Lots of good info in these past few pages with the exception of Sg confessing that he was bobber dogging from the raft with a fly rod.

My fishing partners, old hands of the Skeena, have chided me that I cast too far (single hand) and that the fish hold closer to the bank. While I did learn from them that fish will hold in much softer water than what I fished down here, I still maintain that if you cover the close water first while swinging, you can still catch the close fish and give yourself a chance to catch fish out further. What I like about catching fish further from the bank is if they get in the faster water, they will often peel off all your fly line and a bunch of backing. You may not land those fish but seeing a fish jump and cartwheel 100 yards downstream from you is still pretty frickin' exciting.

Even though these guys know the water and are better at reading water than me, I out fish them, mostly because of my youth (I'm in the water fishing more) but I also think I catch more fish because of my ability to cover more water due to longer casts. By longer casts, I mean 75 feet instead of 50.

One advantage a single hand rod is (aside from being easier to carry in the boat) is about a quarter of my fish have been caught while stripping or casting upstream (dead drifting) and picking line the past few years. Those two approaches are more difficult to do with a two-hand rod. But there are advantages of a two-hand as well.