Along with those lines came a new style of casting created to lift those heavy systems. While you are likely to see anglers here in the East fishing them with one hand and often nymphing, you will also see anglers in Colorado swinging flies for trout, in much the same way anglers in the Northwest target steelhead. Whether you are a single-hand or two-hand caster, you’ll find this interesting. The difference between a spey, switch, and traditional single-hand rod isn’t in the length. I recently shared an older article about choosing a line for your switch rod as a Sunday Classic. When Spey casting was introduced, 22-foot (6.7 m) rods were used. The “T” is the tungsten material it’s made of and the “7” being the sink rate in inches. Spey casting offers the advantage of allowing the caster to throw their line long distances in a straight line. Doing a little bit of everything does not do any one thing very well. There are, of course, slower and faster spey rods, but in general they are slower than single-hand rods. Now a contributor to Fly Lords Mag. Scott is known for his enthusiasm, passion, and sense of humor. April Vokey’s 3 Tips for Improving your Spey Cast, Tips for Small Water Great Lakes Steelhead. These are 6-8 WTs used for medium to large rivers, they usually reach around 12ft to 13ft in length and excel in using today’s high-tech short heads and are the perfect choice for steelhead and salmon or when more line weight is needed to toss larger flies or deal with high winds. It is in particular associated with its namesake river, the River Spey. I suppose you could grab your single-hander a foot up the blank, but you’d be defeating the action of the rod. It’s not helpful to folks who are getting into 2 hand casting to muddy the water with non-specific terms based on how we feel about our rods. There are a variety of lines, but to get you started a Scandi and a Skagit are a great way to start. It has the veritable who’s who of Spey casting instructors, featuring the likes of Simon Gawesworth, George Cook, Dana Sturn, Mike McCune, Ed Ward, and Scott O’Donnell. This style of casting became known as spey casting, for the Spey River where it was born. Our goal is simple: inspire the next generation to get outdoors and hit the water! Switch rods were born around the 1970s and took a while to catch on. Rio's Spey Casting DVD, SA's Spey to Z DVD and John Hazels Spey Fishing Steelhead are also very helpful visuals. I’m used to fishing brown trout, typically 2 to 5 lbs on a 5 WT standard fly rod on which I use a 6 WT FF line. This makes them easier to load using casts which don’t involve backcasting. New YETI Presents 2020 Collection Premiering on Youtube, Colorado Man Takes Winter Fly Fishing to New Level, 2021 F3T Behind the Lens: Dropped in the Pacific. In recent years several companies, like Winston for example, started making rods they called micro-spey rods. This gives you powerful leverage to manage that long rod and better body mechanics for casting. Buy a Skagit line if: you are a winter steelheader, you routinely throw big flies and heavy tips, backcasting room is minimal on your rivers, you can only have one spey … The idea was, and is, that an angler could cast these rods with one hand or two, depending on the situation and their objectives. ... ©2020 MW Spey… The Spey cast is a roll cast that includes a change of direction. They call them Trout Spey or Micro Spey and they range from 1-5 WTs, however, they are still 10.5 to 11.5ft long and can be lined up with up to 390-grain lines. It is important to note that spey casting and spey rods are two ideas, separate but associated. With a Scandi head, they struggle to throw large heavy flies and strong winds. If streamers are your thing, then you will need a Skagit line. Tips for Scandi lines are more manageable and mendable on the water, as they’re lighter and can’t throw as large of a fly. Better line control - Being longer, two-hand rods manage and control your fly line much better than conventional fly rods. For a few years, the development of smaller spey rods—typically 11 1/2 feet or smaller and lighter in weight—geared towards two-handed spey casting, but on a similar scale, predominated. You will want to try either a Switch rod or a Spey rod, both have their advantages and disadvantages. They all have helped the sport grow and change the face of two-handed casting as we know it today, whether its rod building, lines, tips for the casting style, and everything in between. Spey … First, let’s look at what makes a Spey cast. They are designed to be cast … This is the most difficult challenge, deciding how you are going to fish or more importantly where. These rods were born of necessity. They are still used by a lot of anglers today and have their advantages. They are long rods, 12 feet six inches or