throwit

Hard to nail down specific color paterns.  When I sit down to tie anything goes as far as colors.  Usually the normal steelhead colors.  Pink, orange, green, yellow head with black, white, purple, olive, green bodies.  White body with black schlapen hackle and pink marabou tale was a good one for me last spring.  I just go ahead and mix and match whatever.  Im not really much of a perfectionist when it comes time to tieing.

Egg sucking leeches and wooly buggers. Sizes 6 to 12.  You can dead drift them, swing them, twitch them.  They just plain work for me.  Easy to tie and easy to fish.  I tie them with eyes, rubber legs, rabbit strip tails, marabou, schlapen.... I love the style.  And always some small size 12 and 14 single egg flies.  When the presure is on, fishing the small micro eggs can work magic.  I cant wait to start the swing game.......

Yes a skagit line is more "clunky".  The scandi lines tend to be longer and leaner.  For myself the skagit fits the style of fishing I like to do the most.  I like the foolproof nature of the skagit.  The skagit seems to rip and thow with ease.  Im sure there are scandi guys that can do the same.  Its all what you like.  Try both and see.  Most good fly shops should let you try before you buy.

That is on my to do list.  Good luck and keep us posted.

Just my own experience.  I fish pretty much all southern Ontario rivers.  I started with a 13 foot cannonish rod.  It was great to fish with that thing.  Untill I picked up a 11 foot switch rod.  It seems that now every time I head out I take the switch.  I feel like my switch setup can do 90% of the things I need very well.  The other 10% it does with a little extra effort.  Also the switch got much better when I changed from a skagit short to a skagit switch line with mow tips.  Dam  I cant wait to get out there this season.  Give me the tug drugggg......