Learning to Spey Cast

Yesterday afternoon I asked Cody to show me a little about spey casting. Spey casting is a technique used for casting flies long distances with a long, 2 handed rod. Steelhead season is prime right now and I'll probably be heading to the Salmon River, ID pretty soon to fish with my sister and Tom. Cody has some good experience with steelhead fishing and knows what hes doing when it comes to spey casting. Garret and Cody met me on the Clark fork behind campus to practice. What both Garret and I learned was that spey casting is not difficult whatsoever.

Cody showed us how to do the most simple spey cast, the Snap T. When your line is directly downstream you begin the cast by whipping your fly rod in a C formation upstream and then returning your rod to the same position. This causes the line to loop and fall parallel to the current. Then you swing your rod from a downstream point to an upwards position, basically ripping that line that is in front of you off the water. Your rod is then pointed upwards behind you and then you basically fire the rod forward while using your bottom hand to pull the butt end of the rod towards your body creating a sling shot of line that literally "goes the distance", that you want it to.The most valuable thing I learned was that its not the power that shoots the line so far. Its the loading of the loop of line and releasing it at the right moment. Sounds complicated but it is quite simple once you actually learn it. Garret and I picked up the technique pretty quickly and went from having very sloppy casts to being able to make a smooth cast almost every time. It felt great to learn a new technique. Thanks Cody.

As we were getting ready to leave an excited dog ran over to us and started jumping around playfully. I had put my rod down on the rocks to help Cody switch a line on his rod......and of course the worst happened. The dog jumped right on my rod and the tip snapped. I found the kid who was walking the dog and got his dads phone number. Hopefully the owner of the dog will compensate a little for the loss so that I can get the rod replaced and hopefully soon before I head to Idaho. Cody and I were planning on going to the Clearwater River this weekend but last night I got the stomach flu. Just my luck right?

I'm feeling pretty good now and will fish around here if I feel good this weekend. Next weekend there's a good chance I'll be putting my new spey casting technique to the test for some Salmon River Steel.