Wednesday, April 08, 2009

I Was Wrong!

Yep! Wrong as wrong can be as a matter of fact. What was I wrong about you are probably thinking? Is he admitting he was wrong about indicators some of you might be thinking? Nope! Okay then it might be his support of President Obama? Hell no!
What I am admitting is that I was wrong about was stupidly proclaiming that mastering spey casting was easier than mastering single hand casting. Boy was I ever wrong.

This 3-disc instructional DVD by Rio is perhaps the best one out there. It features the big three (McCune. O'Donnell, Ed Ward) of Skagit style casting and the big kahuna of the spey world Simon Gawesworth.


I am a pretty good single hand caster and that is because I've been doing it for over 25 years...lots of practice.
Two handed spey casting is a whole different animal. There are a lot of variables and anchor points and so on that don't come into play with the single hand casting. I mastered the double haul and roll cast fairly quickly. The double spey and circle spey are still driving me nuts to the point of frustration sometimes.
Yesterday I encountered my two handed guru and one of the fathers of Skagit style spey casting Mike McCune. Mike is a master of the two handed rod and is without question one of the top steelhead fly fishermen in the world.
He along with Scott O'Donnell and Ed Ward are without peers when it comes to this stuff.
As he he floated by me he said just four words "Slow the f**k down" and I knew exactly what he was talking about.
I was feeling kind of cocky awhile back but it seems like I've plateaued and have digressed in fact.
Of course frustration has set in and I'm glad winter steelheading is over. I am going to do what I should have done in the first place and that is pay for a couple of lessons. Developing bad habits is an easy thing to do when casting a two handed rod especially if you try to teach yourself. I have done that so it's time to get straightened out and get rid of those bad habits and not cause "river pollution" as McCune so aptly describes poor two handed casting.
As I look forward to trout season and the spey rods get put away for a few months I will continue to work at my casting. Any secrets some of you experts can give me would be greatly appreciated.

1 comment:

  1. ah yes... Welcome to spey casting hell. Leave your D-loop at the door.

    You already know the secrets. Slow down, stand tall, feel the lower hand throughout the cast, use less power than you think you need, set up your anchor correctly, make a good D-loop 180 degrees from the target.... and don't use an indicator.

    Just kiddin on the last one!

    A funny for you. I was on the Milwaukee river yesterday. Filled with gravel rapers flopping their glo-bugs and splitshot on redds. Ugly stuff. They all looked like carbon-copies of each other with the Orvis look.

    I got into a fast deep run upstream of them and on the second cast... Bang! hard on the swing, a drop back hen. As my hardy began to sing, they all looked up and wondered what was happening... How could I have a steelhead on if I wasn't sight fishing gravel?
    Funny.
    Seriously though Shane, you would have steam coming out of your ears if you saw the average 'fly fishing' for steelhead here. Nearly everyone I run into asks the same three word question... "Seen any fish?"
    I have taken to mumbling and hiding in bushes to avoid them. I have to remind myself not to look at them wading in circles, flopping their rod, getting stuckon the bottom, lining and foul hooking fish, mishandling releases (catch N' maim).
    Sigh...

    But... the good news is that the guys here that do fish properly become really really good, and have an awesome reputation. We have a little black hole of two handed goons here that goes back to the 1980s
    Erik

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