Pro Tips

Spey casting tip 1: Lining up your anchor 
Many Spey casters have difficulty getting the end of their line and leader to turn over properly. Some blame the design of their lines, others blame their leaders, still others blame their rods. Sometimes these much-maligned components of kit are the problem, but more often than not, the culprit lies in a simple casting flaw.

By definition, a Spey cast is a cast where the backcast is made under the rod tip and the end of the line and leader are allowed to touch down on the water transiently, immediately before the forward cast is made. Simple enough, but not enough people pay attention to how the line lands on the water. The end of the line and leader form the anchor or grip, and essentially freeze the momentum of the line on the backcast so that the rod can be made to bend (or load) against it for the forward cast. If the anchor is not formed properly, casting distance will definitely suffer, as will line turnover.

One thing that separates good, consistent Spey casters from wannabes is the way good casters always line up their anchors in the direction of their forward cast. The anchor shape is also linear, not crumpled or bent. By focusing on improving your anchor shape and direction, your casting consistency and line turnover will rapidly improve.


Tip 2: Casting Stroke Length is Proportional to the Belly Length of Line Used
Many Spey casters learn with short belly lines, like the Scientific Anglers Short Head, Rio Windcutter, or Airfo Delta. All of these lines have short bellies (around 55 feet). Although relatively easy to learn Spey casting with, these short belly lines often lead to the development of bad habits or arrested casting development, especially when the budding Spey caster wants to use longer belly lines.

The casting stroke is determined by when the rod tip starts moving at the beginning of the cast to when it stops. Between these two points, during any cast (forward or back), the rod tip should be accelerated, with the tip speed steadily increasing until the casting stroke is abruptly stopped, ending the casting stroke. The distance that the rod tip travels between stops is the stroke length.

Using a short belly line and a long rod (14-16 feet) mandates a short stroke length (a longer stroke length will often cause the anchor to skip out of the water, killing the cast). When advancing to longer belly lines, remember that if you are carrying more line out the tip of the rod, you will have to increase your stroke length, both on the Spey backcast (making the D loop) as well as on your forward cast. One easy way to increase your stroke length and simultaneously improve the efficiency of your casting is to start using your torso. By rotating your torso back during the backcast, and forward during the forward cast, you can increase your stroke length by up to two feet, while simultaneously adding power without additional arm strain.

Tip 3: The importance of a sudden stop:
Many beginning and intermediate Spey casters have difficulty casting tight, efficient loops. Although the slower actions of Spey rods may contribute to wider casting loops, the main problem is usually a fundamental casting flaw. For some reason, even good single hand casters forget that a sudden and relatively high stop is important with Spey casting as well. Maybe it has something to do with gripping a rod with two hands, but it shouldn’t.

The casting stroke is determined by when the rod tip starts moving at the beginning of the cast to when it stops. Between these two points, during any cast (forward or back), the rod tip should be accelerated, with the tip speed steadily increasing until the casting stroke is abruptly stopped, ending the casting stroke. With the increased leverage afforded by two hands on the rod, getting the rod tip accelerating usually is not the problem. Focus on using both hands to abruptly STOP the rod at it’s maximum point of acceleration. This will result in tighter, more efficient and wind cheating loops.


On Rods:
In the past five years, there has been a great leap in Spey casting performance. Over the years, I've had a rare opportunity to cast and fish with most of the two-handed rods from the world's greatest manufacturers. Yet, I still felt that something was missing, even from my favorite sticks. Jim Bartschi, was sympathetic to my concerns, and over four years, has steadily worked towards making what I consider the ultimate series of Spey rods. With the new T2H, he's hit the nail on the head. No longer does a Spey rod have to weigh a ton. No longer do you need different rods to cast short and long belly lines, or to cast floating lines and heavy sink tips. No longer do you have to worry about differing rod actions from one line weight or rod length to another. No longer do you have to pay over $1000 for the best money can buy. These new T2H sticks simply ROCK. Now, I have to figure out what to do with all the other rods cluttering my basement!