Single Hand Spey Casting: Learn the Circle Spey

Being able to Spey cast allows us to continue to fish in some very awkward situations. Even in places with some room, Spey casting avoids hanging flies up in trees and in bank side bushes.
In this series we will look at the Roll Cast, Single Spey, Snake Roll, Double Spey and the Circle Spey. I have simplified the instruction and stripped these casts down to their basics.
For anyone wishing to learn Spey casting for the first time, it's actually easier to Spey cast with one hand instead of two. We associate Spey casting with two-handed rods, but Spey casts can actually be performed with any fly rod.
In this example I'm using a G. Loomis NRX+ 8'6" 4 wt. lined with an AFFTA standard 4 wt. trout line. Specialized lines are not needed for Spey casting. The lines we have on our rods right now, will do the job.

[@kevinjtoner]

Very clear instruction, Peter.......Thank you!!! 👍🎣

[@wood2be]

Thank you for your amazing content! I’m a new fly fisher and your videos have helped me immensely !

[@frankmonroe8320]

Great advice. Looking forward to your next!

[@johnlantz7278]

Great single hand casting there are so many connecting casts with a single hand for me same as double connect dynamic casts an have some fun

[@jamessims5240]

Thank you Peter!

[@leonardchecchio1655]

Great series on single hand Spey casting. Do you change or adjust your leader when single Spey casting a wet fly team with a floating line? Do polyleaders give more distance when single hand Spey casting or any benefits to furled or braided leaders when using floating fly lines? Thanks

[@hooked4lifeca]

Most of my local waters are single fly only so I don't get much of an opportunity to cast a team of flies. PolyLeaders provide advantages when single hand Spey casting only when we find ourselves out with a blunt tapered line like a bass taper and want to switch over to Spey casting. The PolyLeader acts like an extended front taper.

[@cevisuals]

Peter - I recently converted my Redington 6 piece 3wt Trout series rod to single hand spey casting using a 150gr OPST Commando head and floating tip with SA 25lb Flat Mono Shooting line and an attached 7 1/2' tapered trout leader on the floating tip. It's definitely not like using my two handed trout Spey Rods! Timing is an ongoing issue for me as I'm use to the slower casting stroke of both my longer 2 wt and 3 wt two handed trout Spey Rods. My question is what do you consider realistic effective casting distances for this single hand setup. I've been forcing myself out on my local river and fishing sections that I know hold fish as though it is a smaller stream or creek. What effective depth would you recommend I limit myself to while in the water to simulate smaller streams? The stream I want to fish is dealing with forest fires and so I'm not able to get to it til later this fall once the rains here in the Pacific Northwest help control it. This video series is what prompted me to convert this rod to Single hand spey.

[@hooked4lifeca]

I typed a reply to this, but not sure where it went. This seems to be a very heavy rig for a 3wt. single hand rod. When casting such heavy rigs, we have to really slow down otherwise the rod is overloaded and then the cast goes nowhere. I realize that OPST recommends this line for a 3wt. but that's not my cup of tea. To put it in perspective, when I'm single hand Spey casting on a 3wt. I'm using a regular 3wt. floating line with maybe 60-80 grains of line out of the rod tip. I'd be using a 150 gr. head with a 50 gr. tip on a 5 or a 6 wt. rod. As far as an effective distance goes there are so many factors in play that it's hard to say. Short range casting is complicated by the loop-to-loop joints and long range casting is complicated by how well the rod can handle the weight of the rig. As far as depth goes and simulating a small creek on a bigger river, I'd just look at fishing the riffle water. When swinging a wet fly or streamer on the end of a floating tip, you're only going to be a few inches down, so I probably wouldn't fish flowing water that's much more than 2' deep.

[@cevisuals]

@@hooked4lifeca It's interesting you consider my using 150gr head and 30gr floating tip as overloading my rod. Spoke with the folks at OPST and they said I'm dead on with my grain weights... Goes to show nothing in an absolute even in Flyfishing! I recently purchased an inexpensive 7'6" Redington Path series rod which has a faster action than my Trout series rod and that seemed to improve the overall casting experience. I did learn that my casting distances I was attempting (Past 60') was both disappointing and aggravating my shoulder. Once I learned that 40-50' max is all I should be attempting that seemed to alleviate the lack of power I was forcing the line to go with. Another question I have is Flat Mono vs a lighter weight coated running line. I have struggled since day one with line management while using Flat mono (Scientific Anglers 25lb Absolute Shooting Line) - I finally found an inexpensive 15lb coated running line and line management is much better but alas, shooting distances have reduced. I'm not attached to the coated running line but it has made line management alot less challenging unless I'm missing something to make flat mono near as easy to manage. I tried the pre stretching routing and unfortunately, have endured cuts in my fingers and that has left a less than positive experience for me. Maybe you can shed some light on that. Single hand Micro Spey/Micro Skagit has become a thing for me since I do tend to need a compact rod setup for transporting and fishing when I hike or bike.

[@hooked4lifeca]

@@cevisuals What I was trying to say is that it would be overloaded in my hands. ;) Stay tuned with these videos until part 5 comes along and I'm sure you'll understand where I was coming from. I won't go into the details now, but we can pick up the discussion then. No doubt that Nylon mono shoots farther than coated running line, but the handling issues have left me firmly in the 'coated' camp despite having some excellent Airflo Impact mono at my disposal. I live with the distance penalty.

[@bigron8346]

Everytime i try to cast kack handed i either hook myself or hit my rod. Could you help me out? Thank you Peter.

[@hooked4lifeca]

You most likely have a tracking problem. In other words, when you are casting the D-Loop and the forward stroke, your rod tip moves in an arc instead of a straight line. If you're hitting yourself, that tells me that the tip of your rod is hooking around behind your head. Have someone video you from behind and watch how your rod tip swings behind your head. The simplest correction is to watch the tip of the rod as you cast your D-Loop. If you can still see the rod tip, you're no longer hooking. If it disappears behind you, then you have a problem. Simply watching the rod tip eliminates the problem. Get used to turning your head and watching your back cast - it solves so many problems both with overhead and Spey casting.