The Scandi Spey & West Coast Spey Style

Scandinavian style Spey casting is slowly becoming much more popular along the West coast. The idea behind Scandi Spey is the use of a shooting head similar to a Skagit Spey but slightly longer and a little lighter especially towards the front taper. The shooting head is attached to a thin running line and hung out side of the rods tip when cast. At the end of the Scandi head we would attache a longer mono tapered leader, typically 12 – 15 feet or a poly leader at 10 feet plus a few feet of tippit. The rods are usually ranging from 11 – 14 feet in length with a moderate stiff or fast action. When casting Scandi heads we use a short precise casting stroke, the cast comes from the tip of the rod resulting in a very narrow casting loop with increased line speed. The style of casting is more of the touch and go type anchor cast such as Single Spey and a Snake Roll however some of the modern Scandi heads such as the Airflo Compact Scandi can be cast with casts such as a Double Spey and Circle Spey quite well. Scandi casting has often been referred to as Underhand Casting due to the use of the bottom hand in providing power to the fly cast. This results in less fatigue and a very powerful compact fly cast. The Scandi line system is a great compliment to those who are already utilizing a Skagit Line, we can un loop the Skagit from the running line and then loop on the Scandi. This will give us the best of both worlds as the Skagit is great for heavy tips and large flies and the Scandi excels with light tips and as a floater along with smaller flies.

The West Coast Spey Style – This is a similar style of spey casting to Scandi with the slight change of fly line style, in this case we use short head spey lines such as the Airflo Delta Spey, Rio Windcutter, SA Short Head, Airflo Compact Scandi to name a few. The idea here is that we cast with the same classic touch and go style as the Scandi but by using these slightly different spey lines we are now are able to cast the typical 15 foot sink tips so commonly use on our West Coast rivers. These lines are slightly longer ranging from 35 – 58 feet, sink tip included, we attache these as a head system to the same slick running lines used with both Scandi and Skagit line systems. This class will focus more towards Scandi however students are encouraged to participate if they are interested in these other West Coast Style setups. With both techniques we are able to merge towards a more tradition style of Spey casting.

Why we fish a Scandi – The Scandi is lighter and more delicate resulting in a less splashy, less spooky approach. These lines are a great choice when fishing small to large coastal rivers with a clear relaxed flow. The line works great for swinging small wet flies and skating dry’s for summer run Steelhead. You can always add a fast sinking polyleader replacing the mono leader, this will give you the benefit of a light sinking tip, great for fishing in situations were you need a little depth but still must work with a light landing presentation such as beach fishing for Coho and Pink Salmon or swinging your favorite coastal creek.

Why we fish West Coast Spey – I use this style when I need to fish a slightly longer fly line and also cast sink tips such as the common 15 ft T3. T6. & T8. This is a great setup with 13 – 15 foot Spey rods.

Where we fish Scandi – I would utilize the use of a Scandi any time I don’t need the heavy stuff attached to get down, for example, small coastal rivers during summer months, or beach fishing for Coho, Pink and Cutthroat Trout. Some anglers are using them for Trout fishing on larger rivers like the Thompson and Columbia with great results. I use them when fishing for summer and fall run Steelhead up North on rivers like the Bulkley and Skeena.

Where we fish West Coast Spey – typically larger rivers such as the Bulkley, Skeena, Thompson, Dean, Squamish are greatly suited towards this spey style approach.

Simply the Scandi & WCS Line System are just plain fun and relatively easy to learn. In this series of instructional classes we will learn all the basics needed to successfully cast, fish and utilize the Scandi approach. We will break this course up into sections as follows.

Scandi / WCS (Intro)

During Scandi 101 we will learn about the theory and equipment along with the casting basics such as:

– anchor style (touch & go)
– anchor placement
– the forward cast, utilizing the underhand
– the Single Spey Cast

Scandi / WCS  (Advancing Forward)

During Scandi 102 we will advance forward with our casting and look at how we achieve extra distance along with solutions for casting in tight spots and wind:

– the Snake Roll
– the Scandi Poke
– running line management
– shooting for distance
– dealing with wind and tight spots on the river

Price: $125 per person (limit 6 students)

Day 1 Classroom Theory: Thursday August 14, 2014
Location: Sea-Run Fly & Tackle #110-1140 Austin Avenue, Coquitlam

Day 2 On the Water Casting: Saturday August 16, 2014
Location: Kilby Park & Boat Launch on the Harrison River approximately 1.5 hours from Vancouver

You can register at the store #110-1140 Austin Avenue, by calling 604-931-5044 or by email at searun2013@gmail.com.