Trout Spey: Tips and Rod Setup

Author: Sean Snover
Sean Snover with Bass

Trout spey is a fun and exciting way to fish for trout and has become increasingly popular in recent years. Trout spey is also classified as swinging flies for trout. Anglers who love swinging for steelhead found a way to scratch the itch while steelhead are unavailable – whether that be due to the time of the year or location.

Angler spey casting at sunset

What is Trout Spey?

Trout spey is a technique of swinging for trout using a lightweight two-handed or switch rod setup with either a skagit or scandi line system. The term “trout spey” is a blend of fly fishing terms meshed together. “Spey” is actually a type of casting and not a fishing technique. Anglers use the term “trout spey” to indicate that they are swinging flies for trout while spey casting to deliver the fly.  

Angler swinging a river for trout

Trout Spey Rods

Trout spey rods are typically between 10’6” and 12’6” feet in length and are available in 2wt up to 6wt. They are a lighter switch or two-handed rod specifically designed for trout. Yellowstone Angler did a nice job of explaining trout spey rods in their Trout Spey Shootout. “Trout spey rods are designed with softer mid-sections, which make spey casting more effortless by allowing the rod to do the work. Used correctly, a trout spey rod will cast your line much further than you could ever cast a 9-foot rod while using less effort. They are also particularly useful while wade fishing in areas that don’t have much room for a back cast. In spots like this, with the proper spey cast, an angler can effectively throw 60-100 feet and beyond with ease.”

Douglas DXF 10'6" 5wt trout spey

The Best Trout Spey Rod

When determining the best trout spey rod, there are a few things to consider:

  • Rod Action: medium fast to fast action trout spey rods are more versatile and easier for beginners to cast than a slow or super fast action rod.
  • Accuracy: is the rod responsive enough to deliver the fly where the angler is trying to cast?
  • Power: does the rod have the power to turn over longer leaders and larger flies?

The Douglas DXF 10’6” 5wt won “Best Mid-Priced Trout Switch Rod” in the Yellowstone Angler Trout Spey Shootout. They go on to write “the DXF is the best trout switch rod on the market!”

Click here to view and purchase the DXF 10’6” 5wt from Yellowstone Angler.

Trout Spey Setup

Trout spey setups include:

  • Trout spey rod
  • Large arbor reel
  • Trout spey specific line or a skagit/scandi line setup with the appropriate grain wt for your rod
  • Floating, intermediate, and sinking tips

Fly line companies have made it easier and simpler to get into the trout spey game. Companies such as Rio Products and Scientific Anglers make trout spey lines that are categorized by rod weight and are integrated with running line. This means, if a beginner is wanting to get a line for their new 5wt DXF trout spey rod, they simply purchase a 5wt trout spey line – simple.

Rainbow trout caught on a trout spey

Trout Spey Tips

Here are a few trout spey tips to help you catch more fish while on the water:

  • Certain water is better for swinging than others. Avoid pools and currents where the flow is not even. Swirling current is harder to swing.
  • Don’t be afraid to fish smaller flies, swinging a soft hackle during a hatch can be an effective way to catch rising fish.
  • Cover water!
  • Change your floating, intermediate, and sink tips out depending on conditions and the run you’re fishing. It is important to get your fly in front of fish. Unless the fish are coming up to the surface for your soft hackle, put a sink tip on to get down to the fish. The deeper the run, the heavier tip you need (typically).
  • Concentrate your fishing efforts on mornings and evenings when the sun is off the water. You can catch fish in the middle of the day, but it is less common.

Douglas Trout Spey Rods

Douglas makes a few different high-performance trout spey rods that are perfect for anglers looking to expand their rod locker or are new to trout spey fishing. Below is a list of our trout spey rods:


To test or cast one of our rods, visit a dealer near you or purchase a rod online and have it delivered to your home! All Douglas fly rods come with a lifetime warranty – we have one of the quickest turn arounds on broken rods in the industry!

