Great Fraser River Spey Clave - Thanks!
Just a personal note re the recent October 21st to 23rd Fraser River Spey Clave in Chilliwack BC with Scott MacKenzie et. al --- it was amazing!! Scott Mackenzie (three times world distance champion and record holder) was very gracious, friendly and approachable and his casts were the stuff that dreams are made on -- graceful effortless flights, going out indefinitely, hanging lightly, to the last unfurling before floating lazily down to the water. I always thought a 160-170ish cast would look a bit brutal, even fearsome, a crackling thunderous bolt thrown by strong frenzied Goliaths with fire in their eyes. .... but not so, with Scott MacKenzie. His casts are things of beauty, laid into the air with care and understanding, ..... as to get fine and far off, everything must be right, especially to achieve that last 20' of smooth unfurling turnover.... The tuft of wool pulling taught at the end of the cast, begging to be released, to fly further.... That is Scott MacKenzie. There is no bravado to the Scotsman. He is modest, and speaks of his art almost with shy embarrassment that he has such riches. Apparently he started developing his cast (the one now used by most top tournament casters) when he was 10 years old, while trying to cast long to where the untouched salmon were, beyond the reach of older bigger and stronger fishers,.... and then, when he grew big and strong... No one else had a style that could produce such power and distance. He won distance tournaments by huge margins.
What I like about his cast is its slow unhurried grace. For the single spey, he emphasizes a slow methodical lift " wait until you feel the weight of the line", then a strong aerialized back cast with the anchor landing about a rods length away from the castor's right side, and finally, the long purposeful foreword casting stroke. Amazingly, Scott can be busy explaining complex concepts all the while firing off huge casts, as if a cast took no more thought than a breath of air.
I asked Scott to show me what my gear could do. With no more than a couple of warm up casts with my CND Thompson Specialist (16' 7" long), he was throwing the whole 145' CND 11/12 line, and about 6' of backing!... with his full turnover adding say 15' for the fly... Wow! ... when you do the math he was casting in the 160's, i.e. not your average day on the River! ...imagine Tiger Woods checking out your driver, showing it could do 340 yds and giving you tips on how to get there too. What a day!
He brought his own new line of rods for us to try -- the Daiwa, Scott MacKenzie series, Signature Salmon rods (not yet available in North America). To see what they would do, I put my 11/12 CND line on the 15' 10/11 wt. model, gave it to Scott and he was again throwing the whole line plus a touch of backing , indicating to me this could be a good 15' competition rod. The rod is designed to give more power the deeper you take the action into it, i.e. it wants to be fully exercised and excels with a heavy long belly line... and yet it has a subtle fishy liquidity for the pleasure of the cast, drift, and playing of fish.
His cast of the XLT 9/10 line with his new Daiwa Scott Mackenzie series 18' rod. was truly majestic. I tried the rod and could not get anything happening, before my back started to hurt and I had to quit... I wished there was more time to get instruction, as I am sure there are many tricks to using the long sword effectively....
I was there the full three days, the last day being a paid lesson. Getting Scott's full attention for the lessons was especially useful. I am casting much further now, and more importantly I know much more about the distance and consistency elements of the cast to work on.. Apparently, Scott is coming out with an instructional DVD in the Spring which I am looking forward to.
My focus above on Scott Mackenzie, should not be seen to diminish the excellence of the other presenter/instructors. I did not get to speak to them all but re. the ones I did:
Gordon Macleod, also from Scotland and the event organizer, is not only a great Spey caster and instructor, but is also a passionate historian of the Spey Casting Art . He discussed the rich traditions of the sport in the British Isles including the genius of Alexander Grant who had much to do with inventing modern spey rods and casting. Further, he let us try some very distinctive 'Clan' fly rods. Made by appointment to the Prince of Wales, they are beautiful to look at and cast, and have been doing very well in recent distance tournaments. His friendly personality and hosting skills made for a very memorable event, complete with good food and drink, lotteries for Clan and Daiwa Scott MacKenzie Series spey rods, lines, bottles of the best single malt etc....
Francois Blanchet from Whistler was excitingly good as well, with passion and firecracker enthusiasm.... A tournament caster, Loop representative and professional guide, the tips he gave me radically improved my single spey performance.... ....
Courtenay Ogilvy, a guide from Vancouver Island (and a good one too, speaking from personal experience!) shared some useful/practical smaller river spey casting tips, e.g. when to use a Circle 'C' rather than Snap 'T' to get your back cast happening despite overhanging trees, and other streamside challenges.
All in all, an astonishingly good event. thanks to Gordon MacLeod and others ... and I'm looking forward to the next... especially to See 'Tiger' Mackenzie again, with my own eyes, .... on the river, in his natural element....
