There are some good points in that article or essay. DH rods do seem to come in "over-gunned" sizes for the fishing that I do. My first DH was one of the 16' prototypes Jimmy Green made at Fenwick. It handled a full DT10F or 1/4" rope with equal ease. The first steelhead I caught with it was a poor 6 pound fish that I literally dericked up out of the water and swung it onto the bank behind some brush. The rod was so long I couldn't get near the fish.

The next DH was the very popular Sage 9140 that many probably still consider a good winter run rod. When I contrast it with the 8, and even 9, wt. single handed rods I use for steelhead, that rod is a thunderstick, too. I found that is was over-gunning for steelhead under 14 or 15 pounds. And unfortunately perhaps, most of the steelhead I catch are smaller than that, even on the mighty Skagit.

So a few years ago I discovered a little 12' 7/8 wt. blank at Angler's Workshop. It surely is a bit noodley, but the butt section is comparable to my 8 wt. single handed rod. I've fished it for several years quite happily - until -

I attended last year's Spey Clave on the Sky and tried a bunch of different rods. What a mistake that was, with respect to my bank account. I was smitten by the line of rods by CND, not their big guns named Skagit and Thompson, but more modest fishing tools. I've got a 12' Spey Tracker and a 13' Custom 7/8, and both are a sheer joy to cast and fish with. They pitch the line to a fishable length and have a balance that none of my other DH's come close to.

Now, as to "fighting" a fish, what's with this fighting? Fighting suggests some sort of mutual peril. The only steelhead I ever felt imperiled by was by a mobster of a fish on a rough spot on the Thompson by the American Bar. That one did work me over a bit roughly, but that was due in part to it being an icy cold morning, with my lungs burning from a long chase, hampered by skipping and skating over bolders that are slicker than deer guts on a door knob. All the rest of the time, however, I play a steelhead, I don't fight it. And most of the biggest steelhead I've caught were on an 8 1/2' fibreglass rod, so I know it doesn't take all that much of a tool to play out a steelhead and land it. The biggest fish was landed on the 9140, but I don't think that guy ever knew he was hooked until he finally wore down enough to lay over on his side. I'm not sure any rod suitable for actually fishing with would have been noticed by that fish; he was just that big. So enough with this "fighting" the fish nonsense already.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.