[New Spey]

I recently bought Cortlands multi tip spey line 9/10. I wanted to get the Windcutter, but I was held hostage to a gift card and the store only carried the Cortland. Now the problem is that the Cortland evidently is longer than the windcutter. I can't seem to pick up the extra length to even get to the shooting portion. I have no problem with casting the fifty seven feet of head and that's not counting the tips, but if I want to start with that and shoot the extra line everything falls apart.
Any sugestions? I am trying to do this with a thirteen foot 8/9 Red Fly from Reddington.

 

[Dana]

welcome aboard, New Spey!

The difficulty you’re having is not unusual for new casters, but without seeing you cast it is impossible to effectively diagnose the problem. There could be any number of causes or combinations of causes, from dropping the rod tip on the back cast or delivery cast to improper timing to mismatched tackle and so on.

A couple of suggestions: ask around at your local shop and see if they can recommend anyone to give you a few pointers. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a formal lesson, but you need someone who is both a good Spey caster and understands Spey casting (the two don’t always go together) to watch you cast and make a few suggestions. Short of that, get your hands on a few of the great videos that are available (Rio’s “International Spey Casting” is excellent, as is the Derek Brown tape “Spey Masterclass”). If you have a camcorder take some shots of your own casts so you can compare them to the experts.

As with a single hander, in order to shoot line with a Spey you need good technique: a powerful dynamic D loop (see my article on the D loop on the “newsletter” links at http://www.speypages.com) , a straight line path of the rod tip on the forward stroke, smooth, even acceleration as the rod comes forward, and a high, hard or abrupt stop of the rod tip at @ 11 o’clock.

That said, if you are picking up and throwing the belly of this line you are doing several key things right, and some fine tuning should take you to the next level.

One other thing—I haven’t cast your rod and line combination and am not familiar with Cortland’s new Change-A-Tips line (but I do have one of these lines on order--is this the line you're casting?). You said the belly is 57ft without the tips—how long are the tips? Reason I ask is I am trying to visualize the entire head length (belly, forward and rear tapers and any interchangeable tips). If these tips are 15ft long, for example, this means that you are trying to cast a long belly Spey line with a 13ft rod that is rated at least one line weight less than your line. This might also be part of the difficulty you’re having.

 

[JDJones]

Cortland Multi tip

You are removing the floating tip section before looping on one of the sink tips aren't you? The reason I ask is that you mentioned the Cortland line being longer than the Windcutter. The Cortland WF9/10F Spey line that I have (not the multi tip version) is only slightly longer at 59 feet vs a Windcutter at 55 feet. If you are tring to cast one of these lines without removing the first (floating) tip section, it is no wonder that you are having trouble. Some people even remove the second section of a Windcutter, but this is usually only done when attaching the 24 foot "big boy" tips.

Also, like Dana mentioined, you are already overlined.

 

[New Spey]

Thanks guys. I told you the wrong length. I had seen the length of the Cortland floating spey line and decided my head was that length plus the
tip. I tried measuring in the kitchen, so I don't know how accurate this is, but it looks like about 50 plus another 15 for the tip. If the full floater is 59, this probably equals that. Sometimes I read so many things I jumble them together.
It is one line weight over my rod. I was told by a guide in Washington that I should do this. The people from the Welches fly shop seemed to agree. So I hope I didn't goof.
One problem may be that since I have only used it this Winter, I have been trying to cast heavily weighted flies, or the sink tips. May be I need to get proficient with unweighted flies and just the floating tip first. Also been trying to learn to cast it while in a drift boat, beside a gear fisherman. Can really get to be a mess at times.
Thanks again.

 

[JDJones]

Well you pretty much nailed it there. Starting out with heavy flies and sink tips is hard enough , but from a (assume moving) drift boat combined with a gear fisherman???

Fly fishers do not mix well with other types of fishers in a boat. Moving or still. We need more casting space. we need more time for the fly to get down, more time to swing through the drift, and if that is not enough, good fly water and good gear water is not the same water.

Try to find someone in your area that knows Spey fishing and go fish with them.

 

[Dana]

Change-A-Tip Spey Line

Just received this line in a 9/10. Haven't cast it yet but since we were discussing this line earlier I thought I'd post the dimensions of head section of this line. My measurements match New Spey's:

Tips: 15ft (comes with a float, intermediate, type 3 & type 6)
Belly: @ 50ft

At a combined tip/belly length of @ 65ft this line is in the MidSpey range, or a little longer than the original Cortland weight forward Spey.

 

[New Spey]

I am looking forward to hearing your review. Do you think that making it longer will hurt the shooting potential?

 

[Dana]

New Spey, I spent some time with this line over the weekend. I still want to run it through a few more tests with a couple of different rods before I write up a formal review, but my initial impressions are quite positive. To answer your question, the longer head does not pose a problem when shooting line--if the entire head is outside the rod tip the line behaves like a long belly shooting head and efficient shooting becomes a matter of adjusting the amount of overhang (the length of running line between rod tip and belly) to get optimum performance out of your rod and line, as well as managing your running line (see Leif Stavmo's discussion of this in the Overhead casting section of Rio's International Spey Casting video). The only way to know how much overhang is right is to play around with the rod and line and try different lengths. Start with a foot or two of belly inside the rod tip and then work it out 1/2 foot or so at a time until you find the correct amount for your rod and casting style.