Grass Leaders | Leaders for Spey Casting Practice on Grass

Grass Leader for Spey Casting — *Typical grass leader.. Photo: Kyle Shea.*

When it comes to single-hand casting, we always recommend our guests spend some time practicing their cast before their trip. Shaking some of the rust off before taking your much anticipated trip is a sure-fire way to enhance your experience! Casting practice doesn’t have to occur on the water however. In fact, we would argue that casting on grass is far beneficial in terms of improving your cast.. After all, there isn’t the obvious distraction of fish throwing off your focus.

Practicing with a two-handed rod can be a bit more challenging, as water tension is required to properly execute all spey casts. There simply isn’t enough friction present between the line and the ground to provide a proper anchor point, making an efficient spey cast on grass nearly impossible.

Unless.. What if we could make a leader that could ‘grab’ the grass to simulate the force of water tension? Well, we can! It’s called a grass leader and it’s a great way to practice spey casting (or roll casting!) on grass when you can’t make it to the river. Is it a perfect simulation of casting on water? Not really.. But it does provide enough of an anchor to execute most spey casts. Plus, since you are not rushed by the river current, casting on grass allows you to stop your cast at any time to work on good rod position and line placement, by far the most important elements of a good spey cast.

Making a grass leader is easy! Here’s how:

Cut up approximately 20, 8 inch lengths of stiff leader material (we like 30 lb. Maxima)
Tie each section together using blood knots creating an 8-10 foot leader. Leave tag ends long.
Trim each tag end to approximately a 1/4 inch in length. Knots should be approximately 5 to 6 inches apart.
Create a loop in the end of the leader and connect directly to shooting head. Keep in mind the grass leader simulates BOTH your sink tip and leader in a real fishing situation.
Go practice!

Note: The number of blood knots and lengths of tag ends can be adjusted to best suit the length of grass you will be casting on.