casting 7wt. for spey work MCI

[Paul Arden]

I think all the Spey casts should be there with both shoulders. It opens up river fishing with tree lined banks, it makes quick changes of angle possible in all fly fishing situations. All a Spey cast is, is a change of angle dynamic roll cast. I was also one of the guys arguing for its inclusion in FFF/IFF when I was on MCI committee.

What I would say is when you include something in a test, you raise the bar. Those who take the test are better prepared. That alone is a great reason to include it. With regards teaching single handed Spey casting it gives you work. A professional single handed fly casting instructor should be able to teach all the Spey casts. Imagine someone coming to a lesson and asking to learn the Single Spey and having to say "I'm sorry I can't do that!!"

Cheers, Paul

[Graeme H]

BTW, If there's an argument against a 7wt rod being used in the exam, it's because the Hot Torpedo doesn't come in that line weight ....

Cheers,
Graeme

This just leads to the question, what is a 7 wt rod?

Well, as far as the examiners go, it's a rod with the number 7 written on it. (FFi specifies a rod must be 7wt or less for the exam.)

As far as I'm concerned, it's a rod that is using a 7wt line, whatever that is these days .... (I don't really care. I put any line I want on whatever rod I like for a given situation. It's fluid.)

Cheers,
Graeme

[LauraPalmer]

FFi specifies a rod must be 7wt or less for the exam

Actually the only restriction in terms of rod is, that its length doesn`t exceed 9'. Line max is a floating #7 tho... At least last year that's what was written on the examiners sheet - maybe they changend it, but I and a friend both did the MCI with an 8 wt rod...

[Paul Arden]

Times have changed. I used an XP5.

[LauraPalmer]

which makes a lot more sense... we got carried away quite a bit during the preparation phase and tried so many combos that we ended up with a rather strange one (and we didn't listen to reasonable people who told us it's rather pointless what we are doing)... Months after the exam we had quite a laugh about our rod and line choice when we repeated the tasks, because basically every 4, 5 or 6 wt combo seemd more suitable... nowadys I would just use a generic 5 wt rod with a Triangle Taper line; it's great for speycasting too...


My main point was: use whatever rod you want (if it's still allowed) and find a (Loop?) line that says 7 on it and is maybe two classes heavier if you think it makes the spey tasks easier for you...

[Graeme H]

The exam for March 2018 and on is here.

Equipment Requirements:
• All equipment will be supplied by the candidate. The candidate is responsible for supplying any teaching aids that he/she may elect to use in Sections 2 and 3.
• All tasks must be performed with the same rod and line, except that separate equipment may be used for Task 22 (Sunk Line and Oval Cast). In the event of equipment failure, other equipment may be used only with approval of the examination team.
• Rod: will be a 9 ft. (2.74m) 7wt. maximum. An additional rod of the same maximum specification may be used for Task 22.
• Lines: all lines and tips will be commercial production lines available to the general public.
• Floating Line: will be AFFTA #7 maximum. It is highly recommended that the candidate use a
high visibility fly line.
• Sinking Line: will be AFFTA #7 maximum and Type 2 or denser. The line will be either a full sinking line or a line with an integrated sink tip that measures at least 7ft (2.1m) or longer.
• Leader/Fly: will be 71⁄2 ft. (2.3m) minimum for floating line tasks; 5 ft. (1.5m) minimum, with fly, for Task 22 Sunk Line and Oval Cast. Leaders may be monofilament nylon, co-polymer or fluorocarbon. Poly-leaders, braided or metallic leaders are not permitted. The fly will be made only of yarn.

[LauraPalmer]

Oh I see, they really changed it - maybe we were the reason for that - people discussed it a bit afterwards...

still raises the question - what is a 7 wt rod, as it doesn't say it has to be a commercial production one, like for the lines... I guess a custom built HotTorpedo 10 wt which says 7 on it would work then...

I would let people use whatever they want, even if their setup is as stupid as ours was or even better: would specify a rod and line, well at least the line...

[jarmo]

I'm curious what you think about single handed spey. I've had some well known guides tell me it's completely useless...

In the Southeastern US Spey casting is used very little. The closest THCI to me is Leslie Holmes and he's 9 hours away by car! I'm just saying that because it's hard to get good instruction on it around here.

As someone who actually started fly fishing with a two handed rod, I find that spey casts are the most important casts for me in relatively small rivers. Backcast space is often minimal. Different speys allow me to swing streamers and wets from casting positions where even a roll cast would be completely out of question.

In larger rivers I quite enjoy wading, but in smaller ones I consider it counterproductive and sometimes even harmful. One handed speys radically reduce my need to wade in these streams.

Furthermore, I also find speys useful as pick up casts in, say, dry fly fishing. A snake roll would be a prime example.

I enjoy SH casting immensely, and it is currently dominating my casting for geographic reasons. However, for me the combination of elegance and power in two handed spey casting with long belly lines is still the crown jewel of fly casting. I still remember vividly my last, difficult TH spey cast of the previous season.

[Paul Arden]

The only time a 7WT actually helps is for the 85ft distance. 5WT 85ft is a reasonably good cast. 6WT that's comfortable to say the least. 7WT? If you're not hitting 110 with that then you really have some basic problems. (Which means you're going to struggle anyway). It's better just to sort your casting out. This is not a difficult exam casting wise and if you are tweaking lines to make casts then that's time better spent casting. Time spent casting teaching yourself how to do it means you can teach others how to do it too. And that's really what it should all be about.

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

7WT lines go 140ft in competition. My advice to anyone struggling to throw 85' for MCI would be to spend some time with comp casters. I've not one yet who is not willing to share.

Personally I think the whole exam should be standardised around a DT6.