I’m referring to single-hand spey casting.
Spey casting is typically assumed to involve the use of a two-handed fly rod (12 – 14 feet) to cast for salmon and steelhead. Or, more recently, spey rods have been sized down (11 to 12 feet) in lighter line weights to use two-handed casting techniques for trout – called Trout Spey.
Spey fishing itself has its origins (and its name) from the River Spey in northeast Scotland. It developed in the 18th century as a technique to cast long distances for Atlantic salmon in areas where there was little room for a backcast.
While overhead fly casting is typically in one plane (both back and forward casts), spey casting is performed on multiple planes as the fly line is positioned, an anchor established, and the line swung into a ‘D-loop’ before making the forward cast. (That’s actually simplified as there are two types of casts- sustained anchor and touch and go – that differ in parts of the casting)
Spey casting is elegant as can be observed watching someone who does it well, and without any observed effort, is able to send a line across a very large river.
But there’s another side to spey casting – and that’s using a single-hand fly rod.
All the casts that can be used with two-handed rods (e.g., double spey, single spey, Snap-T, snake roll) can be done with a single-handed rod, with some slight differences due to the nature of using one hand versus two.
Similar to two-handed spey casting, the single-hand cast are performed closer to the body – minimizing excessive arm and shoulder movement and reducing stresses and muscle fatigue.
Single-hand spey can be used for most of the same techniques as overhead casts; about the only limitation appears to be for dry flies.
And another benefit of single-hand spey casting is the low cost of entry (if one has a single-hand rod) – a new rod isn’t required. While most fly lines could be used, the optimum approach is to use a line specifically made for spey casting.
Without turning this post into an equipment review, suffice it to say I got an appropriately sized integrated shooting head line and tips to start learning single-hand spey. Explaining shooting head and tips requires more explanation – in another post.
But for this post, it’s sufficient to say the spey casts themselves are more easily done using a line intended for those casts (in the photo above, the light blue line is the shooting head; while it may not be obvious – its much thicker than a typical fly line).
I saw my first demo of it in the early 2010s at a Red’s Rendezvous in Ellensburg.
But it was only this year that I decided to take the plunge into learning it. I suppose better late than never.
To answer the question why?
After working for a number of years to get my double-haul working and improving distance, it seemed time to learn something new, which is always a good thing to avoid boredom.
Even on beach trips where there nothing is biting, single-hand spey provides an opportunity to work on new casts, which are fun in themselves. This year I’m working on the double-spey and circle spey casts – two of the more fundamental casts.
It does take moving water, similar to a current in a river – but that’s not been a problem as tidal current creates moving water.
The spey casts themselves don’t allow me to get the fly out as far as with an overhead cast – but I can still cast overhead with the spey line and with the monofilament running line, I can get distance far beyond what I could with a weight-forward line.
So, I’ll be working on my spey casting for the foreseeable future – and when available, will take a two-handed spey casting class.
OPST’s Ben Paul did a nice video on single-hand spey casting:
