This Redington Dually Fly Rod Review is an in-depth, no-nonsense, true review. This is a real-life, on-the-water testing of this rod that has been personally cast many, many, many times.

The Redington Dually is a cost-effective line of 2-handed rods (switch and spey) that claim to offer affordable performance to the masses. This seems to be Redington’s general mantra, so we’ll put the rod to the test and see how it stands up.

As an avid fly fisher for 35 years, a professional guide for the last 15, and an experienced fishing destination traveler, I’ve seen my share of rods come and go. I’ve seen those that can handle the situation and those that fall flat. This is my honest review of a rod that I have gained plenty of experience with.

Watch The Redington Dually Fly Rod Review

Why Trust My Redington Dually Fly Rod Review?

This review of the Redington Dually is a proper and true review. There is no speculation here. Hours and hours, days, and weeks have been logged. It’s been cast every which way ‘til Sunday and even hauled in some bruisers!

As an avid angler and a professional guide, I get to see firsthand the true performance of a lot of equipment and how each item stacks up against another option. When guiding, not only do I get to test things myself, but I also get to witness how these items work for a myriad of styles and anglers, green and seasoned.

Redington Dually Review: How I Reviewed & Tested The Rod

The Redington Dually has been around for a few seasons now. I have owned and cast other Sage and Redington two-hand rods, but this is my first ever use and review of Redington’s Dually.

When we’re testing these rods, we like to set up a lot of different scenarios. Two hand rods are pretty hard to cast on a dry land situation. Unlike single-hand rods, you can’t just go into the grass like at a soccer field, baseball field, or your backyard. 

You need some water to make a water-loaded cast on these kinds of rods. So the local river, lake, pond, or even swimming pool will work. Being able to stand in the water is best.

We like to set up different targets at different distances. I used it as a nymph rod. I used it as a spey rod to see how well it works in both scenarios. Of course, I was hoping to catch some fish too!

The Dually I’m using for this review is the generation II,  11’ 6” 7wt version which lands in the switch rod category. Theoretically, I could cast it one-handed, although,  it’s a little long and heavy for that if you ask me. 

Switch means you can “switch” it up and do both. It’s intended to cover a wide gamut of use scenarios.

I paired it with a 450-grain Rio Switch line made specifically for switch rods in the 7-8wt range. I loadedn the line on my Sage Spectrum 8wt reel to round out this setup. Redington, Sage, and Rio are all Farbank companies and usually work very well together.

Redington Dually Pros

Redington is known for making decent, cost-effective fly gear for the masses. Lately, it seems their aesthetic and marketing are geared toward younger fly fishers who may not have a lot of expendable income yet or folks who wish to pick up a few different rods vs. spending all their available funds on one higher-end rod.

The Dually seems to fit a niche of the above-mentioned market that wants to venture into or has recently begun a journey into spey/switch casting.

Cost Effective

It’s hard to beat the price. You’re getting a lot of rod for not a lot of money. This is a really decent rod and the price point makes it even more attractive. 

Lots of Coverage

You’ve got a lot of different sizes to cover you from the trout spey sizes,  the switch game, all the way up to the full spey rod sizes. Redington’s site makes it very easy to see which rod works for which scenarios you want to tackle and helps you make an informed decision.

Easy to Find the Sweet Spot

This medium-fast action rod makes it easy to find the sweet spot and deliver a good solid cast. You’re not fighting to find the sweet spot like newer/less experienced casters might with a faster action rod. 

A fast rod can be kind of difficult, really hard to push, and/or needs tight or perfect casts. This med/fast is much more user-friendly. And on the other hand, it’s not so slow that you’re not going to get any power behind your casts.

Redington Dually Cons

Not everything can be peachy-keen, especially with budget-friendly rods and the Dually is no different. There were a lot of upsides but a couple of negatives added some variables to my Redington Dually Fly Rod review.

