Single-handed spey casting

I have been wondering if single hand Spey casting would be more useful to me as an angler. What line do you use? Rio has a Single Hand Spey line and I wonder if it would be necessary to perform a Spey cast.

Bill

First, don’t think you can practice single-hand spey casting on grass or parking lot and get it correct. As a roll cast it does need friction from the water to work properly (water helps you load your rod).

Second, I think we are talking about using a single hand spey cast in lieu of using a roll cast. Yes, it can be done. You don’t need special line to do this unless you will be up in the Northwest fishing for steelhead. So, use your same WF line that you fish with here (Missouri) and in the small “size” streams that we have here. Bill, had many videos on this technique that are good.

Third, the roll cast is good to use as is the single hand spey cast, especially when you are blocked behind by trees or a hill. This is because the fly line never goes behind you during the cast. The things that I see done wrong with the roll cast is: (1) it’s one fluid motion – guys tend to stop just before they come forward with their cast. (2) Don’t lift your line off the water during your cast. You need the water to “help” with your cast, providing the drag to help you load your rod. (3) Work your cast in a straight line and once your rod tip and fly line pass over your back or casting side shoulder creating a “D” shape then smoothly roll your fly line forward.

The main difference, at least for the two spey casts we worked on in the advanced class is that a proper roll cast does not change the direction of your line, whereas the spey cast does. So when you are downstream at the end of your drift or swing, and you want to reset upstream 90 degrees or more from where you are, rather than making 2 or 3 roll casts and gradually move up stream, the spey can be used to change your casting direction in one cast. Much more efficient which means more time in the water which = more fish…hopefully.

From the research I have done, there are two types of roll cast, which Kenny mentions above. I have seen them referred to as static and dynamic. Static being the one where the line stays on the water at all times. Pausing prior to the forward or not, the anchor point, where the line leaves the water to form the “D” loop, is next to you or slightly in front of you. The dynamic roll cast actually picks up the line from the water and places it back down so that the anchor point is actually a bit behind the caster. Once the line touches down, you immediately start the forward cast. The idea is if you have a sinking line, or a lot of line under the surface, it brings it all up prior to the forward cast. As you know, roll casting a sinking line that is still sunk, don’t work.