Ask any trout angler on the water about “Spey casting” and
they will demonstrate the, oh so familiar, two handed figure eight. Right? Then
it’s usually followed up with, “but I don’t steelhead fish”. Then there’s the
ardent veteran steelheader who’s only solace is swinging a fly with his two
hander employing his fine-tuned skill. When you ask this angler about trout, he’ll exclaim, “I love Spey casting to big
fish”. Fair enough. What neither angler realizes is that the Spey rod and its
quiver of casts can be effectively used to pursue a huge variety of swimmers. Once
exclusively used for searching large waterways for large anadromous species,
the conventional Spey rod just got a new lease on life.
You don’t have to
wait until the summer brings fresh chrome to your local water way, there’s a
whole season of Spey casting out there just waiting for you. You might already
be a trout fisher, steelheader…maybe both. You do, however, enjoy the hell out
of Spey casting because it’s smooth, effortless, effective, and lots of
fun. Remember those moments when you
were swinging your leech through a juicy fall tail out and… WHACK!! You enthusiastically declare FISH ON!! Line
peels off… then it jumps and just like your ice cream scoop plopping to the
pavement... trout. Your buddies let out
a roar as you halfheartedly wind ‘em in on your thirteen footer, un pin the
leech, think to yourself…”damn, if I would have caught this bad ass during the
trout season on my five weight I would
have been squealing like a little girl”.
Guess what? Turns out, you can confidently let out
that squeal while catching that giant trout on a spey rod. If you are using the
right tool for the job. That tool is coined, “Micro Spey”. These two through
five weight rods have lengths stretching from ten to eleven feet or so. Don’t
think of this new category of rods as a re-named switch rod category. Switch
rods they are not. The most notable difference between the two designs is the
taper or flex pattern. Switch designs are fast (firm) through the mid sections
with a loose (soft) tip to accommodate the tension casting of giant strike
indicators and to mend great lengths of line in order to achieve massive dead
drifts. The “Micro Spey” category’s principal taper design is that of a
conventional Spey rod. These rods feature full flexing tapers able to precisely
place dry flies and soft hackles in precarious lies, like in the middle of the
damn river, or send a sculpin on a section of T8 to a cavernous cut bank in
search of a meat eating predator. That
mid river hawg rolling up on salmon flies has been out of range. Until now! You just opened up a fresh can of whoop ass.
Now that you’re all jacked up on Spey casting lets discover
some awesome tackle options for you to explore. Most of the major players in
the two handed category are providing a small offering of appropriate line
weights and lengths for this new endeavor. The most notable in this category
would be the RL Winston Rod Company and the Anderson Custom Rod Company. Both rod
manufacturers have had a steady stream of top producers in the conventional Spey
and switch rod categories. Termed “Micro
Spey” Winston has set the bar pretty high with this series. Light swing weights and smooth tapers greet
the angler with effortless casting and control. Winston’s BIII TH Micro Spey
series consists of a 10’6” 3 weight, 11’ 4 weight, and an 11’6” 5 weight, an
ample selection for the budding enthusiast. Expect to see more “Micro Speys” from
RL Winston in the future. Gary Anderson’s “JHC” series has a little more depth. This series includes an 11’7” two and three
weight, 11’9” four and five weight, and a 12’1 and 12’5” five weight (double
duty summer steelhead). Gary has designed these rods with “Spey casting” in
mind. These are not your typical chuck-n-duckers. These sticks are built with
hyper sensitive graphite for ultra-light tippet protection and delicate
presentations to selective trout anywhere in the river. The casting accuracy of
these rods for their length is akin to a single hander. These new rods are
equipped to handle the largest trout without compromising the fun factor.
Another caveat to these rod sizes is that your current fly
reels will feel right at home on a “micro”. Without the need of capacity for
large diameter Spey lines, your conventional six weight reel will be typically
adequate for most, if not all, of these rods. The line designs are scaled down
versions of conventional Spey tapers, so, finding a match is not complicated at
all. Lines are currently being designed to handle a great diversity of
application without the complication of changing heads for various conditions.
Okay, so there’s the scoop on the “micros”. Now…the how,
when, and the where. For our neck of the woods, spring time is a complicated
transition time for trout anglers. The hatches are sparse, the river is big,
and the trout are, it appears to be, hibernating. You ply the typical waters
where you have been finding fish in the past with minimum success. You know the
fish are hanging out in their living room waiting for something more than just
a BWO to drift by. These fish are hungry. Don’t give them a hand full of
peanuts when you can serve them a prime rib on a hook, figuratively speaking of
course. That could be construed as bait fishing. Contrary to popular opinion,
these oversized rainbow trout do eat fry, smolt, crawfish,
sculpin, various leeches, and assorted “off the menu” items. These are the
trout that you don’t see milling about the back eddy looking for spent caddis. This
adds another element to “matching the hatch”. Rope up a rusty orange bugger or
a woolhead sculpin and sink it into the abyss on a chunk of T8, give it a
twitch, and hang-on. You already know
how to do the steelhead two-step, so covering the water is automatic for
you. Now that you’ve warmed up to
subsurface presentations… what about the behemoth Redside gobbling up salmon
flies mid river? You know the fish that can’t be caught? Grab a Chubby Chernobyl, don’t be shy. Strip
a pile of line off the reel. Set up a sweet anchor, rip a 70 foot “snake roll”
to the mid river and watch this beast get lit up when you surprise the fins off
of em’. I just got goose bumps!
So, whether you are the trout angler day dreaming about the
“un catchable” or the vet scratching his head and thinking…trout? In April,
May, and June Deschutes Angler Fly Shop will be conducting one day workshops on
trout fishing with “Micro Speys”. We are here to introduce either of you to
your new “micro” friend. The class will focus on adapting casts to conditions, an
introduction to the tackle, rigging for the right presentation, and most of all
applicable fishing techniques. Contact the shop today to register or enquire
about a purchase.
SCHOOL DATES
April 25th
May 30th
June 13th
SCHOOL PRICE: $195.00 per angler
