Obviously the style of spey casting we have discussed so far has been applied to river scenarios and at first sight would appear somewhat limited in their application, in as much as we are fishing purely downstream. Of course salmon fishers fish this style for much of the time, but what use are these casts to trout fishers? Well I use these specific styles of spey casting under the following circumstances:

• skated sedge

• leaded lure

• down and across with sunk lines in fast rivers

• down and across traditional wets or nymphs with floater

It is also important to note that fish often follow the fly on the dangle, one way of hooking these fish is to pull in a yard or so of line before making the lift. Even if you remember to do this, you are still going to get takes while you are actually making the lift. I have found that the best way of hooking these fish is to continue lifting and get the fish to hook itself... at least it works for me!

The spey cast as I have pointed out before also has uses in all fishing environments and with certain modifications we can use these casting techniques to cast upstream as well as down and across, as we shall see.