Double snap

Strong downstream wind? Alastair Gowans has a Snap cast to replace the double Spey.

In the August 2008 issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying magazine, I introduced the highly versatile Snap 'C' cast, its selling points being that the routine is quite simple, direction changes are easy to accomplish, and it offers a large degree of control over the movement of the line thereby making it handy in cramped circumstances. Altogether a very useful cast, but it has a deficiency. If the wind blows hard downstream on a river the Snap ‘C’ Roll cast manoeuvre is dangerous, and what is needed is a Snap equivalent of the Double Spey cast, fortunately it can be done with a Downstream Snap, a method that I devised some years ago (it may have previously existed without my knowledge). The directions that follow feature a single-handed rod but can easily be interpreted to accommodate double-handed techniques.

At first sight this Snap is a strange looking contrivance, but it works well and it repositions fly line more predictably and with a better layout than the Double Spey cast. The routine is in two parts, the Snap and the subsequent Roll cast, the latter being of identical form to that employed in the Snap ‘C’. The movement starts with the line fished out on the downstream side of the caster. Here the diagrams depict the cast being made back-handed as if a right-handed person has the wind blowing strongly onto their right-hand side, making it impossible or dangerous to cast on that side and so the Roll cast is performed back-handed on the left hand side.

First, the rod tip is smoothly lifted upwards and around an imaginary ‘pulley’ to lift the line from the water and then with a smooth arc follow-through to produce a radial (or semi-circular) line layout onto the water surface in front of the caster with the leader and fly positioned outwith the intended casting direction on the downstream side to form a sustained anchor about a rod’s length away from the angler whilst the Roll cast is accomplished. Once this is done it is just a matter of making forming a ‘D’ loop off the ‘wrong’ shoulder and completing with a basic Roll cast in the required direction.

To gain greater distances a front haul can be added to the Roll cast and several extra yards of line can be shot.

Downstream Snap 'C' cast, viewed from front.

Ally dissects this cast with more photographs and diagrams in the September issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying magazine. He demonstrates how to use the cast in an upstream wind in the August issue.