DECHO 4 weight

[Chris Wilson]

I picked up a DECHO 11'6'' 4 weight last month with an Airflo 330 gr. head. Just had it out yesterday for a test drive.

It's more through-action more than I'm used to but after I got control of the tip I was in pretty good shape. For me I have to get the tip farther back on the through action rods for some reason. Whenever I could remember that it cast just fine. The Compact Airflo head could be a bit lighter for this rod, I'll probably drop down to 300 gr. heads for a floater.

Overall, it's a nice little rod for smallmouth or shad in the Mid-Atlantic. I was tossing a sinking leader and conehead streamer in 20 mph headwinds, sunk lines and small beads for shad should be right up it's alley.

For the price, you can't beat it for a light line Spey.

-Chris

-Chris

[fishtech]

Hi Chris: I'm thinking about getting one of those DECHO rods to use as my "summer rod" on the Salmon River. Not sure if I'll get the 4 weight or the 5 weight. A couple questions for you:
What do you mean by "through-action" Are you saying these rods are "slow" or "medium"?
What size conehead streamer were you able to toss?
Right now I'm leaning towards the 5 weight but appreciate your input. Thanks!
- Paul

[Nick Pionessa]

thanks for the review Chris, still a bit frozen and now high here so i've gotten in very little testing on the new stuff.

FT the decho's are definitely a medium action and bend right down to the cork easily. an action i'm not used to at all but after using them last season i got to like that deep, slow load. they do have a very quick recovery and i think that makes me like them more than some of the older speys out there that were slow actions and slow recoveries.

[Chris Wilson]

I'd be looking at the 5 weight or even one step up on the Salmon. Never know what you're going to stab there. I'd look towards Nick for some guidance regarding how much of a step up the 5 weight is. My "other light spey" is a 6/7 and is perfect on the Salmon and throws about 400-425 grain heads perfect and isn't too heavy for summer work.

I thought the 4 may hold up for GL steelhead when I had my first waggle with it but I did snag a few 18-20" cats on the Potomac and that little rod bent right over. It's exactly what I want for spring shad and most of my smallmouth fishing.

The action is through as I said, but it's not a wobbly or slow recovery. That's why I'm able to toss a head with it. For me the key is to "hug the rod" like Henrik Mortensen, because I'm used to a fairly long long-belly stroke. Once I toned it down I was in good shape. The streamer was probably a #2, but was a bucktail tube and small cone combination tied sparse so it wasn't that heavy. I was using a sunk leader too, so add on those extra grains too.

Once I'm through with the dialing in process it'll be a perfect little rod for any fish under 24".

-Chris