Many are intimidated by the thought of taking up Spey casting.  The long rods, confusing terminology, different equipment, and a relative paucity of Spey-specific teaching materials likely contribute to the perception that Spey casting is inherently more difficult to learn than overhand casting.  Quite to the contrary, Spey casting is often more forgiving and less dangerous than overhead casting, especially with large flies.  For those of you thinking about learning to Spey cast, or who are already Spey casting, I hope this monograph will help expose what is an eminently useful, fun, and relatively easy way to cast and catch fish!

The Spey style of casting and fishing was developed on the storied Scottish river Spey over 200 years ago.  Like other rivers in the Highlands of Scotland, the waters of the Spey are bordered by steep banks and trees, precluding the effective use of traditional overhead casts.  In their typically resourceful way, the Scots developed a unique style of casting, using long rods and graceful flowing movements to deliver long casts requiring little or no back–casting clearance.  This style of casting also maximized the efficiency of fishing by essentially eliminating the need for stripping and shooting line.  Using a single graceful motion, a Spey caster could change the direction of an 80’-100’ cast up to 90 degrees effortlessly. The technique of Spey casting continued to evolve, reaching a peak in the late Victorian era with the contributions of a man named Alexander Grant. 

Mr. Grant demonstrated the awesome distance potential and utility of Spey casting, without ever having to shoot line.  Raised on the Spey, and later known as “the Wizard of the Ness”, Grant’s revolutionary approach towards Spey casting allowed him to fish the large rivers of his home more effectively.  A farmer by profession (among his other talents, he was a gifted an amateur scientist who was said to correspond with Einstein, a legendary traditional Scottish fiddler and violin-maker, and an inventor), Grant carefully analyzed the equipment of the day, the fundamental physics of the Spey cast, and formulated (for the time) radical and advanced continuous taper silk lines (square in cross section, instead of round) and developed refinements in the techniques of the Spey cast which are still practiced today.  In 1895, Grant recorded the longest ever Spey cast, performed without shooting line, of 65 yards (195 feet), using a 21 foot spliced greenheart rod and silk line of his own design.  The cast was performed from an anchored boat, and was recorded by judges of “unimpeachable accuracy”. Even at the ripe age of 79, Grant was witnessed catching Atlantic salmon with casts approaching 50 yards.  Sadly for later generations, Grant committed little of his work and techniques to paper, but many of his achievements were chronicled by Donald G. Ferris Rudd (writing as Jock Scott) in “Fine and Far Off” (1952).  As we enter the new millennium, even with modern high–modulus graphite rods, space age resins, computer assisted design technologies, advanced plastics, and fancy polymer fly lines, Grant’s distance mark has yet to be bettered.