Spey and Tube flies
~The Past…Spey fishing, sometimes called “The Quite Sport”
Let’s begin with examining just what this Two-handed rod offers, the Spey Rod and Spey Casting originated in Scotland on the River Spey, the 2nd longest rivers in Scotland. It gives its name to both the type of rod that evolved there and the type of casting technique generally associated with Spey Rod.
The River Spey is found on the east coast of Scotland. It rises in Loch (Lake) Spey in Invernesshire and travels nearly 100 miles before it reaches the North Sea at Garmouth. Much of this river would be un-fishable due to the steepness of its banks, its swift and dangerous wading conditions, and its heavily wooded shoreline. Almost all of the most productive salmon fishing on the Spey is to be found in places nearly unattainable to fish with a conventional overhead cast. There is insufficient room for a back cast and deep vertical banks rendering wading imposable. Hence… the two handed rod was born.
~Techniques used in Spey Casting;
*While there are many variations of the Spey cast, the basic technique is broken down into a few simple actions. With the fly line floating directly downstream, the angler first lifts the line off the water with the tip of the rod. The angler then sweeps the line backwards just above the water, and allows just the fly and leader to "anchor" the cast by touching the water one to two rod lengths away. This back-cast is often referred to as the "D-loop", from the curving shape of the line between the anchor and the tip of the rod. The cast is completed by firing the line forward with a sharp two-handed "push-pull" motion on the handle of the rod.
The cast is most easily compared to a roll cast in one-handed fly-fishing, although by using the fly as an anchor, a Spey cast allows a greater loading of the rod and thus achieves greater distance than a one-handed cast.
~This technique leads its shelf nicely to our Great Lakes tributaries with its wooded shorelines, raging torrents just after early spring ice-out… the Spey rod allows fishing opportunities that would otherwise be difficult at best.
I’m not going to discuss fly reels in depth as it relates to Spey fishing, the only advise I would offer along these lines is this: Insure any reel you purchase has the line capacity required and a very good drag system. If you hook into a big King salmon hell bent on busting off, I can guarantee this fish is going to test your rod and reel to its absolute limits.
~The present…
I could write volumes as it relates to this new phenomenon known as the Tube Fly instead allow me to summarize…A tube fly is a fly simply tied on a tube.
These types of flies have proven to be some of the most versatile and effective flies that you can use for all species of fish from Tarpon to Trout. To rig a tube fly, simply thread the tippet through the tube, tie on your hook of choice. Snug the hook eye into the rear of the tube, and you're ready to catch fish.
The advantages of tube fly patterns will become obvious upon use. Far less fowl hooked fish is one great attribute of this system that comes to mind, ease of casting with both Spey and conventional one-handed rods. Tube flies will avoid the fly becoming a lever in the mouth of the fish.
A few additional reasons I tie and use tube flies. This system allows us to tie large but still light flies, can tie some very heavy and compact flies.
The following are suggested resources, if in fact you should decide too combine old and new... I do wish all tight lines this fall run…M. Brown
Cut & paste to your brouser
http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/tube-flies/
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spey_casting
http://www.speypages.com/
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/spey-pages/
http://steelheadbum.com/store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=5
http://midwestflyfish.com
