The Fly Fishing Place Spey Pages: What Is A Skagit Cheater?
WHAT IS A SKAGIT CHEATER?
Good question! Skagit Cheaters are simply extensions of line that are used to maintain a speycaster's favorite rod length to line length ratio. One principle of Skagit casting is that you want to maintain a constant ratio between the rod length and the head length of the line. This ratio is usually in the 2.5/3.5 to 1 range. Every caster is different and will find their own sweet casting ratio with practice and river experience.
Just as an example, let’s say you like a ratio of 3:1. A 12 ft rod would require 36 ft of line (including the Skagit head and the tip) and a 15 ft rod will require 45 ft. By following this ratio, it means that you never need to adjust your casting stroke, regardless of which rod you are Skagit casting with. If your Skagit head matched to your 12 foot rod is 27 feet long, you can add a 10 foot tip and you get 37 feet, which means there is no cheater needed. The next day, you decide to use your 14 foot rod, so to maintain your favored ratio your line should be 42 feet long. With a 10 foot tip, the total length of your Skagit head is only 37 feet, so to keep your favorite rod to line length ratio you would want to add a 5 foot Skagit Cheater (27 + 5 + 10 = 42). Pretty simple (well, after a bit of work!)
What Is A Spey Rod?
What Is The Difference Between A Spey Rod And A Switch Rod?
Traditional Spey Fly Lines
Skagit Spey Shooting Heads
Scandinavian Spey Shooting Heads
Which Spey Line Should I Use? Comparing Traditional, Skagit and Scandi Spey Lines
Do All Skagit Shooting Heads Require an Additional Tip?
What is a Poly Leader or Versileader?
Back To Spey Pages Index
qsc/products/wst.qsc.a5c8f697-6730-4a00-b5a9-aed6f5235a07.xml
The River Spey, Scotland
Warning: file_get_contents(qsc/categories/e9a5fc11-26b7-427a-876c-4672220093f9.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/chroot/home/content/k/a/r/karynnick4/html/plugins/qscfeedreader/ss_Q2RcOne7A_KZcJvEvf6rgQZbQ00_l9pWo3fnzAE.php on line 263
ERROR - could not open category XML file
Warning: file_get_contents(qsc/categories/20294a74-830a-4c13-ad2f-a3e656169b37.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/chroot/home/content/k/a/r/karynnick4/html/plugins/qscfeedreader/ss_Q2RcOne7A_KZcJvEvf6rgQZbQ00_l9pWo3fnzAE.php on line 263
ERROR - could not open category XML file
Warning: file_get_contents(qsc/categories/bfadb611-efea-4b18-b1ca-3cdf55872e48.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/chroot/home/content/k/a/r/karynnick4/html/plugins/qscfeedreader/ss_Q2RcOne7A_KZcJvEvf6rgQZbQ00_l9pWo3fnzAE.php on line 263
ERROR - could not open category XML file
