[Dana]

Just received the details on this event!

Forum sponsor Kaufmann's Streamborn is presenting Spey Days March 1st & 2nd at the Big Eddy Park on the Skykomish River near Sultan WA, 9 am to 4 pm both days. Many manufacturers will be represented--including our sponsors RIO and Loop--and a number of the international community's top two-hand casters and instructors will be there to demonstrate and help you with your casting, including

Goran Andersson
Andy Murray
Tim Rajeff
George Cook
Steve Choate
Way Yin
Mike McCune
Scott O'Donnell
Dana Sturn (that would be me! )

This promises to be a fantastic opportunity for Northwest Spey enthusiasts, not to be missed!

For more info contact Kaufmann's and watch here for updates.

See you there!

 

[speybum]

HEY SPARKEY

Who is invited?

 

[speybum]

HEY SPARKEY

You going to have 5wts. there?????????:devil:

 

[NrthFrk16]

The entire public is invited!

 

[juro]

Saturday was AWESOME. I will post pics when I get a chance. Sorry, that red eye killed me and I am going to have to get some shut eye before I stare at this screen any longer.

 

[Dana]

Well, Saturday started out rough for me and by the end of the day I was feelin' sicker than a lab rat so I headed north and unfortunately missed Sunday's festivities , but if they were anything like Saturday's it was a great day!

For me the highlights included:

1. Andy Murray's beautifully smooth and effortless casting

2. Göran Andersson's Underhand casting demo and tips, along with the new Loop Grey Line two-handers

3. Steve Choate's single-hand casting

4. Dennis Worley's upstream double spey

5. casting one of Mike Kinney's original Skagit lines

6. sharing my "tight loop cheats" with the fellows who chatted with me after my presentation

7. the new Sage 5120

8. Sparky's single-hand distance casting

9. the new Hardy Mach I salmon lines

10. Juro's left hand single speys

11. watching Bruce spey cast upriver

12. meeting so many speypages/speyclave regulars.

I had a wonderful time and will try really hard not to be sick for the next one!

 

[NrthFrk16]

Saturday was great!!...too bad I only got to take in the last couple hours due to the holding down the counter requirements at work.

On Saturday, the weather was perfect, the attendance was very large and it was all around one Hell of a great time time!!

The rain rolled in overnight and the crowd was much more subdued on Sunday but it was still a great turnout!!!

The instructors willingness to offer help was absolutely amazing!...Andy (who will be offering a mutiple day class late this summer for Kaufmann's...both Andy's presentation and his one on one instrcution is second to none!!) and Steve Choate both did a fantastic job tweaking my stroke!!...and Goran is probally the first instructor to manage to get my hands closer to my body and minimize my flying butt syndrome.

I will post some pictures from Sunday later on!

My favorite rod of the event was surely the Hardy Gem series...extremelly powerful, very quick recovering rods that launch a line with no effort!

btw Dana, hopefully you are feeling better!!!...it was great fun spending a coupe hours with ya yesterday!

 

[NrthFrk16]

Maybe no pictures from today afterall!!

After looking at the pictures via MS Picture It...then closing it and now going to bring them back up...everything I did today is gone...the pictures I took are no longer there and the pictures I deleted are back!

 

[NrthFrk16]

...and now they are back!

 

[Bob Munoz]

Hey Spark,
Many thanks to you, Dennis, Gary, and the rest of the Kaufmann's clan for putting together a great event. I learned a ton, test drove a lot of sticks, and again marveled at the expertise and good nature of the professors of spey. Hope we get to do it all again sometime.

 

[AD Pose]

Ditto the kudos to Dennis and the Kaufmann staff for hosting a terrific, well organized Speyclave with such an impressive cadre of world class casters and presenters. Special thanks to Way Yin for improving my single spey technique and Ron with the Loop Group for teaching me the nuances of the underhand cast. Although I couldn't be there all day for both days and despite the downtrend from Saturday's weather, Sunday's showers did not diminish my sense of gain and accomplishment I acquired from the weekend's event. Thank you all.

