Tod,
...so many interesting questions, and so little space...
I don't know the waters around Michigan, but I have some experience with spey rods, or two handed rods as we ususally call them in Europe. If I'm not wrong, the terms 'European' and 'Traditional' as you refer to them were used to describe two lines of Sage two-handed rods, and may have been later picked up by others.
In short, the 'European' action refers to faster action rods with stiffer butts, whereas the 'Traditional' are closer to the British type, deep, slow action. True, the Europeans have been fishing these two-handers for generations, using long DT lines, or silk lines before that. The best casters could, and still can, achieve huge distances with these long (15-16-18-20 ft rods) using spey casts. The also work well with WF/shooting heads.
The European style rods are a more recent addition, building on a revised casting style, which I think originated in Sweden and has been promoted by Göran Andersson who designed some (most?) of these rods with the Sage company. These rods require good timing in your casting stroke, they are usually combined with shooting heads and running lines, and they will perform various types of overhead or modified spey casts reaching long distances.
The best thing would be to test a couple of these rods for yourself, and your casting style. They feel quite different in action, on the water. I fish both styles, but I admit that it took me a while to get used to the faster action like the Sage 15', 10/11 GIII. But you get the timing right and the line just flies...
The word is out that Loomis will re-introduce the IMX 13', 9/10, which may have been the easiest beginner's rod ever.
I have cut many corners in my summary above, you may want to check eg. [
www.speypages.com] for more in-depth information.
Sigurd Stefansson
Bergen, Norway
