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Spey Question #4

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Dana 
#1 ·
Hi Dana
One for you.
How would you design your spey/two-hand course for a group of 6 on an Atlantic Salmon River, East Coast and a group of 6 on a Steelhead River, West Coast? Would they differ in any way?

Rick
 
#3 ·
I would certainly keep the fundamentals the same, but the "fishing" part of the class would differ to highlight the difference between the atlantic's tendency to hit on the hard swing and strip while the steelhead loves the hang down and stalled presentation at a fraction of current speed. The two fish hold in different water as well, the salmon prefers what my friend Topher Browne calls "power water" while the steelhead is happy in the current seams.

There is also the upriver dry presentation that is common to AS streams, where it's unusual on steelhead rivers out west. This lends itself to including a full regimen of turbo-spey casting with single handers or even better with over/under rods like the CND Spey Tracker 9' 8" which casts a 7wt or 8wt line or a Windcutter 5/6 overhead or spey.

Seasonal considerations would include summer verses winter fish, where the winter steelhead requires the use of sinking tip lines and the summer steelhead for the most part do not. This makes the line choices and to an extent the casting techniques sway one way or the other and a corresponding training regimen would be useful to those who want instruction in one direction or another.

For instance, you don't want to train initially with a long belly floater and then go fishing in January with deep sunk lines and big flies for the first time, or vice-versa.

Again, the fundamentals of casting would be the same but the 'fishin' would sure be different!
 
#4 ·
Hi Rick!

Well, interesting question. Since I haven't fished Atlantics or on the East Coast the first thing I would want to do is my homework. I don't think that my approach would change with either class. Here are my typical steps:

1. find out how much experience the students have with two-handers. I would do this by sending out a brief questionnaire well in advance of the class. Questions would include: a) have you ever spey cast before? b) if "yes" to (a), how long have you been spey casting and which casts are you familiar with? c)what do you hope to learn during this class? d)what rod, line and reel will you be bringing to the class?

2. as Brian and Juro mentioned, I wouldn't change much in the way of the essentials or the steps I would use to get the class moving through the instructional sequence. However, as Juro pointed out, there are differences in the angling approach to the two species and I would make certain I talk to experienced Atlantic salmon anglers who use two-handers so that I have a knowledge base that would allow me to relate various aspects of the two-handed cast to actual fishing situations. However, I wouldn't presume that I know more about Atlantic salmon fishing that the students in the class, and I would defer to their knowledge of the fishery when seeking to make connections between the casting and the fishing.

Spey casting is a fly delivery method that has wide application, so the approach to teaching this skill is applicable to any situation that lends itself to the method. The fishing applications of spey casting will be unique to the fishery, and that's where I get the benefit of teaching the casting skills, because through a casting course I can learn a whole lot about fly fishing for, in this case, Atlantics.
 
#6 ·
Brian,

since owning my suckness some time ago I have embraced my casting inadequacies and no longer fear exposure. Since the exam is a test of teaching skills, I am working very hard to make certain that I can teach poor casting methods. If my casting sucks but I can teach you how to cast so that your casting sucks too, then I think I have a shot at passing the test.

Yes, we have a room and will be up sometime Saturday evening. I'll need to know "where and when" for Sunday, but I will probably be without wheels so I might need you to pick me up. We'll talk.

Juro, I sent you mail too...
 
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