Senior Thesis

[luckybalbowa]

So, I am wrapping up my undergrad work here at BYU this semester. As a history student, the requirement to graduate is to defend a thesis paper. It will be about a 30-40 page article. Fortunately we have a professor who specializes in sports history and I get to pick a topic in that general field.

A year ago I built my first spey rod and learned to cast it. Caught the bug pretty bad for a guy who is living in Utah. In my learning process I grabbed at any info in reach on Spey rodding. Not much was found about the sport from an historical point of view. This leaves the topic wide open for me to explore and to produce a thesis paper on.

Finally I am going to get the chance to write a college level paper on something I really love and enjoy. Primarily the focus will be on the modern history of spey rodding and the various social aspects that are attatched to the sport, studying things like innovations (and the innovators themselves), common practices, advantages, and various other sub-topics.

Being a relative noob to spey rodding, I would appreciate some help from those of you who have experience. I'm looking for resource materials, contact info, etc etc. those of you who would like to see this project get the best possible effort and can help.

In a few weeks a spey rodding survey will be posted for research purposes, so look for that as well.

Thanks in advance to those willing to contribute.

[Sloan Craven]

If you really want to give this a good start. Go up to the SPey Clave on the Clearwater. If you don't have a ride: beg, borrow, or steal one. There's gonna be some big name casters there including Mike Kinney. Overall it would be a great start to the project.

[Steve Buckner]

Hey, hope things are going well!

Trey Combs books, "Steelhead Fly Fishing" and "Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies" are a couple of great resources that detail many of the old timers, some of them are/were spey guys. John Shewey who is now the editor of Nortwest Fly Fishing Magazine also usually has an article in each issue about well known northwest anglers . You might contact Northwest Fly Fishing Magazine and/or check out some of their articles.

You also might try contacting Al Buhr, Steve Choate, Way Yin, Dana Sturn, Mike Kinney, Denise Maxwell and Simon Gawesworth to name a few. You could also research on the late Alexander Grant and Syd Glasso. You could undoubtedly get a great perspective on the history of Spey as it has blossomed here North America over the past decade or so by contacting these folks and explaining your intent.

As you may know, Al Buhr and Simon Gawesworth are the two people able to certify the two-handed rod instructors for the Federation of Flyfishers. Al has just completed his new book and he's having a book signing this weekend down in Salem. Al is extremely knowlegeabe about the history of spey and two-handed rods and spey line design (he has designed rods and lines for both Sage and Scientific Anglers). I believe he also knew the late Jimmy Green. Al is also on the FFF Board of Governors in Oregon. You could visit the FFF site to find their contact info. And of course, the Spey Pages would be another good option for you.

[Jumbo]

Spey Flies For Salmon and Steelhead woud be a good reference.

[Norseman1]

Take Sloan and Steve's advise......if you go the the Clearwater Spey Clave in Peck Idaho.....you will be able to meet and speak in person with most of the people that Steve listed. Al Buhr will be there to sign his new book, and you have to meet and talk to Mike Kinney.....Contact Poppy at the Redshed flyshop in Peck Idaho....here is a link to his site.

www.redshedflyshop.com

There is info on the site about the Clave.

Cheers
Paul

[luckybalbowa]

thanks for the responses so far guys. You're giving me some great leads. Keep it up. The more information I have to work with, the more accurrate and complete the history will be.

[fredaevans]

http://www.speypages.com/speyclave/archive/index.php/t-14491.html

http://www.bcfff.bc.ca/The%20Spey%20Cast%20or%20Welsh%20Throw.pdf#search= %22spey%20casting%2Bhistory%22

http://www.flyfishingforum.com/flytalk4/archive/index.php/t-19723.html

http://www.eastcoastspey.com/

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/spey/part2.html (You'll also want to read part 1.)

http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/quiet.htm (This is a three part history on the Pacific Coast.)

Google Hugh Falkus of England and (Dr.) Way Yin. If they wrote it, it's 'rit.'

Some excellent web boards, in no particular order:

http://www.sexyloops.com/index.shtml

http://www.flyforums.co.uk/ (Join this board and PM "Willie Gunn" aka Dr. Malcolm Newbold. Willie's a retired Dentist/now Gillie. If he doesn't know, it isn't worth knowing. And, better yet, he would know exactly where to 'go on line' to find out additional info.

