Spey-O-Rama 2008

by 

April 2008

I  want to report that the Spey-O-Rama & Fly Casting Festival put on by The The Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club. To start, it was great.  Before I spent the weekend watching the competition and talking to the participants and vendors, my knowledge of Spey casting was, to say the least, limited. For example, I knew that the rods were longer and had two handles, and that they used a different type of fly line (or at least a longer fly line) but that was it.  After two days, while still far from an expert, I had a pretty good idea of why these rods were cool and of course why I needed to own at least one, I had some knowledge on the history of Spey casting and most importantly, I had the motivation to get out and try it for myself.

I arrived early on Saturday morning and as I walked down to the casting ponds I notices that virtually every vendor, and most of the competing teams had bottles of “good” single malt scotch sitting at their tables to honor the fact the Spey casting originated in Scotland.  And to show further respect, the “drams” of scotch were served in real bar glasses; my kind of people. As you might imagine, the atmosphere was very relaxed. Clearly this was going to be a friendly competition, or as they used to say in the 19th Century, a gentlemen’s event.

That being said, the competition featured superb casters from the U.S. Scotland, Norway, and Japan.  The finals were held on Sunday and were outstanding.  Accurate casts in excess of 100” were not uncommon, with some exceeding 150’.  Watching the competition one had to be impressed by the level of talent. This is one event that is worth putting on your calendar for next year.