For Your Review

Came across this during a late night feeding/web surfing session. 

Prepare to be awwed by visuals and how to’s such as

The calm before the storm

Set-up before the best Spey Nation yet.

I want to thank my volunteers, presentators, and the best crowd we could dream of for showing up in the intermitten rain and grey skies to make the year of prep work more than worth it.

See you all next year!

This could be you!

Rick Harrington, our 2o10 winner of the trip to the Spey Lodge at spey nation submitted this little taste of awesome.

Lucky Man from Richard Harrington on Vimeo.

See you Saturday for your chance to be awesome

Spey Nation Presenter Profile; Andrew Moy

Andrew Moy (Tight Lines Fly shop/East Coast Spey)

Beginning Casting and Spey Basics

Anchors, D-loops, and Powerstrokes. What does it all mean? Drew will demystify the spey cast in terms everyone can understand.

About Andrew Moy

Andrew Moy has a passion for fly fishing. This passion has lead him to an addiction; casting and fishing with two-hand rods. In search of two-handed water, Andrew has traveled to Canada, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes and throughout the Northeast in pursuit of Atlantic salmon, steelhead, trout and striped bass. With Andrew’s patience and knowledge of two hand casting, you will be ensured a productive day on the water. Andrew is also the owner of Tight Lines Fly Shop in Pine Brook, NJ

See Andrew’s Videos from last year’s Nation

Nation Flashback

Hey Zack,  Remember when I asked you to meet David Figura from Syracuse.com to pimp out Spey Nation for the paper and this happened?

It’s that sweet mojo working baby.

Spey Nation Presenter Profile: Peter Charles

About Peter Charles

Probably the best way to describe Peter’s approach to fishing, it is that of a passionate analyst. He has a fervent interest in all aspects of the sport, from lines, to casting, flies, presentation, to the biology of fish and the hydrodynamics of the world they live in. He caught his first fish on a fly in 1969 and has been hooked by the sport ever since.

He has poured his experience, his analytical approach, and his passion into his extensive website at www.hooked4life.ca.

Peter pioneered the use of the Scandinavian technique to catch Great Lakes steelhead and salmon. Through his website, teaching, demonstrations and writing he has been instrumental in spreading this method throughout the Great Lakes region and Canada in general.

Peter is currently pro staff for Scott MacKenzie DTX rods out of the UK. He has also been both a fly fishing sales representative and a pro staff for a Scandinavian fly fishing company.

Peter will be presenting:

Distance Casting for the Average Spey Caster

Distance casting gets a bad rap as it’s often associated more with big egos than fishing.    The old golf expression about, “Drive for show, putt for dough.” seems to fit the attitude most take to distance casting.

Yet the simple fact is — the ability to distance farther has many benefits, including catching more fish.  We should develop our distance casting abilities, not for ego gratification nor for competition, but rather to effectively and easily deal with common fishing situations.

Being able to distance cast with low effort lets the older angler to make distance casts without blowing out old shoulders.  Being able to distance casting makes for easy sharply angled downstream presentations needed to achieve a very slow swing in cold water.  It may eliminate our need to wade deep, or when we have to, distance casting still lets us get a decent amount of line out.  On those days when only average distances are needed, the same casting technique makes for low fatigue, low stress outings.

Scott Mackenzie is a former three time world Spey casting champion and he developed a style of casting suitable for chucking long lines on big rods, to cover the big distances needed to fish the lies on the broad River Ness.  My session will cover the Mackenzie style of casting and how it can be adapted to shorter rods and lines to fish our rivers.  The Mackenzie style cast lets the average Spey caster achieve 100’+ casts using short head and mid-belly lines on rods in the 12‘-14′ range, without blowing up our shoulders or exhausting ourselves.

Why head to Spey Nation?

In case you’re on the fence. In case you’re wondering what the meaning of it all is. Consider this. The Nation is all about mojo. Mojo for a fishery. It’s about learning, celebrating, and energy. Spey fishing is about listening to and taking what the river gives you daily. Getting in tune with the energy, using the water’s own currents for presentation and movement. Spey Nation’s energy is a positive vibe. There’s the story of the Anderson family who were passing by our first Nation gathering by chance and stopped in for a look see. They stopped me in the parking lot and asked if they could have a lesson. I put them in touch with Drew Moy of Tight Lines Fly Fishing shop and after an hour, they were hooked. Scott and his family asked if they could buy a burger and of course they were free. The family asked what they could do in gratitude and bought a raffle ticket. I see Scott on the river a few times a season using one of the spey rods he won at that gathering.

