Leaders for Big Game / Spey & 2 Hand. study

Walter & Group........

From David Lambert:-

Gordy, re: Saltwater leaders. You likely know this connection but some

of the others may not:

In Guatemala awhile back for an article, I fished 5 days on 4 different

boats. On each the mates tied an interesting version of braided loop

made of 80 - 100 lb dacron. The full connection was about 3 feet long;

the loop itself about an inch. Most of the mates pushed a doubled,

foot-long piece of 80-pound mono up through the dacron to capture the

loop end and bring it back down through itself to form the loop. The

interior leg came down about half way.

The interesting part was that the fly line was inchwormed into the

interior section, over which the exterior was then slid down, forming a

double-dacron connection. The outer dacron sleeve overlapped the inner

about a foot and a half and was tied off to the fly line with a 8-10

half hitches then finished with 8 turn lock-knot backwound, much like an

Albright lock (moving up the dacron); then the same number of hitches

and lock-knot were tied down the fly line. Wrapping material was waxed

rigging floss. The floss knot was maybe 1.5 inches long; it fully

covering the dacron end-ravel. This created a leader you could reel

into the rod tip with little or no knot bump. It allowed the mate to

grab the leader for release as the caster brings the big fish to the boat.

By the way, they used a 3/0-4/0 brass saltwater swivel on a 5-inch

dacron loop as a 3rd hand to apply pressure to the loop and tie the

knots hard and tight. This was a very tidy system that would work for

any really big fish, I suspect.

David Lambert

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David....

I'm familiar with this leader system. 

ADVANTAGE:  Works great for the job at hand, especially since the leader comes up into the tip-top and guides easily.  That is very important with their release billfish tournaments ... or even multipls releases in a given period of time, since the, "rules" usually state that it isn't a, "catch" unless the fly leader is in the rod guides.  Also, makes wiring and tagging easier.  OK for the kind of, "chuck-and-duck" casting usually involved.

DISADVANTAGES:  1.  Takes a while to rig.     2.  Not good for distance casting or specialty casts.  3.  Not good for spooky fish where you want your leader to be minimally visable and thin enough for a delicate presentation, even with some big game critters.

Gordy

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Two candidates who are, "study-buddies" came up with some questions on Spey/Two handed casting.  (They wish to remain anonymous).  Let's see your answers to six of them :-

 

#1 Describe to hand body position required in spey casting for developing maximum rod loading for the given effort.

 

#2 Describe three common faults related to hand / arm movement with an overhead forward spey cast.

 

#3 Describe the three phases of a forward cast.

 

#4 Name as many "basic principles" in two-handed casting as you can. 

 

#5 The term "Dangle" came up during my exam.  Give me a synonym you would use as part of your answer, so that the examiners know you are thoroughly familiar with this term.  (the terms in Modern Speycasting should be at the tip of a masters tongue).

 

#6 Bill Gammel has authored the 5 essentials of the single handed cast.  If there were five for two-handed casting, what would they be? :--)

 

Bonus Question - When would you use a single spey and a snap T spey cast?  Describe conditions, positions and locations on the water.

 

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