Sean Snover with Bass

My first choice for cold water bass fishing will always be a jig. I prefer a finesse football jig like the OW Sniper from Beast Coast Fishing in MB Pumpkin, or the Hustler Hybrid Finesse Jig which is also from Beast Coast Fishing, in their Dirt Bag or Bruised colors. For the OW Sniper jig, it earned its keep as my go-to jig because of its unique combination of features. It has a lower than normal 22 strand skirt that is cut to be shorter than a traditional jig, a stout 2/0 BKK hook capable of withstanding the abuse of over 100 angry pre-spawn smallmouth bass on Lake Champlain in a single day, and no brush guard. When paired with a small swimbait or craw type trailer, it becomes subtly bulky, which I find bass prefer often in cold water. Small enough to be easy pickings for them, but big enough to be a meal that warrants the energy expenditure to swim for. On days that I can’t get a bite on this jig, I downsize to the ¼ oz Hustler Hybrid Finesse jig as it provides an even smaller profile, and it has the added benefit of marabou hair to make it more tantalizingly desirable. For me, fishing a football jig is the easiest bait to fish slowly for three reasons. Primarily, the football shaped jig head does a phenomenal job of standing up, presenting your trailer as an easy to find target. Secondly, there’s no guess work as to what the jig is doing. I don’t have to worry or wonder about it like a suspended jerkbait, it just sits on the bottom, waiting to be eaten. Lastly, with a tungsten jig I can feel the bottom composition much more easily, so I know exactly what I’m working the jig through, whether it’s sand, mud, or rocks. Knowing what kind of structure, you are dragging your jig through before you catch a fish greatly helps you to understand the successful pattern for that particular day.

For the OW Sniper in 3/8 oz or ½ oz, I prefer a casting setup, using the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXC 715F casting rod paired with a high gear ratio real and 11.6-15.5 lb Defiant Fishing Heavy Cover fluorocarbon. The DXC 715F to me is like the ultimate boxer, light on their feet but packs a mean uppercut. The fast action has the perfect deflection point that I can cast the lighter 3/8 oz jig a long distance, or sidearm cast a ½ oz jig low with pinpoint accuracy to a spot very close to the boat. But it also has the power that I can confidently set the hook on a fish at the end of a 200-foot cast that’s in 50 feet of water, even with straight fluorocarbon, and keep that fish pinned. It has the perfect balance of finesse and power that I look for in a jig rod that is perfect for year-round fishing, not just the cold-water months.

When it comes to the Hustler Hybrid Finesse jig, I tend to throw the ¼ oz more often than the 3/8 oz, and the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXS 724XF spinning rod is perfect for throwing both. I like this rod for all the same reasons I like the DXC 715F. It’s supple enough to drop this small jig on a dime when I see the perfect boulder at the break of a steep bank, but strong enough to pin and hold big fish from down deep on the longest casts. I will always opt for a braid to leader combination for my spinning setup, starting with Defiant Fishing’s 18 lb. Smooth Casting braid to a 10-15 ft. long leader of Defiant Fishing’s 9.2-11.6 lb. Heavy Cover fluorocarbon.

As much as I love throwing a jig, in my opinion the undisputed champion for cold water is the jerkbait. To be as effective as possible in your cold-water bass fishing endeavors, you really need to be comfortable and confident in fishing suspended jerkbait because of how consistently effective they are. Their ability to stay in place at a specific depth for an extended period is what makes them such excellent fish catchers. This is important for cold water bass as they are not always interested in expending a lot of energy on their meal. If your water temperature is still holding strong in the 30’s, then the bass will still be more lethargic, moving slowly, eventually nosing up to your bait before deciding if they will eat it or not. The subtle but erratic action of the jerkbait will get their attention, but its ability to stay perfectly still – or nearly so – is what ultimately helps you to catch these fish. Presenting itself as a struggling bait fish, it looks like an easy and hearty meal that more of than not, bass just can’t resist. My favorite jerkbait is the Megabass Vision OneTen because I never have to second guess if it’s going to suspend. Without fail, they have worked perfectly as they are right out of the box every time, and their color selections are second to none. Lastly, my go-to color choices for cold water bass fishing are the GP Pro Perch and the GP Pro Blue 2. There’s something about a darker blue jerkbait that always works in cold, stained water. And with perch being highly active in cold water as they are spring spawners, it’s an easy choice to mimic for their main forage.