longer, with upper and lower grips, intended for casting with two hands. Start with the word ‘scab’. A good saltwater rod and a sweet fiberglass rod are less alike than a switch and a micro-spey but we call them both fly rods. test tagline content. But, I’m hesitant to embrace that idea for 2 reasons. A Scandi line is a longer head (20 to 40ft) and tapers to the tip, allowing for a delicate touch. Simon’s “Modern Spey Casting” is the best instructional DVD on spey casting ever produced.Learn the basics as well as these casts: roll cast, switch cast, single spey, double spey, snap T, snake roll, wombat cast, perry poke, jelly roll, skagit casts, underhand cast, spiral spey, overhead cast, single handed spey … There is an inherent compromise at work in switch rods. It allows the angler to make long casts without a lot of room for a back cast. Spey casting is a fly casting technique dating back hundreds of years, originating in Scotland. Skagit casting has a long history before arriving here in North America in the mid-’80s. These rods are made for flicking flies upstream and usually do not perform any other cast well. If you’re not sure how you want to fish, just like with single hand rods, they have all-around lines that do a little bit of everything well. The names of the casts, Perry poke, Snake Roll, Double Spey, Single Spey, Snap “T”, or the Circle “C” all enable and angler to move the line in 180 degrees of where you want to cast. Single-hand rods, for the most part, have much faster actions. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. I would humbly suggest that length is now no longer any real guide to whether a rod is a Spey rod, my favorite weapon is a Burkheimer 11,7″ 7 weight – very much a Spey rod in action, feel and manufacturer discription. Switch rods have become very popular for their incredible versatility. Not all switch rods are created equal, as there is no standard in how they are made a 7 WT from one manufacturer may be only a 6 WT in the other. If you’re interested in switch and spey rods, I’d recommend reading my three part series on choosing a line for your switch rod. September 15, … Spey casting used to be traditionally for salmon and steelhead, but that’s not the case anymore. If you’re starting out a Skagit head with a few tips and watching a few videos should do the trick while learning. Use your rod length as an indication of "easy". Spey casting is a thing of beauty. How do you say ‘Skagit’? Secondly, if we start categorizing rods by action, where does it end? Rods made for spey casting generally have slower action. The real question is are the common casting mistakes you make based on a reaction to another sequence in the Spey cast… Learn how your comment data is processed. Roll casting, which you may be familiar with from casting a single-hand rod, is where you begin but with assistance from your bottom hand placed on the lower handle of your Spey Rod. Whether you fish it single hand or with two it has its advantages and opens up areas that were unfishable with traditional casting. They also needed to manage long lines as they swung their flies. Services. In recent years the rod manufacturers are trying to keep up with the trends and anglers. Lessons. Your email address will not be published. 4 Advantages of Spey Casting. Required fields are marked *. Casting Lessons. And the solution is poly leaders or versa leaders in various sink rates. If you are like me, and love learning new ways to fly fish, check out some two-hand rods and see what’s right for you. It’s a great tool for Great lakes steelhead on small tributaries, confined areas, they have the ability to nymph fish, fish an indicator, cast streamers, and swing flies, etc.. It’s good at a little bit of everything, but some rods are better at nymphing while others are better at swinging. In the beginning, a Skagit tip was a piece 10 to 15ft of level sinking line to achieve the desired swing. They come in various densities, such as T7, T8, T10, and T14 or light, med, heavy, and Xtra heavy. These long rods were heavy and awkward to manage, so it was necessary for anglers to use two hands to cast them. Well....I'd like to make a 2-3 wt 10' 6" spey rod that can handle a 210 grain scandi line. Spey fishing, however, takes the cake for being the most ridiculous. Sign up: Login: Search: Calendar: Latest Topics : Categories > Fly Tying > Simple tube : Welcome, Private Messages: Unread Reply Author Comment : Serge … Steelhead anglers have embraced them for spey casting on small rivers with dense vegetation. At some point, or in some Spey casting situations, we are all reactionary casters. Casting Spey lines is a little different than casting overhead, there are some similarities but certainly far more differences. All casts use different techniques to do this with different factors. These rods were made of greenheart, a heavy wood imported from British Guyana. It’s also worth noting that you can, and some anglers do, fish these shooting heads on single-hand rods, even if it means significant physical pain at the end of the day. Enter the “D” loop and then the forward cast. Dealing with wind. Only just caught up with the different terms and found out what a Switch Rod is. Through film, photography, and journalism we strive to make each story as unique as the person or place it’s based off. I use them for trout and steelhead and I know anglers who use them for species as different as tarpon and carp. The grips on these different styles of rods are very different as well. But what about the line? Shop. As stated in past Trout Spey articles: to me, casting is secondary to how you actually fish the fly though. As for that little company Sage, they have a whole quiver of 12′ Spey rods from 6-9 weight all at the 12′ length. Spey & Fly Fishing and Casting Schools for two … A fly line extends itself during a cast by rolling down a loop. Companies like Echo are now making two-hand rods meant specifically for overhead casting. Also, they are the best for casting with little to no backcast. They are switch rod length, but that’s the end of the similarity. With these rods, rod designers returned to more traditional actions, which favor two-hand spey casting. These long rods were heavy and awkward to manage, so it was necessary for anglers to use two hands to cast them. The options for lines are endless but are now easier more than ever, a shooting head style or integrated lines, are also options within those lines. A switch rod is quite simply a two-hand rod, which is shorter than 12 feet six inches. Are they a completely different animal? The switch rod is a true “jack of all trades” and, as the saying goes, “master of none”. We have so many options and can fish any style we want thanks to their innovation and imagination. Spey rods were developed in Scotland for fishing Atlantic salmon. Firstly, the Roll Cast starts your casting journey and takes you into casts such as the Single Spey , Double Spey … The lift is an important, but often overlooked part of any spey cast. In order to make them perform a wide variety of angling tasks, designers have developed tapers which do a lot of different things, fairly well, but none perfectly. Can you still cast these rods with one hand? If you want to fish dry flies then you will need a Scandi line. Are We Being The Best Ambassadors For Fly-Fishing? Since 2012, Flylords has been a proud leader in telling the stories of anglers and guides from around the world. The tips required to cast Skagit heads are different than those for Scandi heads. This allows you to separate your hands on the rod by as much as a couple of feet. They are very popular with anglers fishing the surf because they will cast long distances with little effort. They offer the angler the ability to perform two-hand spey casts, single hand spey or overhead casts, manage line wonderfully and, in lighter weights, can even be used for euro-nymphing. They can chuck a decent size fly and are awesome for fish up to around 10lbs. Home About Contact Equipment Shop Blog. As soon as the line goes straight, most of the forward … For instance, a 2.5ft floating then 7.5ft sinking, 5ft float and 5ft sink and 7.5ft floating to 2.5ft sinking. It’s in the manufacturing process, when they make a switch they lean to a little more single hand type or Spey type blanks. A great way to fish switch rods is in small streams and tributaries. Now anglers are using them for just about every species, from Taimen to Smallmouth, anywhere moving water is found. Previous Next. They are usually pretty stiff, up to the tip, where they become very soft rather quickly. This is never more true than with spey rods. To further complicate the matter, anglers in the US and Canada started using a radically different line configuration on their spey rods. Of course, everything in fly fishing has to be an argument. As you’re looking at what Spey rod to add to your quiver, the rod size and length will vary by species and locations. The easiest way is to decide how and what you are going to fish for. Keep your hands in the box and take your time, keep it slow. Each manufacturer has their own terminology or name for them. A river where this type of casting became popular was the Scottish River Spey, and this type of casting today is known as Spey casting. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! He is always adapting to the ever-changing conditions in Southern Ontario. There will be plenty of time in between catching fish to tweak your cast … Two-handed casting has many advantages, longer cast, casting in confined areas, like high banks or trees overhanging, if you have shoulder or arm issue, casting with two hands may keep you on the water longer. Intermediate spey casters often attend this class to learn how to cast sinktips, fine-tune their skills, try different casting styles, and try various spey … What WT line should I buy for my 5 WT Switch Rod? No, they certainly are not, just another option in a wide array of fly rods on today’s robust market. I’m personally very slow to trust marketing. These powerful rods combine a fast action with length and a two-hand grip. If you want to use the switch rod to its maximum potential, I recommend having two spools for your rod, one for indicator/nymphing fishing (integrated line), and the other for swinging flies (with a head system). That’s why the line systems used are sold by grain weights rather than rod weights. This is where things get confusing for some, how to pick a line. Spey casting predates spin casting by about 100 years so maybe flavor of the century might be more accurate. How many different actions are there in single hand rods? Some of the best teachers of the sport listed below to help aide the casting. Two-hand rods are a blast to fish and very versatile. In a river, after swinging the fly we need a way to move the line 180 degrees of where you want the fly to land and we need a backcast area. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Fly fishing is his passion or obsession, a way of life. The ability to cast tight against the bank with trees, rocks, or brush behind you. Called skagit heads, for the river where they were developed, these aggressive shooting heads and their heavy, interchangeable sinking tips revolutionized steelhead fishing. The front grip on a two-hand rod is much longer than a single-hand grip. It’s in the action and line. You can make any spey casts with a single-hand rod. For as long as the line is in the loop it has forward momentum. Salmon anglers needed to make long casts with little or no room for backcasting. You’ll attach your running line to the rear, then add a long 10 to a 15-foot mono leader to the front and you can fish as is. Skagit heads are arguably the easiest spey line to learn to cast with and provide the greatest ability to cast in tight quarters or with limited backcasting room. It has changed immensely and the line systems, now with shooting heads and tips, and rod technology (shorter and lighter) have changed the game and it would have not been this way, if not for the Skagiteers. Let’s face it, this idea came about to differentiate products and attract sales. There are so many pioneers and awesome educators in this style of casting, maybe more than any other. Because both hands are involved, it causes less strain and less physical effort, but it does require practice and discipline. MidWest Spey. Q. A Skagit line is easier to cast for beginners with big fly high winds, or high banks. But, there is some crossover between the two and some Scandi tips can be put on Skagit lines. First, it is born of marketing. Spey casting can easily be done off of either shoulder to combat the wind. T-18 sink tips, versileaders, polyleaders, running line, scandi and skagit shooting heads, and the inordinate number of different spey casting techniques are virtually guaranteed to cause confusion for … Fly control is one of the best ways to increase your catch rate. If you fish big waters with high banks where you’d need a long cast, or you’re chucking big flies, a Spey rod may be a better choice. Less stripping - Since spey rods can handle longer lengths of line, there can be very little stripping … Also, check out “Skagit Revolutions” by Tom Larimer and Rio’s Modern Spey Casting. Captcha loading...In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript. It’s left to the angler to decide which weight line performs best for their casting style. Cast further distances easier, and still have the ability to manage your line. Full Spey are rods 13ft and longer available in 6 to 10wts and capable of casting huge lines, flies, and big fish like Taimen or Atlantic Salmon. It worked. The action of these rods is fairly unique and purpose driven. Nevertheless, switch rods have become very popular with a variety of anglers. Guide Service. Even within the brand the grain weights or actions can be different. Throwing the weight of the line behind you allows you to load a pretty stiff rod, especially if you have good technique. Some steelhead anglers, who wouldn’t be caught dead making an overhead cast, got tired of the compromise. This is a bit of a rhetorical question, but it needs to be addressed. Spey casting is a type of casting used in fly fishing. Spey casting is used for fishing … You can certainly grab the fighting butt and let rip with a two-hand cast, and I know one very effective angler who does, but that’s not really where