Big names coming to teach spey casting
SPEY casting may not be particularly common among New Zealand anglers but in Kurow this weekend it’s all about the technique, usually reserved for larger bodies of water.
Experienced Australiabased fly fisherman Peter Morse, along with North Otago’s Stan Isbister and others, has organised a weekend dedicated to the craft, which originated in Scotland about 200 years ago.
Speaking from the Waitaki River on Thursday, where he was getting in some fishing before the weekend of demonstrations, talks, presentations and practical sessions got under way, Mr Morse said the technique was not often seen in New Zealand, given its smaller rivers.
‘‘Spey is a traditional form of fly fishing for salmon on big rivers. The rods are anywhere from 12 to 14 feet [3.64.3m] long and it’s a very different fly fishing method, in that instead of the traditional upstream dry fly . . . we are casting our flies across the river and swinging them through the current, looking for bigger fish and fishing in deeper water.’’
He is joined by Alaska’s George Cook and Englandborn Simon Gawesworth, who lives in the United States, and together the trio will teach an expected 70 to 80 people the art of spey casting at Kurow Island on the Waitaki River.
Those who take part will have the chance to cast with smaller rods, about 10 to 12 feet long.
Tonight Mr Cook and Mr Gawesworth will host a questionandanswer session before the final day of tuition tomorrow.
‘‘They are really, really big in the world of spey fishing. They are really famous,’’ Mr Morse said.
He said the technique had taken off in the United States in recent years, with more and more anglers taking up the difficult style.
‘‘In the last 20 years there’s been a huge revolution in it. They’ve taken it from the traditional salmon waters in Norway and Scotland and so on and the Americans have got on to it and grabbed it with both hands, so to speak. They’ve evolved it at an incredible rate.’’
He said there would ‘‘not be a lot of fishing going on’’ over the weekend.
‘‘Spey casting is a difficult challenge for a lot of people. It’s a whole new style of casting. We are exchanging ideas, so it’s a technical sort of weekend.’’
Mr Morse, who has fished for more than 45 years and has visited New Zealand numerous times since the 1970s, said the Waitaki was a ‘‘wonderful’’ river to fish.
‘‘I love the Waitaki. What I like about it is it’s a big river and a lot of people find that intimidating, so it’s not crowded.’’