Ok, I've seen the light and it's not at the end of my Loomis 9ft. 8wt. Fished a small stream last Sat. and met up with a fellow in a Watermaster toting a fly rod. Don't see many of those combos in this neck of the woods so I struck up a conversation finding out we had a lot in common with fishing styles. The big difference was that he had a 10 foot canadian style mooching rod using it as a two handed fly rod for indicator, nymph-style fishing. While it looked a bit stiff, he had wonderfull mastery of all the pockets, seams, and water I struggled and usually failed to hit effectively with my one-hander. He said he was having a builder in make him a 10 1/2 foot 9-weight to take the place of his "moocher".
I mainly fish these brushy, small to medium streams, but do occasionally venture to the peninsula where I don't have to worry about a backcast getting hung up. I want a rod that would be suitable mainly for the roll-casting situations with heavy weighted flies in tight spots but would also work as a traditional spey rod on the larger waters. Would an 11 foot 9 or 8 weight be OK or should I go longer? Would the longer be a hinderance in tight spots? What should I look for as far as action on the rod? I've heard that rods should be överlined"to properly load a two hander. Would a double taper or a WF spey line be the ticket (or shooting heads)? Finally, I suppose I'd need a larger reel to hold everything. I've got a Redington 7/8LA and a FlyLogic789FLO (which is for sale).
Sorry about the rookie questions, but I've ignored this stuff too long and now think I've reallly missed the boat on an effective fishing method. Any reccomendations on sources for this equiptment would also be helpfull. Thanks for the input.

C&D,

Recognizing that there is no one rod that does it all, a suitable compromise for the fishing style and situations you describe might be the 12' that Angler's Workshop offers. It's rated 7/8 line wt., but if you make your own heads or WF type line, that's no limitation. You could use whatever wt. level or DT you need to roll cast and fish nymph style on small streams, and make an 8 or 9 or 10 wt. head to Spey cast on larger rivers. At 12' you could tote it on smallish rivers, but probably not comfortably on creeks. And it puts out enough line to fish effectively on the Hoh or Skagit.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.