Scott Swing 1288-4

Reviews

1. Rated 5 out of 5

   This is a winter steelhead rod through and through with a little more backbone that requires a bit more concerted pressure through the sweep to engage the blank fully. A 550 Rio Skagit Max Lauch was a great pairing and it felt like the head that was meant to be on this rod. I noticed the added substance to the blank over the 7 and the taper that felt a hair steeper and shade stiffer along its length than the 7-weight. Bigger flies and heavier sinking tips along with the new breed of sinking Skagit heads are what the 1288 wants to cast. It wants to lift too, and you notice the butt section and the stiffer feeling of the blank. I had to slow down and be more present to achieve optimum performance. An 8-weight with a Skagit head is where I start to get out of my element and I feel the weight of the head. My lift, sweep, stop starts to suffer with the heavier Skagit heads. No fault of the rod, just my lack of experience with the bigger lines.

   Richard Post (Telluride Angler)

2. Rated 4 out of 5

   It took me a minute to find my stroke with this rod. I cast it with a Rio Skagit Launch 550 grain line, which I eventually concluded was approximately the right weight. At first, I was standing in fast-moving ankle-deep water at the head of a riffle. I had trouble consistently loading the rod here, but when I took about 20 steps downstream into calf-deep water that had slowed to walking pace, I was able to place my line head more precisely and slow my casting stroke down to Skagit pace. In slowing the cadence of my casting stroke, I found that I was also able to apply more power on the forward stroke, and my cast came to life. Distance and control came naturally. I concluded that this rod is tuned to Skagit heads, rather than Scandi or long-bellied Spey lines. It’s a highly purposeful rod in this length and line class for Skagit fishing on all but the broadest rivers. It has plenty of backbone for lifting long, sunken heads and the resilience to withstand a powerful stroke for punching your Skagit head under challenging casting conditions or less than optimal wading scenarios.

   John Duncan (Telluride Angler)