After having practiced some single-hand Spey casting over the last two months, I decided I wanted to jump in with both feet and take up casting a two-handed rod – the very symbol of Spey casting.

But I decided it was vital to take an introductory class from an experienced Spey casting instructor. As many others have learned the hard way, it’s easier to learn something correctly from the outset than to pick up bad habits and then have to unlearn them later.

I’d been looking around to see what the different fly shops – at least those relatively locally – had in terms of instruction. I was looking for a quick pick-up lesson and didn’t want to wait for a more scheduled opportunity.

Last week, I was over in Tacoma for a different purpose, but wound in the area of Puget Sound Fly Company. It had been three years since I’d be in the store – the last time was just before Anil closed it in November, 2022.

I asked Matt, the new owner, if he knew of any Spey casting instructors and he said he ran one-on-one classes over at Wapato Park, just east of I-5.

So yesterday, we met at 8AM at his shop and I followed him over to the park.

The park was a pleasant surprise, as I had never heard of it. It has both a forest and a lake, with a walking trail that had a number of people on it.

We put on our waders and boots. He got out his Sage R8 Spey (7130 – 13′ 0″ 7wt) and we walked into the water with a very sticky mud bottom.

While actual Spey casting is typically done in rivers with moving water, Matt said he liked teaching introductory classes in still water like a lake as the caster has to do everything (including roll casting the line out to establish the initial line position). He thinks that’s a better learning environment than dealing with a river or stream and all the distractions.

After reviewing the hand positions, he showed me the Switch Cast, and had me practice it.

At one point, he said he had nothing to say as I was casting well – and he particularly was impressed that I wasn’t rushing my casts (a common problem for new Spey casters).

I told him that watching You Tube videos and practicing single-hand Spey casting had been extremely helpful.

From there we moved on to the two fundamental casts: Double Spey and Snap-T.

Double Spey was easy and only made a few mistakes with the Snap-T, that he quickly corrected.

One thing that was really funny was that a flock of nearby ducks had quacks that sounded like laughter. It was somewhat mysterious how they were quacking when I was making mistakes with that cast.

Finally, he had me shoot line – something he said he hadn’t got to with any new student.  Again, being prepared  for what he had to teach made the lesson even more valuable.

After about one hour, we were done (he had to get back to open his shop for the day).

He said now it’s just a matter of practice to develop the muscle memory to get the cast down.

I’m now a neophyte Spey caster.

And did I mention, I really, really liked the Sage R8 7130?