Spey-O-Rama

Examining the World’s Largest Spey Casting Tournament

Two American bison graze lazily in tall grass just beyond a black wire fence. The gentle wind animates their coarse brown fur. A child clutches the fence and peers through in confusion and excitement. His father grins and digs into his jean pocket for a phone. For the bison, it’s just another partly-cloudy day at Golden Gate Park. 

On the other side of the road, six cars wait to ascend a hilly driveway leading to a small parking lot protected by trees. A brown wooden sign reading “Anglers Lodge” and “Casting Pools” is visible off to the left of one of the cars. 

“Registration closes at 12:30,” echoes a male voice through the amplification of a microphone. From an outsider’s perspective it is not made abundantly clear, but the largest international spey casting tournament is officially underway. 

“Spey is a river in Scotland. It’s a two-handed casting technique, but it’s made for swinging a fly where you have limited back-cast room but want to get it way out there,” explains Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club President Willy George. He also happens to be a Master Casting Instructor accredited by the International Federation of Fly Fishermen (IFFF). 

Spey-O-Rama is a three-day tournament, but the first day is actually a qualifying round. Men, women and senior divisions are represented. The best ten from each group advance to Sunday’s final round. The tournament also brings together the best anglers from the United States, Canada, Japan, Serbia, Russia, South Korea, Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Sweden. 

The Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club consists of three concrete castings pools and an Anglers Lodge. There are no fish in the water; this is strictly for casting practice. And of course, tournaments. 

The middle pool is the largest at about 195-feet wide and 150-feet across. The smaller pools are 85-feet wide and 150-feet across. 

“So, you got 85, plus 195, plus 85…. That’s how long that is. That’s longer than a football field,” mentions Willy. He’s halfway surprised himself when explaining this out loud. 

It’s Sunday, and that means it’s the best of the best competing in the finals. 

Six spectators sit at the edge of the largest casting pool across from the Anglers Lodge. Their feet lie comfortably on the concrete without the water quite hitting their toes. About twenty or thirty others lounge on the grass and in chairs behind them. 

Right now, the women are competing. 

“The caster gets a total of twelve casts in six minutes time. And there are four different casts, and we take the best one of the three attempts of each of those casts,” explains Willy. 

The four casts include the right-hand snake roll, the left-hand snake roll, the right-hand single spey and the left-hand single spey. Competitors are judged based on the top score of each category. Scores are determined strictly by distance. 

“Now the left-hand and the right-hand designation are simply what hand you have on top. They’re used in spey casting to position the anchor, which is the point that contacts the water on different sides of you,” explains Willy.

The snake roll begins with the line to the ride side – that’s if it is a right-hand snake roll. The opposite holds true for the left-hand snake roll. The rod is lifted and twirled before being flung forward. This creates a spiral motion on the line, hence the name “snake roll.” 

The single spey involves flicking the rod in a straight forward-thrusting motion. Simple enough, but hard to master. 

“You must do a left-hand and a right-hand snake roll. We wouldn’t want to get a person who’s only good with their right-hand. Let’s say they’re right-hand dominant… you know, this is by design. This isn’t a personal preference issue. In real fishing, a key underpinning to all of this is that the rules for the Spey-O-Rama at Golden Gate were specifically designed more than fifteen years ago, because this is our fifteen annual, to simulate fishing situations,” adds Willy. 

Everybody in the tournament has fly fishing experience. 

Yasue Kazuno from Japan is up. She has two minutes to warm-up before being judged. She is submerged almost hip deep in the largest casting pool. She is wearing brown weighters with black boots.  Intensely focused, she prepares her left-hand snake roll. 

“Score! Eight-nine,” echoes the voice from the microphone. 

It may not be the strongest attempt of the day, but she remains unnerved. She is still one of the best in the world. After her twelve casts, she takes a much-needed break. She sits at a shaded bench and waits to view the next competitor.

“This is my second year. I started in 2009 and found a real interest in this,” she mentions through the help of a translator. 

“Hokkaido is where I’m from. It’s very beautiful and fly fishing is popular there. There is also a tournament named after me in Hokkaido.” 

Her husband, Yoshihito, is also present and happens to be competing in the men’s finals. He and his wife are both members of the Japan Casting Association.

Next up is Whitney Gould from Montana. She is a five-time Spey-O-Rama champion. She also set a world spey casting record of 150-feet in 2017. 

She is warmed-up and ready to attempt her left-hand snake roll. She twirls the rod with finesse and whips it forward. 

‘Score! One-two-seven…” 

She grabs the line and pulls it back in for a second attempt. She repeats the same technique, except this time, the line goes flying at a remarkable distance. 

“Score! One-four-zero!”

A roar of cheers and a well-deserved round of applause floods the area. It is the longest cast of the day for the women’s division. 

“My first year here was in 2007 - my friend Donna got me into it. I grew up fishing, but I was used to one-handed rods. The first year I was here, I got my butt kicked. It’s different with the two-handed rods, but you get used to it,” admits Whitney. 

She finishes the tournament as a champion once again. All that’s left is to practice and wait to compete again next year. When she isn’t competing, she’s busy organizing guided fly fishing trips in Northern California, Idaho, and Montana. 

“A person can’t just spey cast. It helps to have fly fishing experience, and many are professionals at that game. They take clients on the rivers using spey techniques, so they are spey casting guides on their respective rivers… in Norway, in Scotland, in Ireland, in Canada, in Oregon… they are professional guides on those waters,” states Willy. 

“To cast it, I mean, I can teach a few hours worth of lessons to an angler and get them to be able to fish. But that’s like saying how much time you need to go golfing. You can have fun, but you can’t win the Masters.”