Greys Wing Trout Spey Fly Rod

The Greys Wing Trout Spey Fly Rod is built for the discipline that sits between a nine foot trout rod and a full size steelhead two hander. Trout spey means swinging a small sculpin, a soft hackle or a pair of wets through a run that might be forty feet across, on a rod long enough to control line at distance but light enough that a fourteen inch brown still feels like a fish. That takes a blank tuned to a much lighter grain head than big spey uses, and it takes length you can actually carry all day. The Wing Trout Spey answers with four models from 10ft 10in in a 2wt up to 11ft 4in in a 5wt, every one of them a four piece Powerlux carbon blank.

What Greys built into this series is genuine dual use. The rods are light enough to cast single handed when the run calls for it, and the extra length over a standard nine footer makes mending and line control far easier, which is why they fish well with nymphs and dry flies and not just on the swing. Then when you want to swing wets or reach the far seam, the two handed spey handle lets you load the rod off the water and put the whole head out with no back cast room. One rod covers the indicator drift up top of the run and the swung fly through the tailout.

Blank

Powerlux Carbon, Four Piece - All four models are built on a low profile Powerlux carbon blank in a four piece layout, confirmed model by model in Greys' own spec data as GROWIN10102, GROWIN113, GROWIN1124 and GROWIN1145. That matters more than usual on this rod, because the Greys Wing Travel range reuses the same numbers with a T on the end and those are six piece rods. If you are cross referencing a spec sheet, check the suffix.

Trout Spey Action - Greys rates every model medium fast. On a two hander that is the useful place to be. A medium fast taper loads progressively down into the mid section, which is what lets you feel the anchor come tight and time the sweep, and it keeps enough recovery in the tip to turn over a sink tip in a headwind. A stiffer blank would cast a heavy head fine and then make every small fish feel like a stick. A softer one would fold under a tip. Greys also prints a model ID and alignment dots on each section, so you can line the guides up correctly on a cold morning without sighting down the blank.

Guides

Stripping Guides - Lined stripper guides. The insert gives the running line a hard, slick surface to shoot against, which counts for more on a two hander than a single hander because every cast fires an entire head and its running line through that guide in one pass under full load. A hard insert also resists the grooving that a bare frame eventually picks up from sand and grit, and a grooved stripper is what starts stripping the coating off a shooting head.

Snake Guides - Double foot snake guides the length of the blank, which is the heavier duty choice and is specific to the Trout Spey within the Wing family. The Wing Streamflex single handers use single foot guides. Two feet per guide spreads the load into the blank and stands up better to the sustained bend of a Skagit cast and to being dragged over rocks. Every model in the range carries 11 guides, so the line follows the curve of the blank closely rather than cutting chords between widely spaced guides.

Reel Seat

The Wing Trout Spey uses a full alloy reel seat, with no wood spacer, which sets it apart from the wood spacer seats Greys puts on the Wing Streamflex and some Wing Travel models. Alloy is the right call on a rod that spends its life in cold water and wet hands, since there is no wood finish to check or swell. It gets dual locking nuts with a nylon cushion ring, so the reel foot is clamped from both directions and the cushion ring keeps casting vibration from walking the nuts loose over a long day of swinging. The slide band is keyed and milled to cut weight, which is worth having out at the butt of a rod you hold with two hands for hours. Ahead of the seat is a AAA cork two handed spey handle.

Rod Tube

The rod is supplied in a rod bag and a hard tube. Greys does not publish a transport or packed length for the Wing Trout Spey, so treat it as a standard four piece tube for a rod of this length rather than a travel case. Keep the tube: the warranty program below is section based, and getting a single broken section back to Greys safely is a lot easier when the rest of the rod is still stored properly.

Warranty

Greys runs its own rod warranty and it is not the Hardy program, despite the shared Pure Fishing parent. Register the rod within 60 days of purchase and you are entitled, for the lifetime of the product, to repair or replacement at Greys' discretion of damaged, broken or defective sections. Claims currently carry a 75 dollar charge covering repair or replacement, handling, administration and return postage, and you pay the shipping to send the rod or section in. Coverage runs to the original owner only and does not extend to lost or stolen rods or sections. If a model is discontinued and sections are no longer available, Greys may offer a comparable rod from the current range at a discounted price. Rods made before 2002 are quoted separately. These are the United States terms, handled by the US Greys customer service department; other regions are covered by their own local terms.

More Info

• Rod Action: Medium Fast
• Best For: Trout spey and light two handed swinging, plus long line nymphing and dry fly work where the extra length buys you mending reach
• Grip Style: AAA cork two handed spey grip, same across all four models
• Ability Level: Intermediate to Advanced
• Line Weight Range: 2wt through 5wt
• Models: 2wt 10ft 10in, 3wt 11ft, 4wt 11ft 2in, 5wt 11ft 4in
• Pieces: 4 on every model
• Guides: 11 on every model, double foot snakes with lined strippers
• Reel Seat: Full alloy, dual locking nuts, nylon cushion ring, keyed and milled slide band
• Blank: Powerlux carbon

Recommended Lines

One thing to know before you buy line: Greys publishes a rod length, an action and a guide count for these models, but no grain window. Trout spey heads are sold by grain, not by rod weight, so the number on the blank will not pick the line for you. Buy a head in the light end of the range, cast it, and move a step up or down from there. Call us if you want a starting point for a specific model.

For the swung fly side of the rod, the Scientific Anglers Spey Lite Skagit Head is the direct match. It is a short, aggressive taper built specifically for lightweight two handed work, it turns over sink tips and weighted sculpins on a very short stroke, and we stock it in 30 grain steps starting at 180gr, which is fine enough resolution to actually dial a rod in. This is the head to fish in cold water when the fly needs to be down.

When the water warms and you want to swing soft hackles on a long leader or skate a caddis, the Scientific Anglers Spey Lite Scandi Head covers the floating half of the system. The long front taper lands a fly softly and suits touch and go casting, which is the more pleasant way to fish these rods when there is room behind you, and it shares the same grain ladder so you can match it to whatever Skagit weight you settled on.

The Rio Elite Skagit Mini Max Power Shooting Head is the alternative if you fish larger trout streamers and heavier tips. Rio built it with a shorter head and more front end punch specifically for lighter two handed rods, it is designed to work with MOW tips, and it runs from 200gr in 25 grain steps. All three of these are shooting heads rather than complete lines, so budget for a running line and a set of tips as well.