Brian Niska’s back today with the next in his series of spey casting tips. Brian owns Whistler Fly Fishing, and he’s teaching spey casting at Alaska West and BC West this summer – drop us a line if you’d like to learn from the best in the business.
Start Your Cast With a Lift
Want to be a smooth and consistent speycaster? Starting your cast with a shotgun lift will give you the control you’re looking for.
Regardless of the style of speycast that you may be doing, every cast should should begin in same manner with a smooth upward motion of the rod tip. This move is often referred to as a ‘shotgun lift’, implying the rod tip will be raised very similarly to how one would lift a shotgun while shooting clays.
Start with the rod tip low to the water, pointing straight downstream in the direction of the line dangle. Be sure to keep the butt of the rod centered and close to your body just above waist height while the tip rises in a vertical line to just above head height.
Starting with the rod tip low allows us to keep tension on the line and avoids inducing slack into the cast. The upward motion of the rod tip gets the line moving and clears a good portion of it off of the water. As the rod tip rises, the line comes under tension and it’s easy to feel the weight of the line, which enables precise and consistent anchor placement.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brian Niska, Throwing Loops Co.. Throwing Loops Co. said: Start with a shotgun lift – check out these Tips to make you better speycaster http://t.co/57xhtvF […]