This video was taken this past weekend while going fishless on the salmon. I felt I was starting to feel the casts but after asking some other eastern spey casters and some west coasters their opinions, I find I have a lot more to learn. I thought you might benefit from my learnings as well. Here are some comments I have gotten, you can clearly see my mistakes. ANy other comment are welcome as well. Thanks...
BTW, some of the harsher comments (FLabby Stroke) came from a buddy who I bought my lines from.
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Shaq,
I do not consider myself a Spey fisherman. With that said I can cast a Spey Rod and I've been to 2 Sandy River Spey Claves. I've done casting clinics with the best....Gawesworth, Ward, Sturn, Mukai, Kushner. As an observer, I would say your cast is slow, mabye 1/2-2/3 speed, and lacks "snap".
Looked at any DVD's? Spey Casting Secrets, shot at SRSC is a good one...or just plan on doing the '07 Clave in May, a guaranteed winner!
Im NO expert, just observin's all
OK, try the simple change. Make all your stops in the cast, be it single, double, c-spey, whatever, MUCH more defined. Try to stop the rod on the end of the final forward thrust more sharply and maybe at about 10:00 instead of at the water level. Be sure that your anchor is properly set and try to aviod the bloody L. Truely I think your cast looks good and is clearly working out for you.
One more thing, I notice that your mend is introducing slack into the line and not moving it much one way or another. If you want to slow down your fly more and give it aditional time to sink, try an agress up-current reach mend, you should have better results.
you have a flabby stroke all together. you need to put a bend in that rod. on stage two of the double you lift the rod and then dip the sweep. the sweep needs to be parellel to the water with a constant up lift as you go around into the firing position. the sweep is there to load the rod and the flatter you sweep the rod the more load and the bigger the d loop. stop hard wait for the loop to inflate and shorten up the forward stroke and stop hard at the end with the rod at a 45 deg angle up. if you straighten out your top arm you are using too much top hand. the single is decent and i wouldn't worry too much about it's looks for fishing if you hit the tree across the river it is a good cast
It's pretty much impossible to help you with this over a bulletin board, a clinic with a qualified instructor is the way to go.That being said, here is what I see in your casting.
Zen got the biggest part down (your lack of acceleration). However, the root of this is that you aren't really getting your left hand involved in the cast. You're casting dominant right-handed. It's keeping you from loading the rod and handling it "positively". The whole cast has to initiate from the left hand, for both the single and double spey. Think of staying looser and initiate with that left hand. It should lead through the cast. Ideally, both hands will be used 50-50 but in the short term you have to overcome your right-hand dominance by getting the left involved more in the cast.
I see a lot of evidence in you being dominant right-handed in the second double-spey vid. Watch what happens - your left hand doesn't even come on to the rod until after you start your sweep. You're right hand is doing all the work. Start the cast from your left hand instead of the right, pushing the left the short distance downstream while the right comes upstream. The added movement, on the face of it, may intuitively seem insignigicant, but ultimately it leads to a lot more leverage and power. I can't over-emhasize this point - start the double spey by moving the left downstream, not the right upstream.
I bet you will immediately start having the anchor fly too far up when you do this, because now you have a ton more power. That's OK just remember to "abort" when the anchor comes too high so you don't hit yourself, and use less power, less effor the next time, so you get used to what it's like to get the rod doing the work and being efficient instead of you doing all the owrk.
Other classic mistake - not sure was mentioned - on the double spey is too long of a forward stroke. Stop the rod higher by 20 degrees and you're loop will stay higher. Think short, powerful stroked inititaed by the left hand. The power should come from the left, not the right. The right hand is there more to shorten and stop the arc than to add power.
Your single is - sorry 'bout this but true - barely a spey cast and needs way more rotation in a hurry as well. The Single is hard to pick up without seeing someone do it right so don't take my comments to seriously, it's amazing you've gotten yourself this far. But, it's clear from the video that you're moving too slow, you're cast isn't dynamic it's really static, the timing must be accelerate, stop just enough to anchor (touch and go), accelerate. Think much more rotation around your body in a shorter distance. Your arc on the sweep on the single should be a lot shorter with a lot more "ummph". The rod handle should be much closer to your body, not so far out and extended, as it rotates around you. And the rod tip should be higher as well not so low. That low rod tip means a small D. The bigger arc puts the anchor too far from you and robs power.
This is what I do to get people the feel of a single spey. I have them hold a shoe by the shoelaces to the left of their body in both hands with arms extended. Then, take the shoe and throw it over your right shoulder, only changing direction by 90 degrees so the shoe end up directly behind you (let it go or you'll hit yourself in the back!). This is kind of the feeling you're looking for on the single. You'll find that your wrists have to rotate to get the shoe behind you (90 degree change in angle) and this - although intuitively strange - is what you want - a lot of wrist rotation. But the time you end your sweep on the single, you're left hand should be out in front, and the right hand just a little below eye level a bit to the right of your eye and out in front of you, the rod pointed high into the sky (try to poke a hole in the clouds with the rod tip). Your arms should be fairly close to your body and relaxed. This will get you into the position so that all you have to do is lightly "pop" the rod with a short forward arc that will send the line sailing. It's totally weird but once you "get it" the power is pretty intoxicating, the single is probably the most powerful 2-handed cast out there.
Keep in mind you are fishing, yes, and casting a decent distance, yes, but you're hitting a wall due to your casting faults. And you're probably using a lot more effort than you need to. Improve your technique and you'll use a lot less effort in your casting. Distance is a useful by-product but it's over-rated. Look for reduced effort to me that's the key.
Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 25 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:44 am Post subject:
Shaq thanks for sharing the video I noticed one issue with you single spey cast. It appears that your performed this cast in one or two motions on the video. It looked as though you come back at and angle pause to form the D loop and then perform the forward stroke.
When I was being taught the single spey the instructor told me to start with my tip low and to raise the rod vertical about roughly a foot of more then and follow an imaginary plain i.e. the ceiling reference Simon makes in his spey casting book. Once you start back begin accelerating till you feel the rod begin to lad as your anchor forms the D loop maintaing the acceleration only to pause on your forward cast. The tip of the rod accelerates to a stop high allowing one to form a tight loop.
You obviously have a better mastery of the single/double spey then I but if you wish to improve a good exercise that was taught to me is if you have a friend standing at your left crouch down next to you. Have them reach below your rod and up as one would signal when making a turn on a bike.
This will help you develop the motion of raising the rod up and beginning the acceleration back while keeping and maintaining the straight visual plain. If you practice this a few times you will be amazed just how much it can help.
try watching the single spey in slow motion as Drew Moy does it
http://www.eastcoastspey.com/castingvideos.htm
thanks for sharing Shaq I hope my constructive criticism helps
I have been reading much of the spey related posts in recent weeks enjoying most of it and thinking about where it might be useful. Based on the feedback you received it sounds too much like golf which I gave up years ago to have more time for fishing. I can just see myself on the river trying to make adjustments to my sweep and finish while trying to keep my right hand from having to much control over my stroke. Is it possible to find yourself hooking and slicing your casts?
Pete,
It's just like the learning curve you went through when you first started fly fishing. Something of a pain at first and before long it becomes so automatic that you are casting without thinking about it.
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