Lots more out there, but there's a good start.
Fred

[fredaevans]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/040998/fish09b.html - mike maxwell and BC spey rodding.

http://www.speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=23351&highlight=alexander+grant This will give you lots of 'cross reference' thoughts for Googling.
Fred

EDIT!!: Hell's Bells, darned near forgot our own Jack Cook!! http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/faq/idx/10/039/article/Spey_Fly_Fishing__Demystifying_the_Two_Handed_Rod_ by_Jack_Cook.html

[fredaevans]

http://salmosalar.proboards80.com/index.cgi

[fredaevans]

http://salmosalar.proboards80.com/index.cgi

"Lucky" the fellows in the UK are waiting on your visit.
Fred

[luckybalbowa]

Fred thanks for all of your leads. Time to dive on in!

I posted my message on the UK board

[speyfisher]

Ed Ward's article "From Spey to Skagit" http://home.att.net/~slowsnap/spey16.htm The evolution of a casting style developed in PNW.
Also Dec Hogan's new book A Passion for Steelhead tells of the early (early being relative here) history of the two handed rods in the PNW. Casting & line developement.
John Shewey's book Spey Flies & Dee Flies contains a lot of history on the early flies.

[fredaevans]

JD, you're "behind the power curve;" young fellow's already 'in print.':)

[Hal Eckert]

Yeah, a nice little paper on spey history, he forgot about Deke Meyers Steelheading book's contribution to spey casting in 1992 - Advanced Fly Fishing for steelhead, better book than the Trey Coombs book of that era on how to steelhead fish and spey casting IMHO.

Hogans books is good, gave it a good read over the holiday.

I see that he is a zip lock sandwich bag fly guy too, like I, priceless !!

:beer2: :)

BG

[Jason Decker]

as mentioned above, dec hogans book is great, but even greater is the fact that he now lives near you........ contact the guys at Creekside in Issaquah and you might be able to track him down. he is a firefighter somewhere near south of SLC,,, maybe the sandy area?!

[Hal Eckert]

Reading the Hogan book a second time now, there are golden nuggets of information through out it, some subtle ones even for us old timers, with 26 years of steelheading with the fly.

:beer2:

BG

[East Fork]

Still waiting for my copy :) :)

Try donhouck@yahoo.com

[luckybalbowa]

Sorry Don,

I completely forgot. Check your email. I just sent it.


Mark

[Salmo_g]

Mark,

Any chance I can receive a copy?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

[DRBfish]

I was in SLC over the Holidays and stopped in to:

Western River Flyfishers
1071 East 900 South Salt Lake City, Utah
1-800-545-4312

Great fly shop. They do book signings and such with Dec and I am sure they could get you in touch with him - but it sounds like the paper is done. Are you going to post the paper? I have used storeandserve dot com with good results.

[Hal Eckert]

Those who responded to the survey that helped produce the paper along with the author's (Lucky) interviews were instructed to keep it condidential and not distribute it further, non disclosure, etc.

Nice little paper on spey history in UK and in N.A it is filed away in my spey book from Simon G. at this point and not disclosed further.

:beer2: :thumb:

BG

[luckybalbowa]

I was in SLC over the Holidays and stopped in to:

Western River Flyfishers
1071 East 900 South Salt Lake City, Utah
1-800-545-4312

Great fly shop. They do book signings and such with Dec and I am sure they could get you in touch with him - but it sounds like the paper is done. Are you going to post the paper? I have used storeandserve dot com with good results.


Thanks.

I finally got a return email from Dec two days ago. figures. :)

The only reason that I have asked that my paper not be distributed is that I believe that there is a lot more to the story, and I would like to produce a better paper before I put it out there. Hopefully the next 5-6 months are kind to me and I will have something a little more worthy and I will put it out there for everyone.

[Hal Eckert]

Yes and add something on GLs spey history, its short but spey has been around here for going on 10 years or so.

:beer2:

BG

[luckybalbowa]

Yes and add something on GLs spey history, its short but spey has been around here for going on 10 years or so.

:beer2:

BG
I'm actually just going to stick with the history of two-handed fly fishing in the PacNW. I want to keep the subject matter narrowly defined, but it would be a good topic for someone else to start on. :)

[DRBfish]

Did this ever get posted? I would like to read it.

[Flyborg]

Dec's a member here on WFF, just send him a PM if you want to chat with him :)

[luckybalbowa]

i'm willing to have it available to this forum if a moderator wants to put it up in the articles section

[Hal Eckert]

Good thesis it was, good work !

:thumb:

HE

[ak_powder_monkey]

Just make sure your friends show up to your thesis defense with a D fence sign made out of beer boxes. Should go over really well at BYU ;)

[luckybalbowa]

Just make sure your friends show up to your thesis defense with a D fence sign made out of beer boxes. Should go over really well at BYU ;)

My friends mostly used blackjack papers for the "D-fence" signs, but I guess beer boxes would be acceptable :thumb: