[Euan Innes]

Steven,
The HT would be good but the switch might be a bit tricky. I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch. What you do need is the ability to lift (haul)a big Pollock from deep inside the kelp up to somewhere that you can play it. Most of the time my Orvis #9 is like bringing a .44 to a smallbore club but every now and again you will need the power. My Airflo DI7 tip Sniper line also needs the oomph to get it out, sometimes with a limited backcast, ten feet above the water.
Hamish uses a #12..... 
If I am teaching my granny to suck eggs forgive me.

 

[Steven Sinclair]

Steven,
The HT would be good but the switch might be a bit tricky. I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch. What you do need is the ability to lift (haul)a big Pollock from deep inside the kelp up to somewhere that you can play it. Most of the time my Orvis #9 is like bringing a .44 to a smallbore club but every now and again you will need the power. My Airflo DI7 tip Sniper line also needs the oomph to get it out, sometimes with a limited backcast, ten feet above the water.
Hamish uses a #12..... 
If I am teaching my granny to suck eggs forgive me.

 

It's cool 😎 I have a fair idea of what I am up against. I've had salmon. Giant gourami, Asian cat fish to 14kg and giant snakehead to 7.5 on it. I've made it. Personal mission to see just how many species I can land on it.

I've a 9# helios if I need to start doing it properly

[Derek Roxborough]

OOOer missus! I do all my fishing with a 5wt     easker1

[Marc Fauvet]

I my limited salt experience spey and rolls aren't needed much and big overheads can be better with a short single so there is no real advantage in the switch.

your 'limited experience in the salt' shines here mate ! 
double-handers are just longer fly rods with another handle. sure, they're typically viewed as rods made for rolls and Speys but they're just dumb rods that don't know what they're supposed to do....
as such aerial casts with a DHer go much further (longer rod where the caster's force is applied with two hands instead of just one) and with more ease (no false casting, strip in to the back of the head, pick up, one BC and boom !)

all this to explain why DHers in the salt are the norm for striper fishing and a lot of other shoreline salt fishing around the globe. you guys are casting on rocks and they're generally wading but the presentation/distance/flies/targeted fish size requirements are about the same. something to think about 

as an aside, i'm wondering why you guys aren't using stripping baskets ?

cheers,
marc

[Euan Innes]

no false casting, strip in to the back of the head, pick up, one BC and boom !

Marc, that is exactly what my 9' #9 does 
My Sniper line has a short heavy head and it really flies out. My comments about switch rods are based on where I have fished so far and I really can't see how a #6 or #7 11.5' rod which is designed primarily for rivers is what I need on a rocky shore line with BIG flies. I always thought that a switch rod was meant to overhead and spey with a line designed to do both so when you are on a rocky out crop and can only overhead cast why would an extra 2.5' and a lighter line be a benefit? I really can't agree that overheads with a DH rod go further, but then it is probably 20 years since I tried something that daft.
The other reason that I prefer a #9 is that it handles a big Clouser fairly easily, something that a #6 might not. Also at Rhea Point near Ullapool I was drawing the line right in to the loop with just the Polyleader outside the ring as the Pollock were following right in to where I was standing, and being hooked there too. A DH would be a right pain to get back out from that situation.
Climbing down some of the cliffs I know near Lochinver would probably end in tears to with a long rod.
Hey, if anyone wants to try it go right ahead and I'll be there to cheer you on. I just think it would be a chore on several different levels.

 

[Derek Roxborough]

when I was an inshore fisherman I used to catch pollach with a small  fly  made of red game hackles, about a size 4 or 6,I noticed these pollach were feeding on large sea slaters, I was catching for creel bait,and the flies/lures were sort of sea slaterish, I have no need to buy any more rods so I use my 5wt with an Airflo 40+5/6 inter,  I can get a decent line out with it,  to each his own, I have used this over on the west coast of the US fishing from the beach where my son lives, there is a chance of catching steelhead there, I use a size 6 SS hook for my sea flies,    easgach 1

[Euan Innes]

Thanks for that Easgach.
I have had a couple of ideas ratting around my head for a couple of days for a less flashy fly and you have now added to the thought process.
Did you find that Pollock would come up to the top three feet of water to take a fly? I was always under the impression that I had to get really deep to get the big Pollock.

 

[Marc Fauvet]

Marc, that is exactly what my 9' #9 does 

ok, but you're talking about girly 90' casts. i'm talking about 150' or more with less physical effort than the girly 90'er 

anyhow, i'll continue. not to be telling you or anyone what to do  but just to get some info out for the group.

