Typically I pull in six strips of line and then loop it in between my index and middle finger. And then if I'm casting a bit of line, I'll put another six strips of line looped in between my middle and ring finger. Hope that helps! - Marcus
I’ve been Spey casting for 50 years. Young people are making casting to complicated and getting too caught up in gear .. we fished with 16’ rods, home built lines and mend the line to reach the fish.
Thank you! That was very helpful and to the point. Awesome casting BTW. Which rods do you recommend for fishing the PNW rivers? Please be specific in rod length and weight. Thanks again, excellent video.
Hey there, thanks for reaching out! Glad you liked it. We just released a video called Choosing Your First Spey Rod. You should check it out to get answers on those questions you are looking for.
When it came to the casting demonstration do you think the leader length and diameter had more to do with not being able to deliver that big fly than the fact that the line was a scandi taper? What if you just put 4 or 5ft of 0x or 12lb tippet at the end of the scandi head and tried to cast that large fly like that. Similar results or is it doable?
Great question! You are correct in that in many cases if you shorten your leader and use larger diameter leader/tippet you are going to be able to get a larger fly moving. What you lose there in the scandi system is a lot of the area you need to properly create your anchor. With skagit your anchor is determined by the "weight" of the tip as much as the length, in scandi it is more about the total "area" of the anchor. You can push the limits of a scandi with various sinking leaders & larger flies but eventually it's clear that the skagit is the better choice for these larger flies. Hope that helps!
Great question! Sinking skagit heads are really great! They cast and fish beautifully. A slower swing and deeper presentation with less tip. You can use any tip with these heads . The general rule is you will get more sink with less tip. If you are fishing moderate to deep , using an intermediate sink head with a T-11 should fish you where you would have been with a t-14 tip and floating head. king salmon fishermen that use long , heavy tips really like them because they get down and stay there and are generally an easier casting set up.
Hi , if I am buying a Skagit for a switch rod , do I need to factor the combined weights of the mow tip and the skagit ? my rod is reviewed to work really well on a 20ft compact skagit 540 grn, but what happens if I add a mow tip with 120 grn, any sink tip is going to add weight, and so should I be looking at the combined total or do I just need to look at the skagit head only and not worry about the tip/mow tip ? thanks
Thanks for the question Sam! Typically we don't factor the sink tip weight in the load that's going into the rod. If your rod is well matched with a 540 grain head, than you should be able to cast a variety of sink tips, from really light to quite heavy.
