Fly Fishing

dann · Location: Lancaster pa

Was wondering if anyone on this forum is an avid saltwater spey caster, and are any specific to tropical waters like FLA. I oval cast allmost all of the time usally cause of casting 1-2-and1/0 and 2/0 flys, I find this cast the best way for me to shoot alot of line with larger patterns. I was watching some spycasting videos for the frist time the other day and properly exicuted it looks like you can bomb out some serious line. The types of cast shown like the traditional spey looks alot like a 2 handed oval cast; dose speycasting in general produce longer cast??

Dan.

darth_wader · Location: Niagara Falls, ON

I'm curious about this as well. Although I'm not an avid saltwater caster i can't see why it doesn't or wouldn't work. My current set-up (600 grain Skagit head) is not suitable for flats but I have casted it successfully on the flats for bass, gar and carp and in the summer I casted it great and it was a good set-up for the winds of Nova Scotia in July. Of course I was adamant in washing it thoroughly in the hotel bathtub afterwards.

I imagine timing would be the main concern????

Alex

dann · Location: Lancaster pa

So darth you are a spey caster? for most of my fresh water fishing is on the lower Susquehanna river for smallmouth, walleye, muskey and carp. the spots that I fish range from a mile to 1/2 a mile wide, wich makes for alot of water to cover with a flyrod. Would a switch or spey setup be more productive in covering a large body of moving water

Thanks Dan.

darth_wader · Location: Niagara Falls, ON

Dann:

I am a Spey caster. I use the method equally for both the one-handed and two-handed varieties. Although, I don't want to pass myself off as a sort of guru or anything Very Happy

. Two years ago on trip to NYC I remember crossing the Susquehanna. LOL.. I made a comment to my wife about it basically saying... "I wonder". Which i always do as I cross or see any water.... within reason. i remember what she looks like.

That said a two-hander would go a long way in allowing to cover more water. Especially when there is no room for a backcast. The Niagara River is my home river and of course the steelhead and other migratory fish are hot right now. Even though I use my one-hander to fish pockets down there my two-hander is my go to. Not only do I cover a lot of water on the swing but it handles the fish and currents. Either way a Spey or switch would be a good investment. Some would argue that the switch is more versatile (indi fishing) but I can tell you that I have used the indi with the two-hander. Recently, I lost a big Lake Trout while using an indi... it snapped my 15 lb tippet.

As far as being interested in spey. A consideration is for you to start with a Skagit head.. bear in mind that it will cover mistakes that say a Traditional or Scandi type wouldn't. You can blast out decent line with the Skagit. One drawback is that they can "splat" on the surface which isn't necessarily bad with species like bass and the like. Carp... definitely would spook however.

Alex

dann · Location: Lancaster pa

Alex: thanks for the reply, much help. I was looking at the Echo switch rod, and from reading old post the Ariflow 40+ would be a good line for all around. The tfo switch version of the axiom looks nice to and comes in a 9wt where the echo stops at an 8wt. Too many choices out there drives me nuts. Ya know I've never seen the upper susquehanna I hear Its much smaller that where Im from. Right now we're having trouble with are smallmouth population and the game comis. in putting a c&r starting the first of the year. about time.. I wish they would have done this yrs ago, and also with muskeys as well.

Thanks again for the info

Dan

darth_wader · Location: Niagara Falls, ON

Dan:

No problem and I'm glad I could help. I hope I didn't come off as some sort of guru. I owe a lot of thanks to my guru for teaching me the ways of Spey.... or as well it... "The Dark Side".

Are the smallie numbers up or down? Muskie are fairly protected here with thanks to groups like Muskies Canada. Signs are posted all over the Upper Niagara River showing folks the diffrences between them and pike. There are a lot of choices out there though... too many to count. i think no matter what you choose you'll like the Switch rod. Very versatile.

Alex

dann · Location: Lancaster pa

The smallies in the lower susquehanna below harrisburg are way down. Ive been to spots this year that always produced good numbers and nice sizes averaging 15-20" bass, but this summer i was skunked on many occasions, wich has never happend before. I thought i was my lack of fly fishing ability, but i went out with the gear and big spinner baits for a day and still got skunked; and so is every one on the river. there has bin a problem with die offs of young smallies due to baccteria, and the epa and fish commission are looking into it; and untill they find the source catch and release in in afect starting 2011. Snice small mouth growth is so slow its my opinion that They should do somthing more like FLA dose with the snook and other species and have in between limits, like for smb 12-15" you could keep and any thing under or over C&R. Or just keep it C&R period on the prize game fish like smallies pike and muskies.
The shad where almost gone some time ago, but now with the fish ladders And C&R regs the numbers are way up the shad runs in the spring are a blast, you can catch a 100 fish in a day sometimes. So with all that said I hope the fish commission sticks to there guns and keeps the C&R for a good many years, and dosn't fall to the pressure of the tackel shops saying that there losing sales due to the new regs witch they have been complaining about in the local paper.

My 2cents Dan. Thanks again for the info