At Alaska West and BC West, we do a lot fishing with spey rods. There are a bunch of reasons that we like spey fishing – line control, less fatigue, the pure enjoyment of making a good cast, and the ability to cover a lot of water.
Spey rods let you cover more water because they make it easy to cast a long ways. Since we generally use Skagit-style spey lines – short, heavy heads connected to running line of one type or another – casting far means stripping off and managing some pretty good lengths of running line.
Managing your running line well helps prevent tangles and allows for easier long casts by minimizing the drag associated with pulling bigs loops of line out of the water when a cast is made. Here are a few tips to help with tangle-free, long, slip-free casts.
- Hold loops of descending size. Long casts require that you hold multiple loops of line – you’ll have a hard time shooting 40 feet of running line if it’s dragging below you in a single loop on the water. As you strip in your running line after a cast, count your strips and hang on to the line in descending counts. A simple pattern for a cast that shoots 7 strips worth of line might be to count 4 strips, hold a loop, count 3 strips, hold a loop, and then make a cast. Holding a couple of the same length is OK, but for some reason that our brains are too small to figure out, loops of ascending size tend to tangle. One pattern for a mega-cast might be 5-5-4-3. Many anglers have their own pattern that works well for them, but just make sure your loops are of the same or descending size.
- Hold loops, not coils. This one is a little hard to describe, so bear with us. If each time you hold a loop, you place it in the same direction on your hand (e.g. front to back), you wind up with coils of line that that tend to tangle more. Instead, use an old climber’s trick and alternate the direction that you hold your loops – pass the first one front to back across your hand, the next one back to front, the next one front to back, etc. This will result in loops that lay cleanly across your hand, and are again much less likely to tangle. Like many of our spey fishing tips, this one comes from Skagit guru and Alaska West alum, Ed Ward.
- For mono running lines, try some rubber tape on the cork. Many anglers prefer using mono running lines like Rio Slickshooter, or even plain old 40 pound mono, for easy long casts and less drag in the water. One of the downsides of mono running lines is that they can be hard to pinch against the cork, especially when your hands are wet and cold. Try wrapping some plain rubber tape around the cork wherever you pinch off the running line (for many anglers this is right on the top end of the cork) – it’s much easier to hang on to mono lines against rubber tape. Important note: don’t use rubber tape that contains any adhesive (electrical tape = bad) as the adhesive will really gum up your line. The right stuff is pure natural rubber with no adhesive on either side, and can be found at a plumbing store, often labelled ‘splicing tape’.
Happy long, tangle-free, slip-free casting!
What’s your running line preference for scandi heads? Seems mono is a go to for many skagit style anglers but what about scandi. I’ve heard of people using both styles of running line but what do you prefer?
Hi Morgan,
Great question! You’re absolutely right that the majority of our guides (myself included), and our guests for that matter, prefer mono running lines on our skagit setups. As you’re well aware, this is mostly attributed to their superior ‘shootability’ over textured or coated running lines. Thus, many folks who prefer mono on skagit setups, often prefer them on scandi setups as well.
Both are ‘shooting head’ systems where the entire head (skagit or scandi) is cast with a fixed distance (the length of the head) outside the rod tip. Therefore, the running line serves the same purpose in both systems. So, if you like the feel and performance of mono, then most likely you’ll prefer it for both systems.
That said, while mono shoots better than coated/textured running lines, some prefer the latter for other reasons like better handling, better buoyancy (mono rarely floats) which might come more into play with some of the more ‘delicate’ fishing situations more often targeted by scandi setups than skagit setups. In this case, some folks might opt not to use mono for their scandi rig.
Like all things fly fishing, at the end of the day, it all comes down to personal preference. Hope that helps!
Thanks Kyle, all of that helps. I’m pretty much using skagit systems to fish tips only and I prefer scandi style systems for smaller, lightweight flies and fishing near the surface. Does mono eliminate the mendability of the running line? I feel like I’d be more capable of placing a fly accurately with a line I can mend and see on the surface. I guess I will have to try out both running lines on both head styles and see which I prefer. Don’t have too much fun down there this season!
Sure thing Morgan! Another solid point. Because it’s not very buoyant, mono is certainly more difficult to mend. However, when swinging flies, because most mends are made under tension to set up a proper swing, it’s not as much an issue since you are pulling against the surface tension of the head to lift and lay the length of your running line. If however, you were attempting to set up a dead drift, as you might fishing nymphs or dries on a single hander, mending slack with mono is extremely difficult, nearly impossible. Make sense?