ADP <")))><

 

[mattzoid]

What an incredible event that read like a who’s who. Dana Sturn led us off Saturday morning with the basic intro to Spey casting. The most interesting thing Dana showed us was his own transition in style of casting over the years. It was like watching a time machine and with each cast they became tighter and farther.

Andy Murray was next from England. He was tossing a Hardy with all the tradition and accent thrown in for free. I actually got to try his rod and it was sweet.

Mike McCune and Scott Odonnell worked as a team. They had a dozen ARC Scott rods strung with various lines. Regular multi-tips, shooting heads, home made shooting. A mix and match of what seemed like every possible combination of multi-tips, no middle sections, middle sections with extensions. They emphasized casting with the different sink tips and how to get them up and in the air.

Goran Anderson from Sweden, then stepped up with his Loop rods and lines. My first real look at the underhand cast. He had a very light and short casting style. I think he could have tossed a 150 feet, but emphasized that most takes are within 50 anyway. He kept saying, are there any questions, but I don’t think anybody knew what to ask.

Then Steve Choate and Way Tin stepped up to bat. Steve Choate is a Spey casting champion and won it over there. They were throwing the SA XLT with a 115-foot head. I never saw them strip in any line, in fact, that was their point. To be able to cast with all the line and not have to worry about frozen guides. Also it was amazing to see the distance these guys were getting by keeping their loops tight. They accomplished this by keeping their tip motion parallel with the water.

Sunday was the same thing with the addition of George Cook. He told the story of how he named the Snap-T. He also showed us the Perry’s Poke. Having just had his class two weeks ago, it was great to get a review.

I must have cast every single rod on the market, every line that was there and met some of the greatest people on earth. Most importantly was Dennis Worley. He worked very hard running around making sure everyone was taken care of.

It was an amazing thing to grab a rod from one of these fellows and cast it. Each one would instruct you as you tried their stuff. There were so many styles to learn. So many things to incorporate into my own program. Through that whole dizzying array of information, I now know exactly which way I’m headed into the Northwest Spey Casting Hall of Fame. If I get lucky I might even catch a fish on the way.

Matt

 

[juro]

It was really a unique event, I regret missing day 2 but day 1 was pretty awesome. Kudos to Dennis and all the pros who made it a spectacular event to attend.

 

[speybum]

Sparky you did good

Hats off to the Sparky and the Crew for Kaufmanns
I had a very enjoyable day and taking a busman’s holiday on top of it.
Talking with Goaner and Andy was kick.
Dana kicking off got things going and set tempo for the rest of the day.
Steve Choate and Way Yin and work his XLT was worth the trip alone
Scott O'Donnell and Mike McCune were excellent with their presentation
Göran Andersson's underhand presentation opened a few eyes including my own.
Andy Murray's presentation with the Hardys was a smooth as silk.
Yes they even had Krispy Kreams, Hot coffee, Hot cakes and Chile.
Toward the end of the day a young man I believe from Sage gave an excellent prestation.
I really enjoy watching people learn and learning my self.
Got to work with the Derek Brown 15’ for 10/11 and the Grandspey10/11.
I like that combination it a good rod.
I did some more work the Sage 5120/4
I was amazed at the new Hardy and the Powell speyrod

 

[flytyer]

I got to have a most enjoyable chat with Goran Anderson of Loop at the end of day 1 that was worth the trip down all by itself. Having Mike Kinney hand me one of my favorite no longer in production rods, the Sage 8150, loaded with one of his very short floating heads (38 feet long) was a gas! Eventhough I fish with mid and long belly lines, throwing 70 foot casts with Mike's short head was a lot of fun.

The new Hardy 9 weight I cast was a very fine casting tool, it is not your father's Hardy at all.

The new little Winston Ibis that Sparkey was playing with was not a bad little rod if I remembered to give a short and gentle stroke. I was impressed with how easily it cast with a gentle stroke. It was a bit on the light side for me though.

Dana, nice seeing you again, too bad you were sick. It was also nice seeing and talking to Dennis Worley as person I used to run into quite often in the Bear Creek area when I lived in Port Angeles.