Not the Lightest Rod 

It does feel just a little bit heavier than other rods in this category. And now this is in a different category than the Reddington Claymore, but the Reddington Claymore has a little bit less weight to it.

The Claymore has a little bit less weight in the hand feel as well, but it’s not going to kill you. You may feel a little more fatigued after a few full days but it’s marginal and you’d have to do a side-by-side comparison to even notice.

Accuracy isn’t Spot On

It’s accurate-ish but not super accurate. The physics of a longer rod makes it inherently less accurate than shorter rods, say a 8’6” or 9’ rod.

Compared side-by-side to other two-hand models that have some added torsional rigidity or other dampening/stabilizing tech, you may notice. But those rods are most likely going to cost you a lot more to get your hands on.

Again, if you’re just starting in the spey or switch game, you’re not really gonna notice and it’s not gonna matter to you…yet. Other rods at this price point are going to feel similar or even worse. So it’s not a deal killer.

What’s In The Box?

The unboxing of the Redington Dually Fly Rod is pretty straightforward. At this price point, you’ll get the 4 piece fly rod that comes in a Cordura fly rod tube with a zippered end.

The Rod

The Redington Dually looks nicely aesthetic out of the rod tube. The 11’ 6” 7wt  tested was in the standard brown/brown gray blank with copper and blue wraps. The lettering font on the rod and reel seat is a nod to the Maximalist/Art Deco era. 

The rods have good, clean, light-colored cork in a double wells handle with a fighting butt. The addition of composite cork at the handle ends will  add longevity to the handle. The reel seat is a nice copper color with the Dually insignia stamped on top.

The overall rod visual and hand feel say it’s a nice rod, especially for the price.

Rod Tube

The rod tubes at this price point will almost always be Cordura (a long-lasting, abrasion-resistant woven nylon) over a hard plastic tube. The Redington Dually sticks with that tradition.

The standard Dually comes in a bright blue rod tube. The Special Edition Dually will come in a purple rod tube.

The inside of the tube is pre-divided into sections to keep your rod pieces separate and scratch/ding-free. This is different from other rod tubes where you’d have to pull a separate rod sleeve out of the tube to open and retrieve your rod.

This is both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation. It’s nice not to have to open multiple items to get to the rod or to misplace a rod sleeve. 

However, when traveling, I often leave the rod tubes behind in lieu of my carry-on “rod locker” that can hold many rods at once.

Using a rod sleeve in the travel case is a must. In my situation, I had to buy a separate rod sleeve for traveling with my carry-on travel rod case.

Redington Predator Specs

Understanding all you can about a rod before making a purchase is a big help. The technical specs for each rod help give some real insight into what you might expect from the rod while fishing. Nothing compares to real-world experience, however.

• Available Lengths & Weights:  Trout spey:10’ 6” 3-4wt,  switch: 11’ 5-6wt, 11’ 6” 7-8wt,  Spey:12’ 6” 6-7wt or a 13’ 6” 7-8wt
• Reddington also gives you a choice of a special purple edition: You can choose that purple edition in the 11’ 6”  7wt, 12’ 6”  7 wt, or 13’ 6” 7wt.
• Action: Medium Fast

• Pieces: 4
• Blank Material: Graphite
• Measured Reference Weights: My 11’ 6” 7wt weighed 6.9oz on my scale. The listed weights online are 5.1, 5.4, 5.5, 5.9, and 6.9 respectively.
• Stripping Guides: Hardened Chrome with Zirconium inserts for glide
• Snake Guides: Hardened chrome
• Reel Seat: Anodized aluminum
• Handle: Material and style: 2 Hand style, cork handles with composite handle ends
• Rod Tube: Materials Cordura nylon with interior rod section dividers, zipper, and label
• Rod Sock: Not included.
• Price: $299-$319

Redington Predator Fly Rod Review: How The Rod Feels

I ended up taking this rod on a steelhead trip to get plenty of casting practice. I set up the aforementioned casting scenarios and did a ton of fishing with this rod. If you know anything about steelhead fishing, you get A LOT of casts in a day. 

Overall Weight

The overall weight of this 11’ 6” 7wt was 6.9 oz. From the comparisons I did, this landed right in the middle of the pack. Some rods (even the Redington Claymore) were a little lighter while others like the TFO models were a bit heavier.

Swing Weight

I found no information on the swing weight of this Dually. With two-hand rods, the longer length adds swing weight but the technique itself means that swing weight will be inherently higer that a single-hand rod but  is a bit less important.

A lighter overall rod can save you energy in a day but also, lines, reels, and rods in the two-hand game are just inherently heavier.

Action

Redington lists this rod as a mid-fast action. After lots and lots and lots of casts, I’d have to say this is an accurate label.  

Power

Most casts felt rather easy and powerful. A big rod like this is made to handle heavy setups, lines, flies, etc, and must be built with a good amount of power behind it. 

The mid-fast action makes getting powerful shots a bit easier but it does hinder the long-distance power a touch.

Presentation

Water entry is less of a worry with two-hand rods. It’s going to be splashy! Your presentation during the swing or mending a big nymph setup is much more important.

As for mending while drifting a nymph setup, the length makes it easy to roll plenty of line upstream,  downstream, or combo mending to account for varied currents,

While swinging, this particular switch rod feels just a touch short but does have a good feel in the swing.  The tip is sensitive enough to feel the action of the fly. 

So nymphing presentation was a sinch but, as for spey, longer spey-specific rods will do better with this.

Redington Dually Warranty

Redington is always great with their unconditional lifetime warranty. After that,  $25 gets you a new tip. $50 covers any other repair. Discontinued models will cost $95 to repair.

Casting The Redington Dually

Like all rods, casting the Redington Duyally fly rod at different distances produced some varied results. This Redington Dually rod review showed the following: 

First, I started with a winter steelhead nymph/indicator rig which is a heavy setup. You can’t false cast in the air like a single-hand rod with a dry fly. The loops won’t stay up in the air if I’m false casting like a traditional trout fly rod.

So you have roll cast or “plop” cast. Plop casting is just laying the back cast out on the water, and lay the forward cast out on the water.  

You can go back and forth if I need to build up some distance.  You’ll let a little line out on the back cast, hit the water, let more out on the forward cast, and repeat a few times until you’ve built up proper distance. 

The best thing about the two-hand rod is that it saves steps and energy. 

While my brothers were all casting single-hand 8wt rods and making a whole lot of extra motions to get the proper distance and drift, all I had to do with my switch rod was to spin my hands around to get a powerful back cast, then reverse for a powerful forward cast. 

The hand-reversal technique is similar for roll casts as well. I would say the ratio was 1-4 or 2-5. This means for every 5 motions my brothers had to make to get a drift, I made two!

0-20 Feet

Anything under 20 feet isn’t gonna be doable as far as loading the rod. All you’ll really need to do with this long of a rod and this heavy of a line is a roll or plop-cast technique. 

You’re not gonna get a lot of flex on the rod, but at least it’s gonna get out there and you can fish close in. The short shots aren’t gonna be anything that you’ll be concerned with with this rod. There’s not much casting skill involved. 

20-40 Feet

From 20-40ft you’ll finally have enough of your heavier spey/switch rod outside the rod tip to make a proper, rod-loaded cast. The weight of the setup will allow you to feel the rod flexing and working for you here. 

Roll casting in this range was also a breeze!

40-60 Feet

40-60 feet seems to be the sweet spot on this particular rod. I didn’t find myself over-efforting any cast here.

This distance had plenty of line/line weight out of the rod tip without feeling like I had to work hard at all. The rod was easy to load and the casts were crisp and laid out nicely.

60+ Feet

After pounding quite a few long shots, over 60 felt just fine. 70 feet wasn’t too much effort either. When nymphing past 70ft (as one might while steelheading a broad river) power began to fall off. 