"I always thought that a switch rod was meant to overhead and spey with a line designed to do both so when you are on a rocky out crop and can only overhead cast why would an extra 2.5' and a lighter line be a benefit?"
nobody serious (meaning, someone who really knows what they're talking about as opposed to those who play the Telephone Game) ever said that the same line would perform equally well for both both aerial and Speys. they can't, end of story. that's what extra spools and extra lines are for ! 
an experienced caster will get away with just about any line but optimum peformance won't happen with the same line.

"The other reason that I prefer a #9 is that it handles a big Clouser fairly easily, something that a #6 might not."
yup, pretty obvious and couldn't agree more  a heavier fly will be a LOT easier to cast with a heavier line to pull it. it's just common sense.

since most here will relate to fresh water examples better, a good example of this is Skagit shooting head gear that very easily casts
very big and very heavy flies and super-fast sink tips. they shine at this because that's what they're designed to do.
take that same very big and heavy fly and attach it to a Skandi line and things won't go well at all...

and yes, longer rods will always outdistance shorter rods. when was the last time you saw a 9' beachcaster or carping gear rod ?

cheers,
marc
 

[Euan Innes]

Marc,
Fair points BUT I still don't fancy trying to get a switch rod to lift the 30' head of a DI7 and fire it back out 150', or trying to get a DI7 back out from being retrieved right to the loop, especially a shooting head. This is a pain when you are in a river with the current helping you. With my single hander I can control the line being fed back out to the sweet spot better.

None of these casts are being made from in the water or from the beach. All the water is deep from right in front of me so the DI7 head is going down like a stone, much faster than a 10' tip. It might only be going out 100' but it is getting into the target zone really fast. Skagits are either floating or inter tipped and need a 10' polyleader on them, so only the very last section sinks. The fly might be 150' away from the angler but how long would it take for that fly to get down to where it matters? And while a floating running line gets battered about by surface wave action my inter running line is cutting down in to the deep with a really nice retrieve angle to boot.
I can see how a DH in the surf with a floating or inter line in water less than 10'could be a real help but not really where I fish. By the same reasoning we should all be using them from boat or bank for Rainbows but I have yet to see one at Rutland.

 

[Marc Fauvet]

like i wrote "not to be telling you or anyone what to do  but just to get some info out for the group." 

[Derek Roxborough]

Not Fishing in particularly deep water ( 15ft) so the fish come up , but I fish an intermediate all the time and it sinks enough to get it down to fish, and the slightly heavier hook helps, going to more this winter, I need to work on a long handled net, I used to have a drop net but it went walkabout, easgach 1

[Euan Innes]

Thanks Easgach.
Definitely food for thought. 

 

[Hamish Young]

Interesting stuff Euan and Marc 

As it happens its entirely possible I am in negotiations with someone very local to me about him "donating" an 11'2" Switch rod for experimental purposes in the salt
Whilst I am reasonably content with the casts I can achieve with any of the equipment I currently have for use in the salt, I know I can cast much further than I can currently achieve with a 9' #12wt (around 35 with ease and 40 plus when really thinking about it). As achieving greater distance is highly desirable I know that as I'm pretty much at the comfortable limit of what my current gear can achieve it's time to think about something else, no point in pushing the limit at every cast.

A switch rod is that nice half way house between heavy weight single handers and shorter double handers; it may require some careful thought in line choice but for whacking large gear into the middle distance it should be bang on for what I am telling myself I need......

In an earlier post Marc you asked about stripping baskets.
I do have several of different designs and do use them but - on occasion - they can be more of a hindrance than a help. Increasingly I just leave them in the car, but that probably comes down to the type of foreshore I'm fishing from. Elsewhere they will/do get used.

H 

[Marc Fauvet]

it may require some careful thought in line choice

thought you'd get the point, H   
i'd give a  simple shootinng line / Rio T tips or other T material as 'fly line head' replacement / leader combo some serious consideration.   

as for not using the basket, i gues you like tangles and crushing shooting/running line agaist sharp, nasty rocks in equal amounts... 

[Eddie Sinclair]

Euan,

after much sweariness and searching I have now found all of my saltwater fly fishing stuff including flies. Is this pollack thing justb for summertime or do they hang around the shore all year round?

If they are still catchable do you fancy looking around locally sometime to see if there are any decent marks?

