When you’re making spey casts in the Skagit style, try to keep your hands as close to your body as possible! Ed Ward, long-time guide at Alaska West and one of the fathers of Skagit-style spey casting, has been called “the man who can spey cast inside a phone booth”. That’s a bit of an…
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casting
Better Backcast Presentations – Part 2: Stay Square
We recently kicked off our series of posts dedicated to improving one of the most important casts on the flats; the ability to present the fly on the backcast. Last week we touched on bracing; a useful technique to add power to your backstroke when casting into heavy winds with big rods and/or wind-resistant flies….
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Better Backcast Presentations – Part 1: Bracing
Presenting the fly on your backcast is one of the most important casts on the flats. Not only does it allow you to make effective casts without the need for the guide to adjust the boat, its also a great option for presenting the fly under one of the most difficult casting scenarios; casting with…
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Fly Casting – Practice with Purpose
Practice makes proficient (there’s no such thing as perfect), but practice without purpose is a long road to improvement. Fly casting is no exception. As most anglers can attest, beautiful casting does not always translate to effective fishing. Therefore, if catching fish is your primary objective (which we have a feeling it might be), tailoring…
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Timeless Tips: 3 Slack-Line Presentations Every Trout Angler Should Know
As most effective trout anglers know, a well executed drift is far more important than a perfect cast. Whether we want our fly to drift naturally in the current, or swing through the water column at a particular depth, this is best achieved by mending – That is, repositioning the line on the water after the…
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Whitney Gould Claims 6th World Spey Casting Title
This past weekend, the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club hosted the 15th annual Spey-O-Rama (SOR) World Spey Casting Championships in San Francisco, California. We’re pleased to announce that Deneki family member and Alaska West alum, Whitney Gould, took top honors in the women’s division of the international competition, earning her 6th (that’s right, sixth) world spey…
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Timeless Tips: Fly Casting for Distance
Let’s face it.. We all want to know how to cast further. Regardless of whether it’s necessary to catch fish or not, casting a bunch of line is just plain fun, and certainly a skill worth aspiring to. Rarely do fish in our neck of the woods require really long casts, but the ability to…
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Keep Bad Casts from Becoming Blown Shots
Bad casts are inevitable on the flats. Sure, they might occur more (or less) often for some, but make no mistake, everybody blows shots. With that said, not all bad casts result in blown shots. In fact, a mark of a great angler is the ability to turn a poor cast into an effective presentation….
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Spey Casting: The Rewind Cast (Video)
Ever heard of the Rewind Cast? Probably not.. That’s because it was developed by OPST frontman and Deneki alum, Trevor Covich. Not only does it look super cool, for the experienced spey caster the Rewind Cast can help produce efficient casts under some difficult casting situations, not the least of which includes safely setting an…
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Spey Casting: The Perry Poke – Explained
In case you weren’t aware, our good friends from OPST have been pumping out some pretty high-quality instructional spey casting videos of late. In their latest videos, Deneki alum, Trevor Covich, gives the finer points of one of the most versatile skagit-style spey casts – The Perry Poke. They’ve even broke the ‘poke’ down into…
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