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Understanding Spey lines – the Basics

A newcomer to spey casting would be forgiven for peeping into this sport, trying it out, or listen to the many different opinions out there, and then turning tail and running away from the mass of confusion. There is a mind boggling array of theories, techniques, tackle and styles, and it is very difficult for the beginner to make head or tail out of the world of spey casting. To explain the subtleties and intricacies of this spey world would be like trying to explain the rules of cricket to the average American, or of baseball to the average Brit. However, as fly line manufacturers, we only need to make it easier to understand the fly line – the most important part of your tackle. Let’s start with a good rule of thumb. “The shorter the head length you use, the easier it is to cast”. Use your rod length as an indication of "easy". A spey line that has a head 3 times longer than the rod (for example a 12 ft rod with 36 ft head length) is a lot easier to cast than a line with a head that is 5 or 6 times longer than the rod (60 to 72 ft on the same 12 ft rod). Another advantage with shorter head length lines is that you can use them in much more restricted spaces than longer head lines - which require enough room to form a decent D-loop behind. The main advantage of a longer head line is “fishing efficiency”. An angler will spend a lot less time stripping in line between each cast, and have less slack line swirling around on the water in front of them with the longer line types. They are also a delight to use (when a caster is good enough). There are three different types of lines that you will hear talk about in the spey world: "Traditional Spey", "Scandinavian" (usually abbreviated to "Scandi") and Skagit". Each of these has an advantage over the others in certain situations. If you know what the advantages of each of these groups are, you can choose the type of line you need much more effectively. TRADITIONAL SPEY In the old days, anglers used heavy double tapers to cast the long two handed spey rods. However these are not the best line for producing easy casts, so spey lines started to get developed. Spey lines are usually lines that have a fairly long head length - something in excess of 50 ft, and usually with an integrated running line. There are many different types of spey lines; Short belly lines, mid belly lines and long belly lines, which will be explained in a little more detail further on in this document. The advantage a Spey line has over the Scandinavian and Skagit type lines is versatility. Spey lines are a great for anglers that are going to fish multiple destinations, for a variety of species and in all seasons. SCANDINAVIAN As the name suggests, Scandinavian style heads originated in Scandinavia. They are usually shooting heads with long front tapers, and they are very pleasant to cast. The heads are short, usually no longer than three times the length of the rod, thus they are much easier to cast than Spey lines, and very good for smaller rivers and tight casting situations. The main disadvantages with this type of head is that they don't cast heavy flies and fast sinking tips well, and that there is a lot of fishing time wasted at the end of each cast stripping the line back (if you make a long cast!).

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AFTMA vs AFFTA Standard Okay, so how confused do you want to be? In an attempt to illustrate the difference in line weights between the single handed AFTMA standard and the two handed AFFTA standard the following charts might be helpful. On the other hand, they might cause you to go cross eyed and reach for the nearest bottle of Single Malt! The AFTMA (American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association) standard is an attempt to standardize line weights for single handed rods so that whichever line manufacturer you buy a fly line from you know that they will all weigh about the same and load the rod equally – that is, of course, assuming line manufacturers actually make fly lines to the AFTMA standard (it is not compulsory!). Before you look at the charts you need to understand that the two handed standard from AFFTA (American Fly Fishing Trade Association) actually has four different categories: H, S, M and L. More than regular casting the head length of the line in spey casting influences the weight. So, we have four standards (for ease of recognition RIO’s appropriate Spey line is listed after the category): ‘H’ is for shooting Heads and is measured at 40 ft. – AFS head and AFS OutBound ‘S’ is for Short belly spey lines and is measured at 55 ft – UniSpey ‘M’ is for Mid length belly lines and is measured at 65 ft - PowerSpey ‘L’ is for Long belly spey lines and is measured at 75 ft. So, depending on how long the belly of the spey line is, the “weigh point” falls at different lengths. The AFTMA single handed designation is measured at 30 feet. Now that everyone is clear on that, let’s look at the AFTMA and AFTTA Standards (the numbers represent the weight in grains at the “weigh point”)! Single Size Handed H S M L #5 140 - 380 - - #6 160 250 420 460 600 #7 185 300 470 510 650 #8 210 360 530 570 710 #9 240 430 600 640 780 #10 280 510 680 720 860 #11 330 600 770 810 950 #12 380 700 870 910 1050 Oh, a final thing to remember is that the two handed standard has a plus or minus tolerance of 30 grains, while the single handed standard has a tolerance of plus or minus 6 to 12 grains (depending on the size). Thus you could have a spey line labeled S8 and it would be acceptable if it weighed between 500 and 560 grains. Mega confusing! Just don’t buy a single handed line for a two handed rod!!

