Greetings from NorCal

Welcome to the site and your new found addiction. You will find threads covering all things spey and lots of members willing to offer advice and help you on your journey. Enjoy.

G’Day .... and make yourself comfortable here, with fellow anglers that share this speying passion.
Regards from the Restigouche....Jim

Welcome, from a fellow CA person. Lots of opportunities to use a spey rod in Nor Cal.

Welcome from far northern Sonoma county

Welcome from the foothills! You'll find lots of friendly and helpful advice here.

My advice for a new convert is to take a lesson or two. It'll help you get a good start and may help you to unlearn habits ingrained by single hand casting for years (decades?). Learning to use your bottom hand and not force the cast with your top is a new skill that doesn't always come easy for a long term single hand caster.

Jeff Putnam is a highly recommended instructor. However, he recently moved from Sacramento to southern Oregon. If you live in the northern part of the state, it might be worth a trip up to the Rogue for some summer steelhead fishing and a lesson.

I second the Jeff Putnam recommendation from Tahoe Joe! Back when I got into this game I tried booking with him but our schedules didn't mesh. I've heard nothing but great things about him. I would also recommend Andy Guibord out of Keine's Fly Shop in Sacramento. He will do private lessons on The American River in Sactown. After one session with him I felt pretty confident in casting from both sides and was ready to go! Lastly, Another great spey learning opportunity is the Jefferson Spey Sessions up on the Klamath in the Fall. Jason Hartwick and Rich Zellman know their stuff too and on that one, you will catch a lot of 1/2 pounders(juvenile steelhead).

Welcome to California! There are plenty of great rivers here for the two handed game. Enjoy your exploring!

Any of you guys seen the trinity and the lower sac? What's the rivers look like right now?

Welcome to the board, Bigsky, from Sacramento and the banks of the American.

FatBB, the lower Sac was 13K the last I checked, High but fishable. They have been booming the Trinity, above 1K out of the dam and the tribes are all high with snowmelt. American is 16K and COLD, but some reports on shad down low. Again, very difficult to find safe wading access at these flows. Feather and Yuba also up. Heard some reports of shad on the Russian, but all second hand.