Eddie.

[Hamish Young]

Is this pollack thing just for summertime or do they hang around the shore all year round?

Eddie - My reply on page 1 of the thread might be of some help here. H

[Hamish Young]

thought you'd get the point, H   

 

i'd give a  simple shootinng line / Rio T tips or other T material as 'fly line head' replacement / leader combo some serious consideration.   

Oddly enough I'm already there.... 
I already have some T14 and T17 chopped into heads, on the 9' #12wt they're entertaining (for entertaining read "bloody dangerous") in anything other than ideal conditions but were food for thought regarding the development of something for a switch rod which I felt was the natural progression in gear. From experience gained in BFCC events with T120 outfits I have some prototype heads and running lines sorted, just need to prise the rod required to do the job out of someone else's store.... 

as for not using the basket, i gues you like tangles and crushing shooting/running line agaist sharp, nasty rocks in equal amounts... 

It's honestly not been too bad so far Marc, but I can see when I've switched fully to heads and running line that fishing without the basket might be just plain silly

[Eddie Sinclair]

Eddie - My reply on page 1 of the thread might be of some help here. H

Cheers H,

I am going to to some recce missions.

Eddie

[Liam Stephen]

Local recce's Eddie? I'd be keen for something other than Rainbows this winter! 

 
Liam

[Euan Innes]

Eddie,
PM sent.
Liam ,
Watch this space...

 

[Rob Brownfield]

Being someone who has used switch rods in the salt, I will throw my experience in the pot.

Leave the switch at home when on the rocks, simples. They may be perfect on the beach when you are wanting to put a fly past the last breaker, but when it comes to stopping a fish going deep, the shorter rods have the advantage.

My setup is a Helios 7 weight Switch teamed up with a 9 weight Rio Outbound for over head casting, as recommended on the Rio site. Putting the whole line out is easy, no question there, but as soon as you hook something the impracticality of a long rod on a cliff edge comes into play.

Nope, I will stick with 9 footers from 7 to 9 weight thank you very much. More command, more stopping and lifting power and easier to grab your line to pull fish up the cliff. Besides, the fish are normally within 5 feet of the rock face, no need for long casts, cast along the rocks, not out to sea and you will have plenty of good fish.

PS. Also used the switch for Pike, back to 9 footers, as are everyone else that have written about using Switch rods for pike

[Rob Brownfield]

Pollock marks around these parts are few and far between because of the pressure in recent years on the fish stocks being taken for the pot. In the early 90's when I lived in Portlethan, only cod were taken. These days people take anything, no matter the size.  and set lines can be common.

Heading to Boddam (as already mentioned) gives a better chance, and the rocks around Achmittie also produce. The best I found was the inner harbour at Peterhead, but you cannot fish it anyone. Bit strange being 20 feet above the water, but a super fast sink shooting head worked wonders for Pollock and Cod.

My most successful flies have all been "rootbeer" coloured, except at Peterhead where white excelled.

[Hamish Young]

Leave the switch at home when on the rocks, simples. They may be perfect on the beach when you are wanting to put a fly past the last breaker, but when it comes to stopping a fish going deep, the shorter rods have the advantage.

Interesting Rob....... but I do think Marc is right about the way to achieve outright distance and this.....

Besides, the fish are normally within 5 feet of the rock face, no need for long casts, cast along the rocks, not out to sea and you will have plenty of good fish.

I disagree with, I've had fish from close in and from afar. We both know that's as much to do with the nature of a mark itself and by and large we do try to ensure a Pollock mark has certain characteristics which mean there's a bias towards fish being close in.
That said, I agree there is a real chance that 'reservoir madness' (where shore fishers wade and cast as far out as they can and boat fishers drift or anchor pretty much as close to the shoreline as they dare) can be repeated by the coastal fisher if they don't actually think about what they're doing. That's as much about the angler than anything else though.

I have a heavy-ish switch rod coming my way later this week for experimental purposes.
I don't doubt that there will be some limiting factors in their use on the coast, but I will experiment...... 9' rods still coming with me though 

My most successful flies have all been "rootbeer" coloured, except at Peterhead where white excelled.

Now that is very interesting indeed..... you might say coalfish colour then......   

H 

[Euan Innes]

Thought you'd get the point Rob......

 

[Hamish Young]

Interesting............
http://bestfishinginscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/predator-fishing-in-sea-for-pollock-in.html?spref=fb