Last year Tracey won a rod. She also had a trip planned, well Tracey and Fiance CD always have trips planned, but on this trip Tracey was armed with the rod she won at the Nation. We all figured she’d outfish CD…

Caught on the rod she won at The Nation

Raffle Prize Added

Patrick Ross who knows spey fishing on the Salmon River as good ads anyone has generously donated his services and has offered up

2 nights lodging at The Angler’s lodge and 1 day guided trip with Patrick Ross  for 2 persons!

Courtesy of

The Angler’s Lodge

Altmar, NY

Patrick has been a supporter of The Nation since it’s inception and this is one package sure to bring some interested.

Thanks Patrick!

Fish Creek Atl Salmon Club Minutes

May 26, 2011 Meeting Minutes/News:

The monthly meeting of the Fish Creek Atlantic Salmon Club was called to order at 7:11 PM by Tom Schneider.  There was no Treasurer’s report as Paul is on vacation.

The Secretary’s minutes from last month’s meeting were discussed and accepted.  The flash flood that hit our hatchery on April 25th caused an increase in the mortality rate of our recently hatched salmon as they were still living off the attached egg sacks and learning to swim and eat food from the water.  The extremely high levels of silt and water were devastating.  Equipment modifications need to be made before next year.   Filtering the silt would be desirable.  Securing of our tanks in a way that would allow them to float safely up and down with the water level would be desirable.  This is part of the fine tuning of learning to operate the hatchery in its new setting in the flood plain.  These are items that we plan to address; so, any ideas that you feel would work best should be submitted as soon as possible.

Tom reported on the outcome of this year’s efforts to get surplus Atlantic salmon from the Vermont hatchery.  The timing of us getting their fish tested to meet NYS requirements before the June seasonal shutdown of the hatchery was the biggest problem.  We could not get the fish tested with the 28 day turn-around of the tests before the hatchery shutdown.  We have since learned that the test facility has a more expensive test schedule with a 14 day turnaround, which we may use in the future if timing looks like it is a problem.  Tom also had been working with the Onondaga County Carpenters Brook Hatchery people to arrange for transportation of the Vermont fish with their large 3 tank truck.  We will continue this effort so that it can be available for future chances to get the surplus fish transported safely.

Jim Lawler reported that the 65 fish sample of our fish was selected and shipped to the laboratory on May 25th, for VHS testing.  With the 28 day turn-around we should have results by June 22nd.  The following Saturday is the Spey Nation event, but that following Sunday – June 26th, would be open for stocking our fish.  Dave Miller is preparing supplies for our stocking event, getting new bags and oxygen ready for transporting of the fish.

Tom is planning to contact Harden Furniture to ask if they have any storage space where we could store all of our club equipment.  Our guide boat form should be stored under cover, or could be sold if we could find an interested buyer.  Dick Kirby suggested that we ask Harden if there is anything we can do to help them in advertising their support for the hatchery.  Work on finishing the roof of the hatchery should be checked also.

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM; our next meeting will be held on June 23rd at 7 PM at the Camden Rod and Gun Cub.

Respectfully submitted,

Arley Morey, Club Secretary

New Raffle Prize

Cascapedia MkIII 8/9 wt Reel

At Hardy, we like to think of our new Cascapedia as simple perfection. We’ve gone back to the original design using a traditional solid front plate adorned with 3 highly polished metal badges.

The new reel resembles the original 1930s model but has all the top features of a modern game reel. We defy you not to fall in love with the new Cascapedia Mk III. In weights of 2/3/4, 5/6/7, 8/9 and 10/1.

• Machined from high grade aluminium.
• Anodised finish for durability.
• Solid front plate.
• Trout models with adjustable click check system.
• Salmon models with smooth disc drag system.
• Reel back secured by a dovetail and two stainless steel screws.

a traditional solid front plate adorned with 3 highly polished metal badges.

Courtesy of