This might be expected with a lower-priced rod in a mid to mid-fast category. A faster, more technical rod can often feel a bit more crisp on longer launches if you know how to find its sweet spot.

Spey Casting

So what if you’re doing a spey-type cast? 

Swinging for steelhead had been slow locally but I decided to get some practice casts in and also try swinging for some fish. I ditched the bobber and went to my Rio Skagit tips to see how this 11’ 6” 7wt Dually Fly Rod handled a more traditional spey and swing.

While plenty of fish can be found close in, with spey casting, you’re not usually making really short shots.  You’ll mostly look to cast mid-current, ¾ across, or even to the far bank and let the current swing the line across and down to end/hang directly downstream of where you’re standing. 

Overall, I found this Dually had a pretty decent casting feel with different casting techniques and a good feel through the drift in the swing. The tip is sensitive enough that I can feel things moving, but it doesn’t feel like it’s a noodle either. 

• D Loop Casts: Decent feel/load, probably the best feeling spey cast on this rod
• Snap T Casts: Not too bad on this Dually although a longer rod may help a little here
• Perry Poke: Similar to the D loop in feel but the traditional D loop still felt better.

Other Rods That Compare To The Redington Dually

If you’re looking at the Dually, you’re probably looking at a few other rods too. You might be looking at the TFO PRO III-2 hand model or you might be looking at the Echo Swing Switch.  Both are reputable rods and, of course, are comparable to the Dually.

• TFO Pro III – 2 Hand: $350, composite cork handle with EVA foam tips, graphite blank, anodized aluminum hardware. 11’ 7wt weighs 6.0oz.
• Echo Swing Switch: $275, graphite blank, cork handle, mid-fast action. For comparison, the 11’ 7” 7wt weighs 7.7oz.

Who is the Redington Dually Fly Rod For?

This is a perfect rod for anybody who’s looking to start a switch or spey journey or has just some idea of how it works.  Trout, steelhead, and salmon are the most intended targets with this setup but I’ve also seen these rods used for river smallmouth and also for surf casting or big lake casting.

It’s a little bit slower than Sage rods or other Redingtons like the Claymore. Those fast action rods can be a little bit harder to find the sweet spot when you’re casting and you need to know what you’re doing a little bit better.

A rod like this Dually with Its medium-fast action is more forgiving in the cast for beginner and lower intermediate spey/switch fisherpeople and will most likely lend itself to a less frustrating experience compared to fast/technical rods.

Redington Dually Review: My Personal Thoughts

I had this rod out on the water for a few days and  made a lot of cast. If you know anything about steelhead fishing, you’re just casting, casting, and casting all the time.

I fished this thing for three days straight and I found some great stuff about it and I found some stuff that could be improved, but that’s the way it is with any rod. 

When it comes to blending value and performance, however, Redinginton is usually a good bet.

There have been plenty of rods from Redington that I thought underperformed even a value-minded rod, but this isn’t one. My review of the Redington Duall 11’ 6” 7wt fly rod shows it’s a great rod with a smooth casting feel and plenty of power for a fantastic price!

FAQs About Redington Dually Fly Rod

Here are some FAQs about Redington and the Dually lineup:

Conclusion

My Redington Dually Fly Rod review showed that this rod is very relevant in the two-hand-rod conversation. With cost, performance, and ease of use in mind, this is a solid rod for new to intermediate two-handers.

Switch rods are kind of funny because they do cover single-hand and two-hand techniques but they don’t do either one extremely well. 

A spey version of the Dually (say a 12’ 6” 7 or 8wt) would be much better for spey casting but not so great for single-hand techniques like nymphing. 

A shorter 9’ or even 10’ rod may be better for nymphing but isn’t going to work for spey casting and falls short when attempting to fish on the swing.

However, if you’re on the hunt for a two-hander that won’t break the bank and has more performance than its price tag, I think you’ll like the Redington Dually quite well!

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