pbourcq
08-27-09, 08:47 PM
2 weeks ago I had a very very vague knowledge of spey casting. I heard the term spey cast and assumed it meant some guy somewhere in the Pacific Northwest doing very flowery casts for steelhead. As a tournament fisherman and caster I enjoy casting as much if not more than the next guy. With that said, I am amazed that i did not learn what spey/ switch casting really was. Thanks to a very generous friend (thanks clyde) who came up and taught me these technicques I am confident now that i have the tools to present flies in almost any situation.
There is a particular section of a stream by my house that is very hard to fish. There is overhanging rhodo on it on both sides. Ive had fair success just firing into gaps in the brush on the bank. I fished it for a few minutes today. I was on the dangle downstream, one snake roll, one nice low v loop, a nice flat forward stroke with a little haul at the end and voila, I just laid out 40 feet of line under 2.5 feet of fly jungle. The best part of it was that i didnt think about it, i just fired and it worked. I laughed to myself and realized things had changed. I by no means am a great caster be it spey or traditional but let me leave you with this.
EVERY cast done with a double hand rod can be done with a single hand rod of any size from 0-15 weight.
Traditional, Scandinavian, Skagit are all styes of spey casts. The cast are rougly the same only the rods and lines are different.
A "switch rod" is just a short spey rod. These are made in 10 and 11 foot 3 weights and up. These style rods are also stellar for nymphing. the handles tend to be shorter also.
All a spey cast is is an energized roll cast with a change of direction.
If at any point in time you were reading about spey casting and "thats ok and all but we just dont have rivers big enough for that" went through your head then you are misinformed the same as I was.
Spey casting uses WAAYYYY less energy than traditional casting.
If youve never shot 100 foot of line with no back cast on a Skagit head and still bumped the reel, you should, its pretty cool.
If anybody has any questions I will try to answer them the best i can. Hopefully this will help anybody that was hesitant like myself to go ahead and try it. You will be happy you did.
There is a particular section of a stream by my house that is very hard to fish. There is overhanging rhodo on it on both sides. Ive had fair success just firing into gaps in the brush on the bank. I fished it for a few minutes today. I was on the dangle downstream, one snake roll, one nice low v loop, a nice flat forward stroke with a little haul at the end and voila, I just laid out 40 feet of line under 2.5 feet of fly jungle. The best part of it was that i didnt think about it, i just fired and it worked. I laughed to myself and realized things had changed. I by no means am a great caster be it spey or traditional but let me leave you with this.
EVERY cast done with a double hand rod can be done with a single hand rod of any size from 0-15 weight.
Traditional, Scandinavian, Skagit are all styes of spey casts. The cast are rougly the same only the rods and lines are different.
A "switch rod" is just a short spey rod. These are made in 10 and 11 foot 3 weights and up. These style rods are also stellar for nymphing. the handles tend to be shorter also.
All a spey cast is is an energized roll cast with a change of direction.
If at any point in time you were reading about spey casting and "thats ok and all but we just dont have rivers big enough for that" went through your head then you are misinformed the same as I was.
Spey casting uses WAAYYYY less energy than traditional casting.
If youve never shot 100 foot of line with no back cast on a Skagit head and still bumped the reel, you should, its pretty cool.
If anybody has any questions I will try to answer them the best i can. Hopefully this will help anybody that was hesitant like myself to go ahead and try it. You will be happy you did.