Scandi lines are usually fished in the summer and fall where one is usually fishing smaller to medium sized flies on floating leaders under low clear water conditions. While both lines can be fished with a floating tip or floating poly/versi leader, Scandi lines excel in this department. The same goes with sink tips and sinking poly/versi leaders. Both lines can handle sub surface work, but the deeper you need to get your fly, the more enjoyable and easier casting is going to be done with a Skagit line in this situation.

The last important key factor to remember when choosing or fishing a Skagit or Scandi style line is that sink tips and fast sinking material such as T-8, T-11, and T-14 must be used with Skagit lines to help sustain your anchor to help form a proper D-loop. On the other hand, mono leaders, poly or versi-leaders are designed to be cast with Scandi lines to achieve the proper anchor to form a D-loop. If you throw a Skagit line with a poly/versi leader you will tend to pull your anchor and struggle to form a D-loop. Whereas if you throw a sink tip or T-14 on a Scandi line, good luck getting that anchor and D-loop off the water! Remember, we want things to be easy when fishing!

Skagit and Scandinavian spey lines offer the angler a wide variety of options for various fishing situations. If your budget allows, I recommend spooling a reel with a looped running line and buying both a Skagit and Scandi head. Buy a few different sink tips and poly leaders to go with both heads and there is no fishing condition you can’t cover. Go for the grab!

Articles

          Steelhead on the Spey Guide Service