Swinging Flies | Tips for Holding Your Rod When Spey Fishing

Swing Flies for Salmon — Good form. Photo: Whitney Gould.

A while back we ran a poll on whether or not you like to hold a loop when swinging flies for andramous fish. We received a number of fantastic comments on many angler’s preferred swinging ‘style,’ and if you haven’t read them, we recommend you check them out!

When it comes to swinging flies, personal ‘style’ is everything. There’s no right or wrong way per se, but there are advantages and disadvantages of each. So, today we offer you an alternative ‘style’ we like to use when swinging flies that we’ve found to be particularly effective.

When swinging flies, slightly elevate your rod tip during the swing!

Swinging Flies – Elevate the Rod Tip

Following your cast and any desired mends, as your fly comes under tension, slightly elevating your rod tip can offer a number of advantages as your fly swings through the water column. We’re not talking a huge ‘lift’ here. Instead, the rod hand should remain low, with the rod tip elevated only slightly above the parallel. Doing so does the following.

Acts as a shock absorber. For those who prefer not to hold a loop of line when swinging flies, elevating the rod tip is a great alternative. With an elevated rod tip, as a fish grabs the fly it is allowed to pull the rod tip down with minimal resistance. This buys time for the fish to take before setting the hook, similar to allowing a fish to take a loop of line.
Keeps running line from ‘sticking.’ By slightly elevating the rod tip through the swing, the majority of your running line remains above the surface of the water. This allows for the line to be more easily manipulated (such as mended) throughout the swing with minimal movement of the fly. Line that is ‘stuck’ on the surface will typically affect the movement of the fly with very little movement of the rod.
Positions running line above errant currents. As mentioned above, because the majority of the running line is held above the surface of the water, elevating the rod tip can also help provide a more uniform swing when fishing in water with errant or choppy current, particularly funky currents between the rod tip and skagit head.