Fellow put up a post (SpeyPages) asking for information on the history of the two hand rod, casts, etc., and if anyone had background how this took off in North America.

One of the posts back was a classic; be prepared for an hours read.

http://www.bcfff.bc.ca/info/TheSpeyCastWelshThrow.pdf

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"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Fred,I have read this.A good read,But for the life of me I cannot figure out why The Author felt the need to use the Phrase ''WELSH THROW'' in the title.as he really offers no historical facts to support this Nonsense. and in fact after page 2(I believe) never mentions it again.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

"We refer to this type of cast as ‘Spey’, but in the 19th century it was practiced on rivers other than the Spey. Francis Francis in a footnote in his A Book on Angling, [my copy is the fifth edition published in 1880] says that This cast is called by various names ; sometime “‘the Welsh or Spey cast’, or according to the name of some other river where it is practiced.” Those old terms such as switching and Welsh were long ago abandoned and this cast is now commonly referred to in the salmon and steelhead fly fishing world as the Spey cast."


Wales you say.??

There was me thinking, after reading all the steelhead publications, that it was purely a PNW invention.


PS. Francis Francis was editor of 'The Field', a then very influential publication, and also instrumental in supplying James Youl with brown trout ova for the first and only successful stocking of Australian and New Zealand waters.

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Save the softmouth trout

Very interesting read, Fred! And the other posts too.
Thanks for the link.

Johan

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Johan Janssens

Add to that that the term "Soccer" was also a 'UK Invention.'

Bye the bye your observation on the introduction of Brown Trout as a breathern. The initial Steelhead planting(s) in New Zealand (can't speak for Australian waters, never heard there were any there) came from the Skamania River Hatchery in Washington State. Whether the runs are self sustaining/local hatcheries ... ? No clue.

fae

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:29 PM ----------

Thank you Sir.

Fred

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"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Good read as always, but there are a couple of errors about Alexander Grant.

Care to elaborate? Not questioning your statement, as I know 'who' the man is, but not a whole lot beyond that.

Edit: A bit of Googleing gave me this; another fun read (scroll down a bit from the top of the link): http://www.feathersfliesandphantoms....layfair_9.html

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"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Hi Fred,
Alexander Grant was never a School teacher, also the Switch cast described is not quite the style of cast Grant used while fishing, he changed thing around a little while fishing the river Ness at Dochfour.
Gordon.