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Jun 25 2009

Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 1 – Why

Dec Hogan covers the Arolik, bank-to-bank.
Photo: Cameron Miller

Over the past few years, spey casting has become the method of choice in most fisheries around the world that involve presenting swung flies to anadromous fish. On the Kola Peninsula, and in Iceland, and on the Hoh River and in Tierra Del Fuego, anglers chase Atlantics and steelhead and sea run browns with spey rods. Visit Alaska West or BC West when the kings or steelhead are in the river, and you’re going to see a whole bunch of anglers with spey rods in their hands.

Within just the last couple of years, lightweight spey tackle and techniques have been refined to the point where many anglers, us included, have also started using spey rods to chase trout.

We fish in a lot of different places around the world and firmly believe that tackle and techniques should match the species and angling situation at hand. We don’t think you should spey cast just for spey casting’s sake– this is not the way to present #22 dries on the Henry’s Fork.

However, if you’re primarily swinging flies for trout –like you would with a smolt pattern, or a sculpin, or a leech or even a mouse — little spey rods are a great way to get ‘er done, for all the same reasons we like them for large anadromous fish.

Here’s why you should spey fish for trout:

  • The long rod gives you more line control. A 12 1/2 foot rod allows you to move more line than a 9 foot rod does, and that helps you swim your fly better – simple as that.
  • It’s easier. If you’re swinging flies, your fly winds up downstream of you at the end of every swing. It’s a pain in the rear end to get that fly moving front-to-back again with an overhead cast, and spey casting was designed to make that fly change directions.
  • You can cast further. Most of the time that you’re trout fishing, distance doesn’t really matter too much. However, a really cool benefit of spey casting for trout is that on some pretty incredible trout waters, like the Arolik in Western Alaska for example, the extra 30-40 feet of range that you get with a little spey rod allows you to pretty literally cover the whole river. We love wading the Arolik and bouncing smolt, sculpin and mouse patterns off the far bank. It’s a hoot and it’s really effective.
  • It’s fun. Yes, we claimed above that you shouldn’t spey cast for spey casting’s sake. But if you’re swinging flies and the fish are eating, it’s a lot more fun to pull off a spey cast like the snap-T than it is to go from 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock for the one-millionth time.

I ate a spey-cast streamer, and it was delightful.
Photo: Cameron Miller

Coming soon, we’ll have follow-up posts on gear and tactics related to spey fishing for trout.

More on Spey Fishing
Making T-14 Tips
10 Tips – Swinging Flies for Kings
Why We Like Spey Casting
Sage 8134-4 Z-Axis

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jerry Phelan says

    August 4, 2010 at 8:09 am

    Great site and full of info.

  2. andrew says

    August 4, 2010 at 8:44 am

    Hi Jerry, thanks very much for stopping by! We appreciate it.

  3. Denny Weston says

    July 28, 2011 at 7:47 am

    Andrew, fantastic newsletter! I look forward to it in my inbox every week. Deneki has become my “go to” for gear reviews and techniques. Great job, thanks.

    Denny

  4. andrew says

    July 28, 2011 at 8:30 am

    Thanks very much, Denny. Really appreciate the good words!

  5. Rick Heim says

    July 2, 2014 at 8:27 am

    Love the site and had a question about Spey casting. I have very few places that I fish where Spey casting would be pratical but I want to get into it. . When you talk about targeting Rainbows with ” light Spey rods ” can these be switch rods and what do you mean by light . Thanks

  6. Ken midas says

    January 7, 2016 at 4:40 pm

    Thanks for being out there enjoy reading your newsletter learning a lot from you. Enjoy the fly tying videos thanks Ken

  7. Fritz Raddatz says

    February 1, 2018 at 3:36 am

    Why I shall using any forcast like perry Poke, circle spey, z -spey and other forcast?

    I fish now as Pensionar only on cheap waters like the baltic sea and ouer lake’s in schleswig-holstein, germany.

    I use only old rod with no tipp-action!

    Can you explain me it, wat is häppend

Trackbacks

  1. Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 3 – Tactics says:
    December 3, 2010 at 9:26 am

    […] the past couple of weeks we’ve covered why we think you should spey fish for trout, and which gear you should use when you do it. Today we’ll talk a bit about tactics to use […]

  2. Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 2 – Gear says:
    December 3, 2010 at 9:29 am

    […] posted previously about why we think you should spey fish for trout. Today we talk about how to set yourself […]

  3. Switch Rods - Why You Should Try One | Spey Casting says:
    December 9, 2010 at 10:06 pm

    […] Spey Fishing For Trout – Why […]

  4. Spey Casting and Fishing Articles says:
    December 20, 2010 at 11:20 am

    […] Trout Spey – Why […]

  5. Alaska Fly Caught Rainbow Trout | Alaska West Photo by Louis Cahill says:
    July 23, 2011 at 6:01 am

    […] Spey Fishing for Trout – Why […]

  6. Spey and Switch Rods for Trout | An Update says:
    May 7, 2012 at 6:01 am

    […] year of 2009, we wrote a series of posts on our blog about spey fishing for trout – why you should do it, what gear you should consider, and some tactics you should use.  Those posts have turned into […]

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