The Snap Poke

I recently came up with this cast when I wanted a faster the way to do the poke so that my bulky heavy  fly does not get a chance to sink too deep before the forward delivery. The inspiration for this cast came from the Tongariro Roll Cast and the Snap-T. 

In lake fishing, some of the bulky baitfish pattern that I was using simply proved too challenging to extract from the water once they are sunk more than a few inches below the surface. Instead of using a heavier setup, I find that as long as I can get the fly to stay very near the surface before the forward cast, I will have no problem casting them.... hence a faster poke is born. The snap move allows the poke to be perform almost simultaneously with the pull back stroke. This cuts the time of the poke almost in half. The Snap Poke is typically performed after a roll cast to surface the fly.

Wombat Cast

Here is a cast I find useful for lake fishing. It is essentially a Snap-C going into a Perry poke. The name for this cast probably first surface in RIO's Modern Spey Casting DVD and since then, there has been rumbling among internet Spey community on what is the point of this cast. 

I too question the necessity of this sequence of move until I started playing with snap C / T to re-position my fly so that I can cast to my right after fishing out my left (without resorting to a cackhanded cast). The most obvious way is to do a Snap-C / T immediately followed by the forward cast. However, I often find this sequence unsatisfactory as the anchor is not well placed after the Snap-C and often result in a busted anchor cast or lousy turn-over due to the "Bloody-L" effect.

After some experimentation, this Wombat cast quickly gains favor. It allows me to quickly re-position my fly and re-align my anchor for a good clean cast. One useful point to note is that the Snap-C should be made with the rod initially pointing left so that the fly+leader+sink tip can land to your front-right (as oppose to landing to the extreme right or rear-right). Once that is achieved, the poke move that follows will allow you to tighten up the fly+leader+sink tip to line up with the forward cast.

Roll Cast vs Switch Cast

I often get questions from people starting out in Spey casting to explain what is a switch cast. Here is a video I made to illustrate the difference between a switch cast and a roll cast. Switch cast is the foundation of all Spey type cast and is often the first cast to learn when starting out Speying. While a traditional roll cast is limited in its D-loop size, a switch cast allows for a much deeper D-Loop to be formed and can achieve better casting distance. The switch cast is also sometimes referred to as a jump roll.

Spey Casting Practice - Perry Poke

Here is a video I made to highlight some of the salient points of a Perry Poke (wrap style). In learning the Perry Poke/Wrap, I find it useful to remember the following points:
1) Dump the line in a smooth arc preferably no further than a rod length away from you. Dumping the line too far ahead of you may compromise your D-Loop formation.
2) Pay attention to where you fold the line during the dump as that would be your anchor/pivot point. As a rule of thumb, the joint where the sink tip (or versi-leader) meets the Skagit head would be where you want this fold to occur.
3) The sweep should be should be as smooth as possible transitioning into the forward cast. It is useful to think of the sweep and the forward cast as one continuous stroke with no pause in between. When done right, centrifugal force generated from the sweep will throw the fly line (skagit head) radially outwards, forming a D-Loop that swings round from your front to your rear.
3) Power the forward stroke when the top leg of the D-Loop just about line up with the targeted cast direction. The timing here is crucial to get a good cast. If you wait too long, the D-Loop would have swung round too far and tends to wrap around you in the forward delivery. If you exit the sweep too early, the D-Loop may not form properly and you would not get good loading.

Trick Cast - checking your fly

Here is a very useful trick cast to learn. It applies to both single-hander or double-hander. Ever since learning this trick cast, I no longer need to strip my fly line all the way back to check or change fly. All you need to do is to leave about 30 to 40 feet of head out of the rod tip and give it a quick snap and the fly + leader will go airborne for you to catch. Just make sure that you focus on catching the fly line or leader instead of the fly because you will likely fail miserably if you try to catch the fly and ended up looking idiotic.

What I find useful to do when there is wind or fishing at night is to use the section of the rod above the handle to try to snag the leader as it fly towards me. I find this a more reliable method then using hand. This means that if I am a right hander, I will snap the fly towards my right shoulder and extend my rod to catch/snag the leader. A very neat trick indeed.