Spey Course

ricinus

Just completed a one day Spey casting course- pretty **** informative. Learned four basic casts and more importantly how to analyze any problems and hopefully correct them. Now practice, practice..

Mike

Juliet

How's this coming?

Orvis has introduced a new Clearwater spey rod series. I'm thinking I could chase smallies on the Kankakee (a very big river) that's about 90 minutes from Chicago.

ricinus

Steven, I took the course then every **** river in Alberta flooded, so I never got to practice till Fall in BC. It took a few hours to get into the swing of things, but it is really not that difficult. It's a lot of fun and has its place, but I still prefer my single handed unless you're fishing big water with a lot of double hauls. Hope this helps.

Mike

Juliet

Thanks. Not much available for a course here.
The 12' 6" 6wt spey is wider than most of the creeks in the Driftless but would work well on the K3, I think.

ricinus

I have much the same size rivers here. I took my lessons in Calgary on the Bow R. Lots of people fish the Bow with 5/6 wt spey or switch rods. You certainly can reach parts of the river that would be difficult with a single hander. You can learn the casts from videos, YouTube, etc., but lessons really help with the learning curve. I would think there would be something in the Chicago area for lessons, I took mine through a Calgary area Flyshop.

Mike

Juliet

There's a very well-known Wisconsin guide/instructor named Bob Blumreich, who runs Silver Doctor Fly Fishing. He guides in the Driftless during trout season and then for salmon/steelhead on the Lake Michigan tribs. I've shot him an email about possible instruction come spring. I know in the past he's done a group thing on the Milwaukee River, but was thinking about an individual lesson.

ricinus

All you would need is a couple of hours for the basics and you could figure out the rest fairly easily. We had 4 in our group and it was fine, one on one would be perfect. I tried to set up something for me and my buddy, but the guy who gave the course wasn't in town long enough to accommodate this..

Mike

ricinus

One other thing, it is best not to buy any equipment till after the course as there is a lot of black magic in setups.. Hopefully the guy who gives lessons can supply the equipment..

Mike

Juliet

Good advice