I've done quite a bit of that all with a 14' spey rod. Its a home built rod from Cabela blanks and oversized SIC guides. I guess you'd say I've had modest success with the method. But I'm the exception and have reason to believe, for whatever reason, you get more solid hook ups with the shorter one handed rods most guys use for drift fishing. I just like using that long rod. Now I'm trying a 12.5' temple fork spey rod that I like a lot better but don't have enough experience with it yet to tell about hook ups. Besides, I'm swinging flies almost exclusively these days. Hope that helps.
Some time ago I was fortunate enough to be in brief correspondence with a very successful salmon/steelhead fisherman. While this man mainly swings flies, we did talk about equipment and he said he preferred this 11' 3" spey rod that was designed for both single and double hand use. I'm almost certain he told me it was an Orvis built rod. As I said regarding my newer 12.5' spey rod, the jury is still out to a large extent. But its use has demonstrated to me that a length somewhere in this range is probably optimal, and certainly better than the 14' rod I was using.
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