Adam Grace
10-16-2006, 12:27 PM
My enjoyment of spey casting and the consequent practice and refinement of the art of spey casting was important to my recent success. I am by no means a Simon Gawesworth or Jeff Putnam but my casting is good enough to encounter different casting situations. Basically practicing your spey casts will make those difficult casting situations much easier and less frustrating.
The key to my success was my spey rod. Fishing the seam and riffle on the other side of the river allowed me to fish water that would be extremely difficult withou a spey rod. I even strained at times to cast a little bit further than the 80' or more that was required. The length of my spey rod (12'8") while short for a spey rod, made the distance easier to control the placement of my fly. The extra 3'8" over a normal 9' single-handed rod allowed me to control my line enough to control the speed of my flies as they swung throught the river.
I have never caught so many adult steelhead before on my spey rod. I usually fish our valley rivers becuase they are close by and more convenient, but after two sucessful trips to the coastal regions I have experienced for myself what more experienced steelheaders have been telling me for a while; fresh steelhead (closer to the ocean) are more likely to take a swung fly. So here I've been frustrating myself on these Sacramento Valley steelhead river when all I needed was to commit to traveling to the REAL steelhead water near the coast to catch steelhead on the swing.
The Klamath River was my first experience of great spey fishing (2 years ago with Rick Jorgensen), that water in the lower Klamath is perfect for swinging, with or without a spey rod (MUCH more enjoyable IMHO with a spey rod). I loved how productive swinging was on the Klamath for the half-pounders. And now another great swinging experience on another coastal river, the lower Trinity river. It is very easy to say that I am now a believer and will be hooked on coastal steelhead forever.
Below are some spey pictures for you spey guys.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0100.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0104.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0203-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0209.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/Steelie5.jpg
The key to my success was my spey rod. Fishing the seam and riffle on the other side of the river allowed me to fish water that would be extremely difficult withou a spey rod. I even strained at times to cast a little bit further than the 80' or more that was required. The length of my spey rod (12'8") while short for a spey rod, made the distance easier to control the placement of my fly. The extra 3'8" over a normal 9' single-handed rod allowed me to control my line enough to control the speed of my flies as they swung throught the river.
I have never caught so many adult steelhead before on my spey rod. I usually fish our valley rivers becuase they are close by and more convenient, but after two sucessful trips to the coastal regions I have experienced for myself what more experienced steelheaders have been telling me for a while; fresh steelhead (closer to the ocean) are more likely to take a swung fly. So here I've been frustrating myself on these Sacramento Valley steelhead river when all I needed was to commit to traveling to the REAL steelhead water near the coast to catch steelhead on the swing.
The Klamath River was my first experience of great spey fishing (2 years ago with Rick Jorgensen), that water in the lower Klamath is perfect for swinging, with or without a spey rod (MUCH more enjoyable IMHO with a spey rod). I loved how productive swinging was on the Klamath for the half-pounders. And now another great swinging experience on another coastal river, the lower Trinity river. It is very easy to say that I am now a believer and will be hooked on coastal steelhead forever.
Below are some spey pictures for you spey guys.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0100.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0104.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0203-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0209.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/Steelie5.jpg