Thinking about Spey

[Robert C]

I have been reading the messages and have looked into spey a little. It seems that you fellas are using the spey for steelhead, shad and trout and mostly in a wet fly swing. Are there other ways to use the longer rods?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think the long rods are great for our many large rivers here in Nor Cal.

Most are using them for steelhead but we are seeing people use them for trout as well in smaller sizes.

They work well for shad and salmon too.

I imagine they would work in the valley rivers for stripers.

Some are using them for overhead distance in the surf on the coast.

Spey fishing is an old traditional European fly fishing method developed for fishing Atlantic Salmon on large European rivers.

I think it came over next to the northeast coast of the US for our Atlantic Salmon.

Then it moved accross to the northwest coast for our Pacific Steelhead.

[brett humphries]

I have an 11 1/2 foot, 5 weight Anderson Custom Rod that I put a 10 weight floating SA Tarpon line on. I use it on the flats here in Texas. It loads up really well with one false cast (during which I will let 10 - 15 feet of line slip through the guides), and then fire off a 75 foot cast. It is great when the winds come up, being able to keep the fly away from me, and still get off a pretty long cast. It also will handle my 350 grain shooting head, which I use to fish the deeper boat channels.

[prairiespey]

Hi Robert

Up here in Manitoba ,Canada - Spey has been explored for Channel Cats/Carp/Freshwater Drum/Goldeye/Smallies from 10/11 wt down to 6/7 wt rigs- long belly to short head in lake and river. Its a casting/presentation approach, not a dogma))))
Will

www.watersidemb.ca

[rrivera]

Hey Robert....

I have been fortunate to catch some trout on a 5/6 11 footer on dries. lighter series of spey rods are important if your using dries and opens another gate to enjoy this sport.

Keep in mind when your dry fly fishing for trout with a spey that you will have at times 30 to 40 feet of line out when you start your spey cast of choice (Scenario based on a 50-60 foot cast). Factor in also tippet and fly of chioce for the target water your fishing in.

So when then the fly (the last thing out of water) is lifted, there is a whole lot of line speed generated on the leader. Which sometimes snaps the fly right off lighter tippet.

It's a real joy to hear that they make spey rods as delicate as a 4wt these days...!! with my 5/6 I can go as light as 4x without loosing distance in concern with line speed breaking tippet. Everyones casting style is different in the way the set up the cast, but the priciples are the same.

I can go as light as 5x but my cast distance will be limited. I'm still a student of this spey game. But I'm real happy with reaching what I couldn't with my single hander.

I've tried nymphing, only to find that the longer rod is a better high stick nymph tool than a full blown indo set-up.

Hope this helps

[Moose]

I use a 12 1/2 foot 5 weight spey with a single hand 8/9 weight line to present nymphs near the bottom with either a long mono leader and beadhead fly or by using a sinking poly leader (high sticking works, you can high stick a long line with a 12 1/2 foot rod), and I also like to swing soft hackle flies. Actually swinging is a lot more fun. Works well in the evenings to take 1/2 pounder steelhead in the American.

[Jasonh]

I have to agree with Moose, swinging is probably the best method of spey fishing there is. There is nothing better than hooking a hot half pounder or steelie on the swing, especially with a spey rod. I cant wait to get back to sac town and spey fish!

Jason Hartwick

[rrivera]

Moose....

How long is the leader you use for high stick nyphing w/ your 12.5..

Do you have any of the fly line in the water...?

What's the distance of the drift with the mono leader..?

Just curious on what your formula is - Unfortunatley there is very little info out there on nyphing with a spey rod.

Thanks in advance for your time...

-RR

[Moose]

Ray, I'd have to say regardless of the rod length, optimally you want your leader length to be 1 1/2 times the depth of the water. That's the textbook answer, but it doesn't apply well to a spey rod because you may only need a 7 foot leader to fish but that won't anchor or cast well on a spey rod. You can get away with about a 10 foot leader at minimum if you're careful with your anchor placement or you can use a sinking poly leader and enough tippet to where they both equal around 9 or 10 feet (the poly leader produces a stickier anchor on the water) but the spey cast requires a mono leader to be at least as long as the rod, so I just go with that and it works out pretty well.

This is on bigger waters like the A, but if I were to fish some tighter quarters I'd probably shorten up and give up some ease in casting for the added abillity to to stay in touch with the fly itself.

I usually swing flies, but when I do high stick (the clay banks) there is a few feet of line on the water. I guess you could call it a modified high stick. You're not in as much of a straight line contact with your fly as a traditional high stick drift, but you're also fishing a 12 foot rod with 20 feet of line and 12 feet of leader out there. As to the drift length, depends. I basically cast straight out or a little bit upstream, make a mend, walk the fly down the intended path and then swing it out to the dangle. How long is the drift? How long a line do you have out? How fast is the water moving? (you can feed line into the drift easily on softer water and extend it quite a bit)

Try a snap T with an upstream reach. Works great for this kind of fishing.

Jim

[Robert C]

Thank You all for your input. I guess I will have to start saving. Going to need some good sales points for my wife. If you can think of any more let me know. Again thanks.