Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Learning the way of the Spey

Spent the last two nights after work trying to get the hang of Spey casting on the Cheboygan River. Last night, the first with the new double - handed rod, was awkward but I made a few casts where the fly actually landed out beyond where I could have thrown it. Actually, I got it down where I had a few feet of running line out in addition to the shooting head. I was tossing a big conehead bugger, and just letting it swing with the current. The weather was mild, about 36 degrees. I fished the bend just below the tissue plant. I spoke with one other fisherman... I recognized him as a local but I don't know him... who said it was the first night he'd been skunked and he'd fished a lot lately. So the fish are there.

Tonight I went out on a follow up, and waded further downstream, behind Mariner's Village. The wind was stiff, straight up river out of the north, and carried a driving snow that accumulated about four inches during the day. Tonight I tossed a single - egg fly  with a hex nymph as a dropper. I don't know if I was getting deep enough, even with the 7 - inch / second leader. Anyway, the casting got a bit easier (I spent a chunk of time last night watching pros Spey cast via YouTube). I spoke with some guys using spawn and bobbers. They landed two small fish and lost a monster. More importantly, I wasn't the only one stupid enough to be out there on such a nasty night.

No comments:

Post a Comment