A Peashooter Vs Bazookas...

The old timers say, plenty of steelhead have been caught on a single handed rod.

But the truth of the matter is the single stick is the anomaly.  The oddity

So take the biggest river we fish and throw a one hander, and it feels like a peashooter versus a fleet of bazookas

When the fish took, we all freaked out and lost it.    We've convinced ourselves that it wasn't going to happen.   4 adult males dancing around celebrating something that was once just normal

Call it retro or whatever, but it was awesome.  We as steelheaders dont have to boom 100 foot casts, but spend more time reading water and controlling the bug in the water to present it well to a willing biter.

The peashooter won this round, and we couldn't have been happier.

Militant Single Hander...

He's probably fished for steelhead longer than I have been alive.

And stay's firmly attached to his single hand rod.

I jokingly started calling him the MSH, or the militant single hander because on this river, the traditional 9 foot 8 weight is as he calls it, the novelty act.

We oooh and aaaah over 100 foot casts that boom out from our spey rods, but the truth of the matter is that we as spey guys aren't always fishing the water as well as we should.   I sat and watched my friend work a run and I noticed his constant attention to detail that put the fly right through each bucket of each piece of water we fished.

It was beautiful watching a master at his craft.

Sure he missed some of the "way out there water" that 2 handed casters can hit,  but guess who was the one caught fish.

The Militant Single Hander.