Fly Casting: Spey Casting

Video Transcript

"The term Spey casting that has started to come in to the fly fishing world. It has been around for a long, long time. Spey casting originated on the river Spey over in Scotland, OKay? So, what we're going to do, is we're going to show you Spey casting, how it can both be done with the single handed rod and the two handed rod. Why would we want to Spey cast? We want to Spey cast when we have limited back cast room behind us just like we did when we learned about the Roll cast. Spey casting in the present day world is thought more about in reference to using the two handed rod. The two handed rod, what that enables you to do is have great through the line control. And then there's with the single handed rod, if a nine foot rod and you cast forty foot of line out there, then it's going to be hard to control that line on the water unless your good with your mending. But the, a fourteen foot Spey rod, you can make fifty and sixty foot casts and you can control and mend the line in current to current and however you want to fish. So that's the advantage in using a two handed rod. It gives you better line control, and also, it's much easier to cast using two hands than it is with one hand. How do we hold the two handed rod? We hold the two handed rod about the width of our shoulders. That's the starting point. We want to hold the rod very lightly, OKay? So, essentially, when we're making casts to have the rod pivot within our hands. See how if we hold it lightly? You want to think about the two handed rod as holding it and not gripping it. Hold it and let it work. It will work on its own if you let it. Now, let's go into the Spey casting with the two handed rod. So, we're going to do exactly the same moves that we did with the single handed rod, but essentially we're going to now use two hands. And to help you to see the transition, I will actually cast this fourteen foot rod with one hand first and then I will show you the same cast using the two hands. So that way you'll be able to see how the rod works. We have the same lift, we slide the line down along the side, there's our water load cast, you see the line come up. What we're going to do is we're going to drop the rod down just like we did in the Roll cast position, and we're going to go forward and finish our cast. See how easy that is if you let the rod do the cast? I'll do it one more time. Lift, we lay the rod down for the water load, it comes up just like we learned in the Roll cast, we drop our rod down and we finish with the forward cast. That is how the Spey rod works. Now I will add the second hand as a helper. We lift, now we pull back. See how lightly my hands are? And the rod goes up. Now we're going to drop our hands down like this and we're going to pull now with the bottom hand and push up, and there is our cast. Lift, the line slides back, it comes up, pop. Most of that was with the bottom hand, that makes the top a nice loop. What happens if we use with both hands? We got to set it up with the basic Roll cast, lift, around, there. Do you see how I pulled with both hands as opposed to the bottom only? Now let me make the cast with the top hand and you'll see a wide open loop. See the difference of the cast? That's why you want to cast with 50 / 50 or the bottom hand. So see what you got to remember about Spey casting or any Spey casting is the line goes where the rod stops. So if you stop your rod high, the line bends, see where it goes? Essentially, if you stopped it low, it's done. So look up when you make your Spey cast and you will have the perfect loop, the pause, and you will be good, be a good Spey caster. And be able to fish places where nobody else can."