the difference lies. Therefore, the Spey cast was developed so one could successfully cast on a large river such as the Spey. But, they all have one thing in common, the back cast or the “D” loop and the forward cast. These were revolutionary and the fact that by just changing tips you could fish anything a river could throw at you such as; deep pools, pocket water, runs, and riffles with the same line. Author Phil Monahan Posted on March 11, 2020 March 11, 2020 Categories Fly Fishing Tags fly-casting tips, fly-casting videos, fly-fishing tips, fly-fishing videos Here’s a cool video in which Scottish Spey-casting instructor Andrew Toft explains how to make a Spey cast … The answer was a long limber rod, which could be loaded and cast without a backcast. A completely different group of rods are long, single-hand nymphing rods. They’re especially useful for summer steelhead, smallmouth, and walleye in rivers. Rules of thumb rarely apply in the world of spey casting… Within those styles of lines, there are many options and a few nuances that give you the option of adapting to changing conditions. The casting technique may be used … However, these were not the best for various water types, so the MOW tip was evolved. Enter the Skagit head, it was made to throw large flies and heavy sink tips. Other manufacturers have made their own versions of these tips and they work similarly or better depending on who you ask. Spey fishing has a few more parts and terminology compared to single hand fishing, however, it gives you more options and more ways to fish various flies with just one rod. From dry fly fishing to euro nymphing, fly fishing can be incredibly complex and learning each new method is often a steep learning curve for even the most experienced of fly fishermen. Although some folks call these skagit casts, they are more often lumped into the family of spey casts. Today, rods a… Single-hand casting is more easily mastered and so these rods make up the vast majority of the market. To take advantage of Spey tackle and techniques for trout, ditch the drift boat. It gives you a new tool in the tool-box, so when you see or know that a large fish is hiding in an area that you couldn’t fish previously you have the knowledge to get the chance of landing it. Midwest Spey - Fly Fishing Guide Service . More and more people feel that way. I’ve bought a 5 WT – 11FT Switch Rod. If you fish steelhead on large rivers a 12 to 13.5ft would be the best all-around rod for most situations in North America, with today’s high-performance rods and compact lines, you will be able to cover almost any situation or species. Obviously a two hand rod has two grips to accommodate both hands. My least favorite thing about the sport, but it’s true. Now you can just about fish any water, condition, style, or fly, all on one rod. Brands like Rio (Switch Chucker), AirFlo (Switch Float Line), and SA (Skagit lite) all have integrated lines that simply require adding a leader and fishing it how you want. Guide. … Learn one or two casts and practice them until you’re comfortable, then add another, continuing one at a time, as you master the basics. This is especially useful on wide rivers that offer challenges, like rapids, to traditional short-range fishing. Some folks think this is the same as the second grip on a switch or spey rod. They are all essentially the same creature just living by various names. You should wade while Spey casting… Targeting big fish in tributaries, ponds, lakes, creeks, and rivers are all part of the game while chasing carp, migratory species or whatever the hot bite is. I have a lot of switch rods and most of them have never been cast with one hand. Most single hand casters gravitate to the switch rod, the idea is, it may be easier to transition, or they can cast it single hand if need be. Here are some tips. His publication Spey Casting … OPST has a series called “riffle run and bucket” (which have dual-density sinking lines built in S3/S4) and Air Flo has their Flo tips. I guess I now need a reel and it seems to call for an 7/8 WT. Regardless of our feelings, there is an agreed technical definition and it is length, so I’m sticking to that. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It’s easier to watch it than describe in words for sure. A poly/versa leader is a tapered mono leader with tungsten material coating, it does have various sink rates, but it is tapered to assist the Scandi head in turning flies and leaders over. Spey Rods and Two Handed Fly RodsSpey rods are also called "two-handed" rods and overlap with another name called "switch rods" as well. Of course, to do this, a style of casting had to be developed to accommodate both the rods and the rivers. Olympic Penninsula Skagit Tactics’ YouTube.

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