So in our last episode, Mark Marmon had asked me what was I going to do on the Deschutes for a rod and I’d said that the outfitter had rods we could use and Mark said that was smart and we should use them and I said it surely was smart and that we would and I knew, even as I said it, that I was lyin’ like a big dog. I was going to buy a Spey rod. This wasn’t about smart. This was about fly fishing.
I don’t remember whether it was the next day exactly that I started looking. It might have been two days. The problem with buying a Spey rod in Houston is that there aren’t any. While there are five or six places I could go for strong and excellent opinions on rods for redfish or bonefish or tarpon, the number of places where I could get credible Spey rod advice is pretty limited. I like our local shops, and that includes Orvis, but there’s not a lot of demand for Spey rods here in Harris County. We don’t have steelhead. We don’t have salmon. The River Spey don’t run through it.
I could have mail-ordered a rod, but that seemed wrong. I owe a duty to my local merchants, I don’t want to see them Amazon’d or WalMart’d, and if I am going to buy a rod I should seek local advice, even if that advice was from a local shop in Oregon. Here’s the problem though. On the internet it seems that about 9/10ths of the Oregon economy is fly shops. It’s amazing that with all those fly shops they can find pinot vintners, or marijuana confectioners, or indie musicians.
So I finally turned to Yelp*. I don’t usually find Yelp* useful. You will never convince me that, notwithstanding the excellence of its burgers, a place called Pop’s Seafood is the best high-dollar restaurant in Houston. But I was desperate, and when I searched for Portland fly-fishing shops, the place with the best Yelp* rating was The Portland Fly Shop. I didn’t care that there aren’t many reviews and that the place is pretty new. Drowning man. Rope.
“My wife and I are going to fish the Deschutes with an outfitter in September. We are accomplished flyfishers, particularly when it comes to fishing bluegill on stock tanks, but don’t know nothin’ about (1) two-handed rods, (2) skagit-skandi lines or polyleaders or sinktips, or (3) steelhead. . . . You know what? None of our local flyshops know much either, except for one guy who sometimes fishes the surf at Galveston with a backcast. . . . We need (1) some suggestions on rods, spey not switch, reasonably fast and light . . . I’m guessing around a 7 wt; (2) lines; and (3) to book a guided trip September 8 to actually fish the rods on moving water.”
Ok, I admit it. It was the next day. It took Jason Osborn nigh on forever, at least an hour, to answer.
“First off, you have made a great decision, and you have chosen the perfect time to chase Steelhead. The biggest factor in Steelheading is fishing when there are the most fish in the system, and September is prime time. . . . “
Well. That’s going to make me feel great when I catch no fish. Jason goes on to explain how hard the Deschutes is to wade, and how we needed barred wading boots and wading staffs. Kris has now added wading the Deschutes to her standing list of horrors, right next to grizzly bears and alligators. She’s convinced that for it’s length and breadth it is bank to bank slightly deeper than 5-foot-4.
Back to Jason:
“Rods. It’s almost harder to find a bad rod than a good rod these days, but there are some great rods in each price range, and a few to really avoid. Here’s my suggestion
Top End:
Sage X 13′ 7 WT
Winston BIII-TH 12’9″ 7WT
Burkheimer 13’4″ 7 WT”
Ok, skip the top end. I want to retain some dignity.
“Mid Range:
Sage Pulse 13′ 7 WT
Winston Nimbus Spey 12’9″ 7 wt
Beulah Platinum 13’4″ 7 WT
Echo 3 13′ 7WT”
No reason to go further. I’m usually a Winston guy for trout rods, but I’m also a Southern Protestant kid of a certain age. He had me with Beulah. I had never heard of Beulah rods, but I know heaven when I hear it. “Beulah Land, I’m longing for you/And some day, on thee I’ll stand . . . “
“The lines will match the rod, skagit just means sink tip, scandi means full floating. Fancy words for basic stuff. You will want one of each, but wait until after the rod to buy them, to make sure they match correctly.”
Isn’t that lovely, clear prose about a difficult subject? I am so jealous. “Where my home shall be eternal/Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land.”
So Jason and I go back and forth for a bit: there’s a whole string of emails. I tell him I’m going to buy two rods, not realizing that Kris is going to find it impossible to commit to a rod without seeing it. Then fairly late in the day, after Jason has found me a guide and done all sorts of retail calisthenics to explain spey rods I get this:
“Great. I’ll email you in a bit, we’re closed today and I have some running around to do. I’ll get you all the info this evening.”
Well. Damn. I’ve been ruining Jason’s day off. This is not my finest moment. Damn. I ordered the Beulah Platinum because, well, Beulah Land, I’m longing for you, and a Hardy click and pawl Salmon 2 reel because, well, Hardy. I can not catch fish on a Hardy English-manufactured reel so much better than I can not catch fish on anything else. The rod arrived a few days later with the reel lined with a skandi head. It’s a lovely thing, and I can almost roll cast with it. I even caught a fish.
