What do you think of this?We are all proud of the rods we build. We want them to perform with casting and ease of handling ,as well as, the top of the line rods if not better.
Have you ever been to your favorite fish'en hole and wished you had 10 or 15 more yards in that rod? Or there is too much brush in back of you to make the conventional cast for that extra distance?Has anyone considered making a 2 handed spey rod type , but using for instance a 9ft wt4 line. From what I see and don't profess to be an expert ,most of the spey casting techniques are with the line either in front of the person or to the side.These casting techniques seem to be very powerful and perhaps would add a new deminsion to fresh water fly casting ? Has anyone built a rod like this?

I recently built an 11 foot steelhead blank into a two handed fly rod for dapping on small streams with lots of brush behind. I found myself wanting to cast the rod, but the extra length seemed akward and I gave it up in short order. I think a fly rod that will roll cast like crazy would be a better bet. The shorter the better. The two handed switch rods have an obvious application for the salt, but I find I need an extra hand for hauling line.

I mostly fish spring creeks with heavy brush or weeds on most and find that a smaller rod works much better than a larger rod. Often these tighter creeks hold residences of very spooky browns that you can't even approach in the traditional manner, so swinging a huge stick around would not in my opinion be benefical for those types of streams. A lot of stalking and perfect presentation on the first cast is the bill of the day, which smaller is better. Also I cast down the stream a lot so a longer rod would put me in the canopy more often that a short rod that keeps line right off the water below the over hanging branches. It may work better for larger rivers where longer presentation is nessesary but I would think it difficult to control a spey cast in tight quarters.

The prior post about using one for dapping sounds like a plausible idea- thanks for letting me in on the results or I may have wasted a little money :)

I m not talking about spey rod length or size . I'm talking about an 9 or 8 ft. rod made and casted like a spey rod , This rod of course could be used in a conventional manner too.

I understand your concept Bill. The idea is to get a spey length cast from a rod built switch style. These rods are often built on 10 footers, but are also more often built for overhead casting. The flaw in your concept (as I see it) is that for a rod no longer than 8 or 9 feet and a 4 weight, you simply don't need two hands to cast it and would gain no advantage building it switch style. I take it that what you really want to do is throw a really long roll cast. This is what the spey rods do best by employing the long rod length. But there are other ways to throw a long roll cast. I might re-post asking for the best line and rod combo for throwing that long roll. I would be interest in the results as I seem to get more than 30 feet.

Jason, I haven't given up on the dapping concept, but I found that a short rod casting a reverse loop (traveling underneath the line) seemed to take care of the branch problem as well as or better than the dapping technique. The problem was that after the fly touches down my inclination is to strip out line, and both hands are still employed holding the rod! At least I built the rod to also accept a spinning reel.

The only reason I was thnking of a 2 handed rod is that I believe that by involving both hands and rotating the upper trunk you may be able to get a longer cast .It does not mean you would be doing this all day just when the situation called for it.

With a spey rod that is certainly true from my limited experience. But there is only so much force to be applied to an 8 or 9 foot 4 weight. I might mention that by playing out line directly downstream and casting directly upstream in one motion you can throw a lot of line using the extra water resistence to create the "back cast".

Try a 3 WT line on the rod you have it may work better. Borrow the line if you don't have one just to try it
A fast action rod with lighter line should do the trick

Bill,
Just spey cast single handed. Single and double spey motions can be done single handed with a single handed rod. All they are is a rollcast that has less line on the water more in the air. The Rio videos show this being done.