We do a lot of spey fishing at our lodges in Alaska and British Columbia, and by far one of the most common mistakes we see spey anglers make on a day to day basis is not using enough bottom hand on the forward cast. At one time or another, every beginning spey caster has heard, “pull more with your bottom hand,” and for good reason.. It’s really important for producing powerful and efficient casts.
For anglers making the switch from a single handed rod to a double handed rod, it’s natural to apply the majority of the power on the forward cast by ‘pushing’ with your top hand. After all, there’s only a top hand on a single hander! However, with a long spey rod, this causes the rod tip to move in a big wide arc, thus producing wide inefficient loops on the forward cast. Often times, this is most characteristic of a forward cast that unrolls across the surface of the water as opposed to a nice tight loop that unrolls in the air above.
Instead, it is your bottom hand that should provide the majority of power for the forward cast, while your top hand acts as a fulcrum between your bottom hand and the rod tip. Pulling hard with your bottom hand exerts far more leverage to load the rod than punching with your top hand located further up the lever. So, simply put – Pull more, push less.
Sounds easy enough right? We know better. Using too much top hand can be a tough habit to break by explanation alone. Instead, the next time you practice, try this simple drill..
While keeping your normal grip with your bottom hand, only hold the rod with your top hand using the tips of your thumb, index, and middle fingers. Doing so greatly reduces your ability to push your top hand forward with any strength, thus forcing you to use your bottom hand to provide power. Continue casting this way until you are able to produce tight loops that are able to unroll entirely above the surface of the water. Once you can do that, return your top hand to its normal grip and you just might be amazed at the difference.
A couple of years ago maybe, you posted a tip for improving one’s spey or switch casting stroke by keeping the hands out away from the body. That post became an epiphany for me and ties directly into today’s post. When the hands are near to the body, there is nowhere for the bottom hand to go if a pull is attempted. The result, is a push with the top hand in an effort to energize the fly line. Keeping the hands away from the body makes it much easier – and much more likely – to pull with the bottom hand.
You guys are the best! Question. I haven’t read any info regarding leader construction for spey rods. Say I have a 4 wt switch rod. Using the dry tip about what should the diameter of the butt section be for that rod when tying a 9-10′ mono leader for it?
Hi Jere,
Thanks for the kind words! Great question, leader construction is a funky topic as it largely depends on what style of spey line your are using (skagit, scandi, mid-long belly, etc). All of these style of lines have a different front taper design (and thus different tip diameters) that changes the tip/leader construction that is best.
For example, for situations that are going to require a 9-10 foot leader, typically a lighter presenting head/line like a scandi or hybrid head (a mix between scandi/skagit) is best. In these situations, using a Polyleader as your ‘tip’ is often the best idea. Poly leaders are essentially stout tapered leaders that come in a range of sinking rates, intermediate, or floating. Its best to think of them not as ‘leaders’ but as light-weight tips. Being tapered like a traditional leader, they typically turn over and present more delicately than the straight shot of leader material most often attached to the tip on Skagit setups. At the end of a poly leader is a core of strong monofilament that tippet can be easily attached to lengthen the life of the polyleader. To answer your question, the ‘butt section’ of a poly leader is larger in diameter than most material used for leader construction, allowing it to accept the larger diameter tip of most scandi and hybrid heads.
Polyleaders can also be used on skagit setups as well (especially in smaller sizes like that would match a 4 wt.), however, because skagit heads have a much larger tip diameter and a short front taper, it can make casting a little clunkier due to the greater change in diameters.
Hope that helps Jere! Thanks for following along and have fun out there!