George Cook’s King Quiver

So far our posts on Kanektok king rigs have focused on our friends’ go-to setups for a typical day on the water, but many Kanektok king anglers like to be have more weapons than a single go-to rig. George Cook is one of those guys.

Here’s an overview of George’s quiver, with a little bit of the justification for each setup.

‘Small Ball’

• Sage 8129-4 Z-Axis
• Rio Skagit 600 body, no cheater
• Sage 6010 reel
• “If there gets to be a bunch of wind, I’m taking the shorter rod. It’s much less affected by the wind. I’ll also fish the 8129 because it packs a ton of power in a short amount of stick but leaves less daily strain on the caster.”

Go-To Rig

• Sage 9140-4 TCX
• Rio Skagit 700 body, 5 foot cheater
• Tibor Riptide
• “This rig represents the return of a traditional great king rod. This is the heir to the throne of the vaunted 9141-4. It’s the new .30-06 of spey rods – powerful and versatile.”

‘Long Ball’

• Sage 10150-4 or 10160-4 Z-Axis “depending on how much Advil is in my boat bag”
• Rio Skagit 750, 5 foot cheater
• Tibor Spey
• “This is the rod you reach for when you need to cover a lot of ground.”
• “Even the 15 and 16’ rods are still best suited with a 5’ cheater, although the 7.5’ cheater can have its place. It’s my option than the usability of the 7.5′ is greater when the sinktip length is in the 7-11′ range vs the 11 – 15’ range.”
• “On this rig I’ll go with a shooting line setup like the GuideLine or the ’secret society’ type setup that uses a straight mono running line like Berkeley Trilene Big Game mono. This rig is all about covering ground, so the running line applies here.”

AFS Setup

• Sage 8129-4 Z-Axis
• Rio AFS 8/9 hover head
• Sage 6010 reel
• “This very well may become the rig of choice, just because this is one of the more wicked casting setups of all time. The one caveat to this AFS type of rig is that fly size and weight has to be scrutinized with a tighter eye than the throw-it-all Skagit format. But there’s some neat lighter-dressed flies like the Hobo Spey, the Scott Howell signature intruders, and overall lighter-dressed flies that will work just fine.”

Tagged as: Expert Rigs, George Cook, Kanektok River, King Salmon, Quivers, Rods