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Tips for Skagit lines As mentioned above, all Skagit lines require a front tip to complete the rig and there are numerous options. Some anglers put Poly or VersiLeaders on the front end as a tip. While this works well enough, the diameter difference between the end of the Skagit line and the butt of the Poly/VersiLeaders is quite large (especially on the bigger heads) and the energy transfer is less efficient than with actual tips. RIO has four options for tips that are ideal for attaching to the front of a Skagit head.

15 ft Tips One option, tried and tested over the years, is to attach a 15 ft tip to the front end. These 15 ft tips are available from most line companies as part of the VersiTip style lines they sell. RIO makes five 15 ft tips to chose from:

1. Floating (#7 to #11) 2. Intermediate (1.5 - 2 ips - #4 to #12) 3. Type 3 (3 - 4 ips - #4 to #12) 4. Type 6 (6 - 7 ips - #4 to #12) 5. Type 8 (8 - 9 ips - #8 to #12)

Each tip has a standard weight for a given size. For example, all #10 weight tips weigh 150 grains, which makes it really easy to change tips and keep a balanced outfit. The tip weights are as follows: #4 61 grains #5 73 grains #6 84 grains #7 95 grains #8 109 grains #9 129 grains #10 150 grains #11 166 grains #12 190 grains

10 ft Tips A new tip from RIO, offered for 2012, and ideal for lighter and shorter heads. It comes packaged with RIO’s new Scandi Short VersiTip, but is ideal on Skagit heads in tight quarters. There are 3 options:

1. Intermediate (1.5 to 2 ips - #4 to #12) 2. Type 3 (3-4 ips - #4 to #12) 3. Type 6 (6-7 ips - #4 to #12)

Like the 15 ft tips, each tip has a standard weight for a given size: #5 55 grains #6 65 grains #7 75 grains #8 85 grains #9 95 grains

T-8, T-11, T-14, T-17 & T-20

The “T” series are level, fast sinking lines with the following specifications:

“T” Sink rate Weight (grains per foot) T-8 6 - 7 ips 8 g/ft T-11 7 - 8 ips 11 g/ft T-14 8 - 9 ips 14 g/ft T-17 9 - 10 ips 17 g/ft T-20 +10 ips 20 g/ft

The material is sold either in a jumbo 500 ft spool or in a 30 ft pack. Anglers simply cut this level material to the length they need for a variety of fishing conditions. The 30 ft packs of “T” have color coded, welded loops in both ends for easy rigging. T-8 has white sleeved loops, T-11 green sleeved loops, T-14 blue sleeved loops and T-17 black sleeved loops. T-20 does not have welded loops. The weight of T-14, T-17 and T-20 makes them pretty heavy for lighter fly lines to lift out. Most of the Skagit line sizes will not have a problem with T-14, but attaching it to the lighter sizes of regular Spey lines can result in poor turnover and inefficient casts.

Skagit MOW Tips (mow rhymes with “sew”, not “cow”) These extraordinarily easy casting and fishing tips are the very finest sink tips on the market and perfect for Skagit lines and heads. The majority of tips are 10 ft long, which allows for a very efficient casting stroke – especially on shorter spey rods. As a general guideline, the length of the tip you fish, should not exceed the length of the rod, making these tips ideal for spey rods between 11 ft and 14 ft. There are three different series of MOW Tips “Light”, “Medium” and “Heavy”:

The Light tips use T-8 as a sinking material and have white loops The Medium tips use T-11 as a sinking material and have green loops The Heavy tips use T-14 as a sinking material and have blue loops.

