American Spey School Experience

[solo]

I wanted to share my wonderful experience getting into the spey world. Rather than trying to teach myself like most do, I bit the bullet and signed up for the spey school with Adrian Psuty. And I must say it is a great way to accelerate learning curve.

We started at 6AM on the river. Adrian broke down all the basic building blocks of spey casting and went through each explaining the mechanics. He watched while I was casting and gave some good input. A little point here and there made a huge difference. Then, we floated the river, and put a fly in his favorite holes. He taught how to control the line in different current situation, where to find fish, how to set up and land.

He brought different rods/reel setup, and explained different types of line (Skagit vs. Scandi). I preferred Scandi to Skagit and am glad I had a chance to try them out on different rods.

I watched some youtube, and read materials on spey casting, but, I am glad I took this route as I feel like I now have a solid foundation to build upon. Adrian is a wonderful person to spend your day on the river with. And I highly recommended anyone trying to get into spey world to take advantage of these schools being offered.

Check it out at http://anchorpointflyfishing.blogspot.com/.

Tight lines,

Ted

[Ryan Miller]

I am glad you a good time with Adrian. He is a great instructor who spends a great deal of time really thinking about what casts are about and how to break it down.

[SPG]

Ted,

I am very interseted in why you preferred Scandi to Skagit, please express what you found. I think it is great that you were given the oppertunity to try various methods, what a great way to start a person into Spey. Adrian did good for you. spg

[solo]

Ted,

I am very interseted in why you preferred Scandi to Skagit, please express what you found. I think it is great that you were given the oppertunity to try various methods, what a great way to start a person into Spey. Adrian did good for you. spg

Hi, SPG,
I am not sure if it's because I started out with Scandi, but, when I picked up Skagit setup, it felt like throwing an extension cord. It loaded the rod all the way to the butt section, and the line just shot out. It reminded me of chucking LC-13 back in the east coast. Scandi had a lot more finesse and felt like the traditional fly casting.

After a day of lesson with Adrian, I spent a week fishing Deschutes for a week exclusively with my 7 wt. spey. I had no problem casting out 70-80ft of line, but shooting about 10-15 ft of line was sufficient for most holes. Two fish I hooked during the whole week of poor visibility due to white river were caught on a big 3" fly with sink tip. Only then, I realized how I would've benefited from a Skagit setup. It was pretty tough to turn over the fly, so I kept the line short.

For winter fishing, I will definitely invest in a skagit head. I don't see myself enjoying throwing 2-3" weighted fly on my Scandi setup.

[SPG]

Ted, Certianly a 2-3 inch wet fly can be at the limit of some scandi lines. I have been building a SKANDIT (scandi,skagit blend) head for Meiser that his clients are raving about. Send me an email with you rod model and address and I will build and send out a free SKANDIT head to see if it will turn those flies. stevegodshall@charter.net

[solo]

Steve, thanks for such a generous offer which I didn't expect. I sent the information to your email. If I can have a scandi like line that can turn over a big fly with sinktip, that'll be an ultimate tool for the winter steelheading. I will look forward to it.

Ted