Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 8 August 2026
When I started to work with Paul I didn’t really know what I wanted to learn in fly casting, or specifically single handed casting. So everything seemed like a good start. Well more distance was off course a goal. My main fishing is blind casting for seatrout a long the coast. Distance and fighting the wind is hard to avoid then. But the rest of the things I didn’t know specifically when I would need, but nice things to have in the toolbox. So I was a bit surprised that it seems like almost everyone else working with Paul is shot taking saltwater anglers. I think that if you are a stream fisherman you want everything that Paul offers in the curriculum.
So I might look like a distance caster and nothing else. But my toolbox in the casting is quite big. Which I experienced in the last weeks when I was away for two weeks and had a lot of possibilities to fish streams of various sizes. If you want to cover a stream efficiently I don’t think there isn’t any one of the lessons Paul outlines that you wouldn’t want to have. So lets have a look at them as Paul listed them in his latest FP:
Accuracy, OSD, Hauling - Basics, hard to argue against any of them
Roll cast, 3 stops - Best cast with Speys for the stream fisher
Backcast deliveries - Opens up so many possibilities to handle wind and stay out of trouble.
Jump Roll - More distance in the roll cast and a base for Spey casts
Spey Casts - So many situations opens up when you have these in your toolbox. And you will save money from keeping your flies out of the bushes. More about these in the trick casts.
170 - It isn’t just about distance, it is about control and solving more situations. Fighting wind, delivery of heavy nymphs.
Presentation casts - Clearing obstacles, setting the line up for a perfect drift.
Presentation Mends - Same as presentation casts with the addition of controlling the drift. Sometimes you want to slow the fly down, sometimes you want to speed it up.
Rod planes/loop planes - Keeping the rod out of an obstacle, keeping the line in a better position. Solvig situations.
Wind, all options. - You don’t want some wind stopping you from fishing.
Line management, quick shots - Line management keeps you sane, you want to make some quick shots when fishing for trout.
Trick casts/steeple cast/change direction/ snaps/ tailing loops uses. - This one was the one I thought I would use the least, but this is actually putting everything together.
Some examples how I used these skills on my trip. Almost everyday it was windy, so that one was easy. My waders was leaky so it was nice to stay out of the water as much as possible which meant even more Spey casts even if I prefer them in general for stream fishing. But here is even more for the trick cast section. The steeple cast is a must then. Combining overhead casting with a Spey cast is here also as a change of direction cast, get the cast going with overhead casting and sweep the fly around with a snake roll and deliver it. (There are no snakes in a snake roll, just to be clear.) This allows for a longer Spey cast while working out line and keeping the fly dry enough to float.
A long pick up lay down to quickly reposition the fly, combination of skills?
Being able to throw tailing loops to cast under obstacles is very useful when stream fishing, being able to fish the area under the low hanging branches is great. Even greater to catch a fish there. I did this time, the fish wasn’t big. But so wasn’t the stream either.
The fishing was good during the trip even if the fishing wasn’t the main objective of the trip. Catching trout and grayling, except when visiting those “special” fishing areas. Then only perch did show up. It is a good feeling when casting isn’t restricting you. And the better caster you become the less you rely on specialised equipment I think. I fished a DT line for all my fishing here. No specialised Spey lines or such.
You will have to get out on the lawn and practice. It might feel weird but remember it is only weird if you think it is. Otherwise it is just normal. If it helps you can always excuse yourself that you are less weird than a guy in Sweden dancing between casts on the lawn.
The fishing was good on the trip, but back home it has been exceptional so far. The seatrouts have been crazy. I hope this means September will be really good fishing.
Cheers, Rickard.
PoD: Me chasing seatrout.
And the cast, that sound: