Spey Casting: The Good and The Bad

Well, thanks to my friend Bill, I made the jump to spey casting.

He convinced me that spey casting is a lot less tiring than one-handed casting. (At 55 I couldn't fly fish for bass two days in a row and not feel exhausted.) Also, because I fish stillwaters in New York City parks, the idea of not needing a lot of space to make a back cast was attractive.

So I bought a 12'6" rod and a video, and then a medium-head spey line.

My first attempts at casting were a disaster, partly because the videos I watched left out so much crucial information, such as the anchor - the line on the water at the end of the back cast - should consist of the leader and up to three fee of fly line.

Also I didn't know that with a 12'6" 6/7 spey rod I was much better off with a shorter-head line, no more that 52' feet or so. Finally, because I was fishing stillwaters and wanted to strip in as much line as possible, I finally settled on a Scandanavian-style line. (The head is about 37' feet. A Skagit line also has a short head.)

Using my new line, my casting immediately improved, but I still needed a lot of practice setting up my anchor. Yesterday, I finally felt I was getting the hang of it.

So how I feel about spey casting for stillwater fish? Well, it's certainly a lot less tiring - a big, big plus - and I can fish water where I don't have room to make a traditional back cast. On the other hand, I'm not able to strip my fly all the way back, so I lose a lot of valuable fishing water, especally because I don't seem to be able to make short casts.

So, I guess when it comes to spey casting for stillwater fish I'll have to take the good with the bad, I guess like life itself.

Randy Kadish