The current hot thing in fly fishing right now is the use of a spey rod, particularly a lightweight spey rod for trout. Most us know about the use of the traditional spey rod, but how many of us know of using a spey rod for trout? The SOFF January dinner meeting will answer that question when Jon Hazlett, who is an accomplished long rod and micro spey fisherman will be presenting his program on “Trout Spey Fishing, Gear, and Techniques”.

According to Hazlett, trout spey fishing is rapidly gaining popularity due to the availability of lighter weight two handled rods and experienced long rod spey fishermen seeking to use some of the same techniques for trout fishing on smaller waters.  Pursuing trout with light spey gear provides some definite advantages over traditional single handed approaches. With Spey casting it takes time to adjust, learn, and execute, and if you want to become truly proficient you need to put your time in.

To beginners, choosing a trout or micro Spey setup might seem more confusing than navigating Bloomingdale’s After Thanksgiving Sale. As trout Spey rods have evolved, they have developed their own classification systems. Shorter than full Spey rods yet longer than single-hand trout rods, each rod has an array of lines designed especially for their optimal use. In their usage, these baby Speys are equivalent to single-hand fly rods in the 4- to 7-weight range.

Micro spey fishing allows the angler another avenue to target their favorite trout species, and is it a fun way to fish!  A trout spey can be used to minimize back casting when fishing close quarters on tight streams but they are also often used on larger rivers when swinging flies for trout. They allow an angler to achieve maximum distance with little effort or stress while casting. Micro spey fishing may keep anglers with shoulder issues on the water when traditional rods would cut short their days.

This program will introduce you to what you need and how to pursue a new avenue in your trout fishing adventures and a program not to be missed if you’re interested in this style of fly fishing.

Reservations for the December dinner meeting and the Jon Hazlett’s presentation are due by Noon, Monday, January 17^th .   Dinner reservations can be made by going to the club’s website www.soff.org and clicking on the dinner reservations button or if you’d rather call in your dinner reservation, you can do so by calling the club’s answering machine at 541 955-4718 and leaving your information.