My love for the infamous Deer Creek runs deep. The first steelhead I ever caught was a Deer Creek summer steelhead. I will never forge...
After college, I spent a year working on a private tree farm that encompassed the upper Deer Creek watershed. I spent my lunch breaks next to the creek, watching schools of wild steelhead do their thing, uninhibited by anglers. Years later, that same tree farm is where one of several landslides turned a once pristine crystal clear creek into a muddy, silt-laden stream, unable to produce the numbers of wild steelhead that once made it famous. I hope that I had no part in that. Those special fish are struggling to survive, but the name remains a symbol of the resiliency of the fish that are working to recover from the disasters that have threatened it.
I bought my first Deer Creek two-handed (spey) rod over ten years ago, when they first arrived on the market. I was not super impressed with the original models. They were OK, fast, stiff, but mostly lifeless. It wasn't just that rod, it was a theme among two-handed rods as their designs were in their infancy at that time. I can't say that it was worse than any other rod on the market at that point. As the design improved over the generations, the rods became significantly nicer. The latest model is a force to be reckoned with.
I feel lucky that I am able to get time on the water with just about any rod that I want to play with, and I have my favorites. Not all of them are $1000. Now that I think about it, only one of my many spey rods is a "top shelf" rod. Even though this Deer Creek rod does not command the price tag of some of the bigger names, it's as good as a switch rod gets, especially for the situation that it was built for. I borrowed the 11' 7 wt. switch rod to demo for an evening in June and have not given it back yet, just put it on my tab... Working at a fly shop can get expensive!
Deer Creek steelhead love small, traditional flies on dry lines; actually they are known to eat dry flies, skated or dead drifted. My first steelhead ate a #12 yellow Stimulator on a dead drift. The second ate a skated Turk's Tarantula, and the third ate a greased up Muddler Minnow. The Deer Creek switch rod pays homage to these fish; it is built to throw dry lines with smaller flies, and it does it very well.
I am usually not a fan of fast rods, but this is one that does it right. Fast, but not terribly stiff, it responds very well to a minimal load with a shorter stroke. Scandi heads fly with ease, and traditional flies land soft and accurately. I like a rod that is just as easy to cast after 4 hours as it is after 4 minutes. Other fast rods that I have owned or fished have become sluggish after a couple of hours (OK, I'm the one getting sluggish). I get tired and then my timing gets off. I find that fast rods have a small window for error. Tired anglers aren't usually that crisp with their delivery, and at times can struggle with fast rods. Then the day gets frustrating. I have not found this to be true at all with this rod. This rod has nice "recovery". It is easy to cast all day long and I have been very happy with it so far.
I have tried a few different lines on this rod, and the one that I keep coming back to is Rio's Scandi Short Versitip. While I rarely, if ever, use the sinking tips, I like having the option to do so if needed. I have tried an OPST Commando 375 grain head, a Rio Skagit Short 425, an old Airflo Delta Spey II, a Scientific Anglers' Triple Density Scandi head and a #9 Rio Powerfly, but keep coming back to the Scandi Short Versitip. This rod was meant to cast a light line, and it accels at doing so.
It throws a Skagit head well, but I wouldn't buy this rod with the intent of using it as a primary winter steelhead rod. I prefer a deeper loading rod for big winter steelhead flies and sink tips, and there are better rods out there for that, but this rod would be more than ample to get you through the winter if you only had one choice.
I am usually not one that cares about the color or overall aesthetics of a rod, as long as it casts well. There are some really bad rods out there that are dressed up with fancy cork and paint jobs to cover up the bad design, and there are plenty of very sweet rods that have no frills. Gary Loomis' Edge rod is an example of the latter. A very fine rod with no paint, fancy looking cork or anything else. Just a damn good rod. The Deer Creek is both a great casting rod and a great looking rod. The finish is fantastic, the cork look good and is easy to grip, and it has a very nice overall look.I have not landed a steelhead as of yet on this rod. I have had a few shots and one to my feet, but Ben may have dropped a cooler on it when we were loading up the car a few weeks ago, so my desire to land a summer steelhead on this rod will have to wait until the rod comes back from warranty/repair/replace.
While steelhead numbers have been dismal this year in the Columbia River, our local rivers in the Gorge are producing fish better than nearly all of the other Columbia River tributaries. I have been giving this rod a workout on the Klickitat, reaching the other bank with no problems, and putting it behind that one big rock with ease. While a bit small for a big river like the Deschutes, it can get the job done. This is otherwise a perfect rod for chasing summer steelhead and is getting fully inserted into my starting lineup, as soon as I get it fixed...
-Andrew Perrault
