Spey Nation VII

H: June 28, 2014: It was SN III for this flygirl. Despite a lower than usual turn out, I had a great time at Spey Nation. I admit I had second thoughts about going this year since I'd already seen just about all of the presenters before. But I had promised friends that I would go, so I went, and I'm glad I didn't miss it! A big thanks to Geoff and the rest of the SN crew for another great clave and the free Friday night F3T film tour at the Tailwater Lodge.

You couldn't have asked for better weather. I arrived at the Pineville parking lot around 8:30 am. My first order of business was to cast some new rods. I walked over to the LTS booth and was immediately drawn to the 12' 6" 8-weight X1 with its sexy matte black finish and high-gloss wraps. I wish more rod companies would leave their rods in this natural matte graphite finish. Now, if the X1 cast half as well as it looked...

Double speying with a LTS X1 spey rod at the Nation. Photo courtesy of W. Robin Hill. See more great photos from Spey Nation 2014. 

Manning the LTS stand was the 2014 Spey-o-rama women's casting champion, Whitney Gould. She was super nice and offered to come down to the river and cast with me. We talked and cast for a while. We tried out different lines on the X1, including a well matched Gaelforce line. And I even got some spey casting tips from the champ. That was pretty cool! Oh, and the X1 was a sweet rod—lightweight, smooth progressive taper, really easy to cast and feel the rod load.

I also cast the LTS Explosive spey rod, another 12' 6" 8-weight. It was "explosive" all right, but not in a good way, at least for me. It felt way too tippy. I also took the new Beulah Onyx and latest Sage Method spey rods out for a spin (6–8 weights). While I enjoyed casting them, I'm still waiting to find a spey rod I like better than my G. Loomis NRX two-handers ;).

I met Poppy from the Red Shed fly shop. He and Mrs. RedShed drove all the way from Idaho to attend Spey Nation. They were the nicest people and I hope to make it out to their Clearwater clave some day! I really liked the 54-ft. Gaelforce lines Poppy brought along. And I regret not taking one of the Gaelforce rods for a spin. But they were huge! 12- and 10-weights (16 ft!). A bit too much rod for this flygirl and for this river.

2014 Spey-o-rama casting champion, Whitney Gould. No errors in this cast.

I caught bits and pieces of some of the demos, but I spent most of the day on the water, casting. I sat down for Whitney's presentation on common casting errors. She was definitely nervous and started off a bit shaky but pulled it together for a good demo. She's such a good caster, she had a hard time demonstrating the errors. It's tough trying to go against muscle memory ;) Throughout the day, I saw her on the river, generously giving tips and lessons to both novice and experienced casters. Reminded me what Spey Nation is all about.

Speaking of lessons, my friend Sam had taken one with Travis Johnson (2014 Spey-o-rama men's champion) at last year's Nation. She heard he was giving a lesson later that afternoon, so we both signed up. But casting all day long finally caught up with me and I was too tired to get the most out of it. I lasted maybe 80 mins. Which was a bummer, because Travis turned out to be a good instructor. I picked up some pointers (different hand/arm setup positions) that I'm eager to experiment with. Plus, I was able to cast a prototype mid-belly line Travis designed (to be manufactured by Scientific Angler and distributed by Beulah shortly). A really nice casting line, definitely a contender for my 13' 8-weight NRX.

Sam, clearly having a miserable time ;) during the lesson with Travis Johnson after the Nation.

A couple of things I realized at SN VII: 1. I'm no longer too self conscious to cast in public (as long as other people are casting, too ;). 2. I've finally reached a level of proficiency in my spey casting where I'm comfortable and knowledgeable enough to move beyond the basics, to analyze both the style and substance of different casters and decide what might work best for me. Now, if only Master Buhr would head back East... ;)

See you at SN VIII!