As a rule of thumb, the Light tips are ideal for Skagit lines of 475 grains and lighter, while the Medium Tips are great on Skagit lines between 475 and 575 grains, and the Heavy tips are perfect for the heavier Skagit lines above 575 grains. This is another “loose” rule of thumb, as fly size plays an equally important role. A large, heavy fly will always cast best with a Heavy MOW tip, even on a 450 grain Skagit line. A welded loop in each end of the MOW tips makes it very easy for anglers to interchange as necessary. Each series of Skagit MOW tips feature 6 different tips with different lengths of sinking sections - allowing anglers to fish at a variety of depths, yet still fish one length of tip. For example, anglers can fish a short, 2.5 ft sinking tip, dropping the fly behind a particular rock in one part of the pool, then switch to a 7.5 ft sinking tip for another part of the pool and retain the easy casting stroke of all the 10 ft tips.

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Accessories

In addition to the lines, heads and VersiLeaders mentioned above, there are a few accessories RIO makes that are worth mentioning here. HeadCase:. The case features 10 zip-loc style bags in a neat, durable zip fronted cloth case that will hold a selection of shooting heads, as well as mesh pockets for leaders, tippets and other accessories. The HeadCase will hold the largest of heads comfortably, and additional sets of 5 Zip-loc style bags are available to increase capacity. Mega Kits: For anglers that want to be prepared for everything, or who wish to have every size of head available within a given product range. The Mega Kits come packaged in RIO’s HeadCase and are available in 3 selections - the Skagit Flight Mega Kit, the AFS Floating Head Mega Kit and the new Steelhead Scandi Mega Kit. Each kit comprises of one head of each size within the product range, 2 shooting lines and either 2 floating VersiLeaders (for the Scandinavian style kits) or 3 “5&5” MOW tips with the Skagit Flight Mega Kit. Flight Mega Kit Steelhead Scandi Mega Kit All 16 Flight heads (350 to 750 gr) All 11 heads (280 to 550 gr) 1 x 0.030 “floating shooting line 1 x 0.030 “floating shooting line 1 x 0.035” floating shooting line 1 x 0.035” floating shooting line 1 x Light 5&5 MOW Tip 1 x 15 ft floating VersiLeader 1 x Medium 5&5 MOW Tip 1 x 10 ft floating VersiLeader 1 x Heavy 5&5 MOW Tip AFS Mega Kit All 7 heads (4/5 to 10/11 floating) 1 x 0.030 “floating shooting line 1 x 0.035” floating shooting line 1 x 15 ft floating VersiLeader 1 x 10 ft floating VersiLeader The Skagit floating tip is a floating tip designed to be added to the Skagit heads in order to turn them into a full floating line.

Modern Spey Casting is the best instructional DVD on spey casting ever produced. Learn the basics as well as these casts: roll cast, switch cast, single spey, double spey, snap T, snake roll, wombat cast, perry poke, jelly roll, Skagit casts, underhand cast, spiral spey, overhead cast, single handed spey casts and using the two-handed rods in the salt. It also includes fault recognition, a glossary of terms and a very useful biokinetic section.

Steelhead & Atlantic Salmon knotless tapered leaders are a great addition to the front end of a spey line. RIO offers these tapered leaders in 4 different lengths – 6 ft, 9 ft, 12 ft and 15 ft. We recommend the longer leaders for floating lines and tips, and the short 6 ft leaders are ideal for fast sinking heads or tips. For low, clear water, RIO also offers 10 ft long Steelhead/Salmon fluorocarbon leaders that can give an angler the edge in tricky conditions. RIO Max Plus is a medium stiff nylon with incredible abrasion resistance. It is ideal for the larger flies used when spey casting and aids a cast in turning over. Using a supple, thin copolymer might be tempting, but a soft tippet can drastically reduce the turnover power of a cast – particularly when used with a larger fly, or in a tough wind. Fluoroflex is a medium stiff fluorocarbon tippet with good knot strength. It would be the fluorocarbon of choice for spey casting techniques and for when using larger flies.

Hopefully, this document will help to give you a better understanding of RIO’s spey line assortment and when to use what. If you are still in doubt, or confused, do not hesitate to contact us, either by

phone; 800 553 0838, or email; rio@rioproducts.com

www.rioproducts.com