Sean Snover with Bass

Douglas Outdoors offers several different rods that excel at throwing jerkbaits, whether it’s something smaller like the 3/8 oz. Megabass Vision OneTen Jr., or the bigger and heavier ½ oz. Megabass Vision OneTen+2. For my smaller and lighter jerkbaits, I will reach for the XMATRIX DXC 684F or the similar LRS C684F. I find that I have more control with this rod on lighter jerkbaits, especially if you’re dealing with a moderate amount of wind at most. The power and action lend itself to be ideally suited for a lighter bait. For the bigger and heavier jerkbaits, I opt for the XMATRIX DXC 704M or the similar LRS C704M. This model has a little bit more backbone for good, controlled casts with a heavier bait, but the moderate action has enough give to it that you’re not going to rip the smaller & thinner hooks free if you’re a little overzealous on your hook set. I keep it very simple with the reel & line choice on jerkbait setups, opting for a 6.3:1 gear ratio reel paired with Defiant Fishing’s Soft Casting 9.2 lb. fluorocarbon.

When the weather is in your favor on the day you finally get out on the water, and you’re finding the fish a little shallower or at least in a more active mood, a bladed jig is hard to beat. There’s a myriad variety of bladed jigs on the market, and they all have their pros and cons. For cold water bass fishing, the Z-man Evergreen Chatterbait Jack Hammer has been my top choice since it was released, for the primary reason that it starts vibrating very fast and with very little effort. This is extremely important in that early season cold water because I can achieve an erratic action out of the bait even when retrieving it very slowly. That matters when the weather is in your favor, and the baitfish and bass have pushed up closer to or on top of the shallow flats with the warmest water. With a 3/8 oz Jack Hammer, I can retrieve it slowly over the top of dead vegetation in shallow water where the bass are waiting to ambush, working in a pause to give them time to commit to the bait, without immediately sinking to the bottom. And after that brief pause, it will start vibrating immediately, continuing to keep the bait at the optimal position for the bass to strike.

There are two different ways to approach your rod choice when fishing a bladed jig. Some anglers prefer a rod like the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXC 745F or the LRS C745F. It’s a slightly more supple rod that has some more give, which some argue can help impart even more action into your bladed jigs. Other anglers, such as I, prefer something with more backbone to really set the hook home on a long hook set and keep those fish pinned. My personal preference is the XMATRIX 746XF or the LRS C746XF for those very reasons. I like throwing a bladed jig on fluorocarbon, and because of that, I want a little more power than usual to ensure I’m getting a solid hook set even at the end of the furthest cast. And I have had plenty of days, even fishing in cold water, where a bass has bit within a few feet of hitting the water on an extra-long cast. There are some give and take with your rod choices for a bladed jig, and it all comes down to personal preference in the end. The easiest solution to decide which of the two is best for you? Buy both! Regardless of the rod choice, like my jerkbait setup, I keep my bladed jig setup very simple. I pair a 6.3:1 gear ratio reel with Defiant Fishing’s 18.4 lb. Heavy Cover Fluorocarbon.

Sean Snover with Bass
These three techniques and rod suggestions are just one small portion of the incredible options we have for cold water bass fishing. It’s impossible to capture everything without writing an entire book on the subject. Rather than overwhelm anglers looking to dive into the cold-water season, I did my best to keep your potential choices to a minimum, while still providing information backed by many years of consistent success from myself and many other anglers in the northeast. Ultimately, every angler must find what works best for them, and the only way to do that is to spend every opportunity that you have on the water and go through some trial and error. This information will absolutely help to narrow down that search though, and not only maximize your time on the water, but save you money, knowing you’re getting great gear for these applications. I certainly hope you found the information helpful, and I wish you all the best of luck this spring. Dress warmly, use the buddy system, wear your PFD’s, and remember to have fun!