View Full Version : Tying Spey Flies
Do any of you guys tie them? I am having a lot of fun tying these and some turn out so nice I hate to fish them :shrug:
Took me awhile to figure out how to get the long spey feathers to flow right but the finished product sure looks nice.
I also recieved some flies from ifisher Fish-N-Russ and they are beautiful!
Anyway I bring a sample to the round table on Tuesday
Mark Vickers
06-12-2004, 10:16 PM
Willow Drifter does some amazing flies. I just got his Atlantic salmon flies today. They are probably the most beautifully tied flies I've ever seen. The bad thing is, I'd never fish with something that pretty.
Too bad he's up in Alaska. He'd be a good asset to the local get together.
Steelheader69
06-13-2004, 12:44 AM
Yeah, I've been tying them for about 7 years now. Love them. But, I tie up a couple different types. I do have my "fishing speys" and my "display" speys. Normally my fishing speys are a little more simple to tie then fully dressed speys. I have fished some of my full blown speys. But cringe when I have a "non fish" hookup. LOL.
There are a few different feathers to use out there for the spey feathers. BEP, schlappen, Herron if you are daring lol, and AW has some stuff that is supposed to be similar to real Speycock that original speys were tied with. I have some, is a lot like schlappen. Still out for debate on that one. Hoping the next generation of whitting spey capes are better then the last. I didn't care for them that much (the stuff I tried).
Well it was mostly thanks to your outstanding tutorials on Marty's board (http://www.steelheader.net) that helped me out tremendously :cheers: Good job over there Jerry!
I'm finding that the stiffer spey feather are kind of a hassle and I am looking for some larger schlappen feathers.
One idea I have is to tie a spey burlap.
Special K
06-13-2004, 12:41 PM
OK - please excuse my ignorance, but what is the main difference between the flies you fish from a Spey Rod and flies you fish from a one-hander?
Spey flies are not necessarily fished with a spey rod. It's just a style of tying.
Here is an example of a spey fly
http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/thumbs/1882Speyajl.jpg
Steelheader69
06-14-2004, 01:12 AM
Thanks for the kind words Stew. Takes alot of work to make those things. LOL.
Yeah, Stew is dead on. Traditionally, the fly would've been fished on the river spey with a rod designed for the river spey. Mind you, that in Europe and ESPECIALLY the UK, they are called two handed rods, not Spey rods. Since they are used on many rivers there. I have a good friend who lives and has a beat on the river Spey. Even he prefers to call them a double handed salmon rod. The term "spey" I believe was just a catch phrase. I do know that most people in UK cringe when they hear the yanks call it that. LOL. But each river in Scotland had it's own specialty with their flies. You have you Tay and Dee style flies as well. Just the river spey lent itself more to the speycock feathers, and to tented mallard wing. But using a spey isn't necessarily required to put on a spey rod. I've used spey flies on one handers and everyday flies on spey rods.