Monday, July 20, 2009

"There are no shortcuts to spey casting" - Ron

I can hear Ron Lauzon telling me this in my head as I step into the Cowlitz with Athena. Ron is a fly fishing guide and instructor and I spent a day with my Mom, Dad and he learning how to actually cast a spey rod. I thought I had figured some of it out but after working with Ron I know better.

There are people who learn by watching, listening or through doing and Ron does all three. He showed me how to cast, he told me what I was doing right and wrong and even held the spey rod in my hands to make the movements. By the end of the day I had made one cast that was a "fishing cast" with a tight loop that unrolled straight out and settled gently to the water.

The single spey (reach way out like a waiter holding a tray), double spey (cross the heart and go around), c-spey (a slow setup cast) and the snake-roll spey (a very very pretty touch and go spey cast). All of this built on top of the switch cast, an aerialized roll cast.

Ron knew as we drove away that I wouldn't remember everything so I wrote as much of it down as I could. The last thing he told me, the spey waltz, lift 2, 3, loop 2, 3, cast 2, 3 at least reminded me to slow down. That's one of the keys. The other is trying to get the rod to do the work.

So on Sunday, at the Cowlitz, I got a couple of casts almost right. Enough that I did get one solid hit, but not right enough to be doing it right. So I could hear in my head Ron's voice telling me "Slow down, there are no shortcuts in spey casting." But not enough to remember what I'm doing wrong so I'll keep trying to remember while I'm on the water.

And I may find myself back on the Clackamas with Ron one day because a few hours with him were worth their weight in gold.....