[baldmountain]

Spey casting originated to fish in large relatively quick moving rivers. What about a slow moving river, mill pond or even a lake? In many cases you are facing the same issue as on a Spey river. You can't wade out very far and there is no room for a back cast. (You'll be throwing your back cast into the woods. :tsk_tsk: )

Since there is no current to swing your line to the dangle you have to use some other method to get the line out and taut. How do you fish a situation like that?

(Yes, the simple solution is to buy a canoe or boat and cast in to shore rather than out from it. Let's assume we don't have that option.)

I guess you'd roll cast a few times to get started, then throw as big a spey cast as you can manage shooting as much line as possible. Then strip the fly in and repeat.

 

[kush]

You are right - this is the classic case for a speycast. If I read your actual question correctly all you need to do is cast the line along the shoreline - roll casting it will work. What you need to do is get the belly of the fly line out far enough to load the rod. Once there one simply does a speycast, the choice of which will be up to the caster.

Ideally a full rod length between the caster and the trees is all that is needed to make very good spey casts. As well, the shorter the belly a line you use the tighter the quarters in which you can cast. Given that it is still water and you will obviously be stripping the fly in to impart action will dictate that you will need to cast parallel to the shore before each cast back out. Therefore a shorter belly line will be the ticket - it will take less time.

How far could you cast in this kind of situation? I would suggest as far as your abilities and the limitation of your tackle allow. I would guess that an expert speycaster could get 80'+ with the trees one rod length behind him.

As well,these same casts can be done with a single-hand rod.