Spey Tips that Actually Helped

Pink Nighty

Life of the Party
Pull the bottom hand into your gut. Like actually hit it in there. Maybe its just my ample gut, but that is the most consistent way for me to achieve a high, positive stop. Just to be safe I will remain on the beef and bourbon diet to maintain this advantageous figure.
 

O' Clarkii Stomias

Landlocked Atlantic Salmon
Forum Supporter
Is this just because it'll determine anchor placement or is there something more to it?
A good lift leads to predictability and repeatability of the next move, which leads to good and consistent anchor placement. I've found that focusing on the line during the lift, and trying to get as much as I can off the water, casting gets much easier.
 

Yard Sale

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
My best key is to make sure my rod is fully vertical before firing. By that I mean no sidearm, 45 degree forward stroke. Having the rod tip and but straight in line with my target usually makes me slow down a bit and the extra power makes me hit it softer.
 
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O' Clarkii Stomias

Landlocked Atlantic Salmon
Forum Supporter
My best key is to make sure my rod is fully vertical before firing. By that I mean no sidearm, 45 degree forward stroke. Having the rod tip and but straight in line with my target usually makes me slow down a bit and the extra power makes me hit it softer.
Interesting, I've found I get the best cast when the tip of the rod travels directly over the top of the anchor.
 

Yard Sale

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Interesting, I've found I get the best cast when the tip of the rod travels directly over the top of the anchor.
I know I'm not very good at describing what I'm thinking, but I don't know what you mean by tip going over the anchor. To me the tip is fairly specific and the anchor is an area.

We all have good sessions, to me the difference is when you can self diagnose and get back in the groove.
 

O' Clarkii Stomias

Landlocked Atlantic Salmon
Forum Supporter
I know I'm not very good at describing what I'm thinking, but I don't know what you mean by tip going over the anchor. To me the tip is fairly specific and the anchor is an area.

We all have good sessions, to me the difference is when you can self diagnose and get back in the groove.
For me, I have found over the years, that the closer I can place the anchor to me, the more efficient the cast. Once I establish my anchor, if the tip of my rod, on the forward delivery, travels directly over the top of my anchored line, I get a straight line delivery. If I go vertical with the rod, and ignore the anchor, the cast, while it may be long, ends up wonky. For me this is a single spey thought process, but it has the same result in all my casts. In essence, the further my side cast ends up from me, up or downstream, the more horizontal my forward delivery
 

Dustin Chromers

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Is this just because it'll determine anchor placement or is there something more to it?

Without a consistent, repeatable and reliable lift the energy needed to bring the line to precise anchor position or change direction is not a constant. You might as well be using a different grain line on every cast if you have a inconsistent lift. Yes, you'll fire a dime sometimes but not all the time. If you start each cast with the same lift you have a ground zero to begin building the cast from, whatever the cast you are going to employ.
 

longputt

Steelhead
"Aim High"....that really helped me. Also, "slow down" but that'll never happen I have to use dynamic casts.
 
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_WW_

Geriatric Skagit Swinger
Forum Supporter
Without a consistent, repeatable and reliable lift the energy needed to bring the line to precise anchor position or change direction is not a constant. You might as well be using a different grain line on every cast if you have a inconsistent lift. Yes, you'll fire a dime sometimes but not all the time. If you start each cast with the same lift you have a ground zero to begin building the cast from, whatever the cast you are going to employ.
As I work my way down a run the water changes, my wading depth changes, what's behind me changes, the weather changes. Hell, everything changes. What my fly is swinging into at the top of a run is different than what it swings into at the bottom Same as where it lands and what the current at that particular spot will do to the fly. Random boulders in the finishing area can also create spots that will grip your line like molasses. Every part of my cast changes as I work down - sometimes it's a different cast after every step because of the changing conditions.

Can you find consistency amongst all the chaos? Yes. With experience you will recognize what has changed when you moved and know what part of your cast needs to be altered to compensate for the new condition. You may need a different cast than the one you just used. Don't read water just to find fish, read the run top to bottom from a casting perspective before you step in.
 

Dustin Chromers

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
As I work my way down a run the water changes, my wading depth changes, what's behind me changes, the weather changes. Hell, everything changes. What my fly is swinging into at the top of a run is different than what it swings into at the bottom Same as where it lands and what the current at that particular spot will do to the fly. Random boulders in the finishing area can also create spots that will grip your line like molasses. Every part of my cast changes as I work down - sometimes it's a different cast after every step because of the changing conditions.

Can you find consistency amongst all the chaos? Yes. With experience you will recognize what has changed when you moved and know what part of your cast needs to be altered to compensate for the new condition. You may need a different cast than the one you just used. Don't read water just to find fish, read the run top to bottom from a casting perspective before you step in.

That's why it's all the more important to start with a repeatable and consistent lift. With all the changing variables starting from a consistent foundation block helps newer casters gain confidence and proficiency managing the rest.

I'm much like you in that I don't cognitively even consider the variables anymore. Each cast is tailor built to serve a function in a particular situation. I just cast. I cast by feel built over decades of frequent experience. But when I teach someone or even in my own casting I always stress the methodical lift. You can't control everything but where you start you can.
 

BNF861

Smolt
Couple pieces of advice I received early that I feel really helped me;

Learn to cast with either hand up.
A great caster that helped me out early on highly encouraged this from the beginning and I feel it really paid off. If you can cast right or left hand up, you’ll have a complete aresenal of casts regardless of what side of the river you’re on, what direction the wind is coming from and whatever obstacles are around you. Yes, backhanded casting can accomplish the same thing to a point but I would consider it less efficient and a lot more difficult as someone gets into longer lines. It was awkward at first but casting with my non dominant hand up actually helped overcome the single hand muscle memory that had me overpowering my top hand.

Constant line tension throughout the cast.
Many people have already mentioned slowing down which to break it down a little further translates to help me maintain constant line tension. Sometimes when I find my casts doing some odd things, I will often be rushing a part of the cast. The line will still be going in one direction and I’m already sending the rod in a different direction creating some kind of crossover and crashing of the line. A natural compensation is to create a pause to let the line catch up before sending in a different direction but this allows the rod to unload and then have to reload and creates a slack spot in the cast that is no good either. Slowing down throughout the cast (without slowing down too much to lose tension) results with a constant load, smoother cast and more efficient with less effort.
 

jkdurden

It’s all about the size of your D.
After the flop, as you begin to sweep your D loop, your first move in this sequence should be out toward the middle of the river and then around. OUT and THEN around…. This move decreased my effort and increased my casting distance an additional 20-25 feet.

“The goal of spey casting is the utilization of effortless power as opposed to powerless effort.” - Mike McCune
 

clarkman

average member
Forum Supporter
One thing that always stuck with me was "hands in the box"
 
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