Any Spey Casters Out there?

I will be visiting Iceland in Sept., and am going to spend at least one day fishing for Atlantic salmon and big browns. Spey is their way....I have dabbled in fly fishing over the years, but never two handed.
Are any of you proficient at spey casting? Mind showing a noob the basics?
Any info would be much appreciated!

I will be visiting Iceland in Sept., and am going to spend at least one day fishing for Atlantic salmon and big browns. Spey is their way....I have dabbled in fly fishing over the years, but never two handed.
Are any of you proficient at spey casting? Mind showing a noob the basics?
Any info would be much appreciated!

You don't need to spey. Go with a 9' or 10' single hand and use a shooting head. I recommend OPST commando heads. No false casting needed just a single backcast and then zing. Much easier to learn than spey and far more cost effective.

Which casts do you want to learn?  There are literally hundreds of unique casts and variations to choose from, each has a unique purpose and application, and each requires a different technique depending on whether you're casting river left or river right.

You trivialize one of the most technically challenging methods of fishing by thinking it's something you can pick up in a few weeks.  It takes months to learn enough about spey-casting to no longer be a danger to yourself (and anyone nearby).

Take uplandsandpiper's advice and learn basic spey-casting techniques on a single-handed rod.  He has a video showing how easy it is to make a a simple poke cast to a full cast and shoot 50 feet of line.  While seated.  Shooting line with a single-handed rod is easier to learn, effective, and much less expensive.

There are a plethora of videos on YouTube explaining the basic techniques with single-handed rods.  Those by Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics (OPST) and RIO are especially good, basic, tutorials and show you don't need two-handed rods to make long casts.

The Spey Pages (http://www.speypages.com/) is a good online forum dedicated to spey and skagit casting - I'm Tinker there, too - but I wouldn't expect you'd hear different advice from those folks.

To me, a lot of it depends on if you have a Spey or switch rod already.  I have only played with Spey casting on a switch rod. It is fun and effective but it does take a fair amount of practice. Videos on YouTube are a great place to start then go out on your local water and practice a couple of the basic casts. Practice both as if the river is going right to left as well as left to right.  The cast is opposite.  For me, one of the big benefits of a Spey cast is fishing a river with lots of brush.  It doesn’t require as much space for a back cast.  Have fun with it and hope you have a great trip.

Everyone has their own opinion, and all of them are valuable, but the only real advantage for two-hand rods over single-hand rods is potential distance, IF the person with the rod knows how to cast proficiently.

Well, that plus you get to look like the cool kids.

One doesn't need a two-handed rod to cast with a steep bank and obstacles or shrubbery behind them.  That's where making a spey cast with a single-hand rod comes into play.  All the really cool kids know how to do it. 

It's just my opinion that there's not enough time between now and SD2OR's departure date for anyone with little or no prior fly-fishing experience to become proficient with a 12- or 14-foot fly rod.  I'd like to think he could go in a slightly different direction, have more fun, and experience less frustration on this trip.

Thank you all for that wealth of info you guys!

I certainly did not intend to trivialize anything, and am not naive enough to think I could master anything like that in a short period of time. I have to start somewhere tho!

I had not heard of Spey casting till this week, while researching Icelandic fishing. I knew they mostly fly fished there, and had figured I could probably manage to put a fly in front of a fish once or twice during my trip, with the little bit of fly casting experience I do have. 

Since reading about Spey casting, I have indeed been watching videos, and will be getting out next week to experiment with that, as well as practice normal fly casting. I just thought a bit of in person training could help a bit.

I will definitely check out shooting heads, sounds like an excellent suggestion.

For a few years now, I have meant to get more into fly fishing, but as I usually don't get out on the water nearly as much as I'd prefer, I've almost invariably stuck with spinning and conventional gear. I guess I opted for fishing with techniques I am confident with over learning new skills, but it appears I need to change that.

While typing this, I actually received a message from the guide I will be spending a 12 hr day with, and he echoed your sentiments. Spey gear is not necessary for what I am going to do, it's just his (and apparently many Iceland natives) personal preference.

Many thanks for all the advice and suggestions, I really appreciate it fellas!

I'm one of the "Cool Kids" then!

Let your guide help you. Take your set up out on the lawn of the lodge or someplace you can practice off the water the night before, and let him critique you and offer suggestions.  I did that in Belize on '02 when I went there for bonefish and other species, and it helped a lot.

Meanwhile, practice as much as you can.

BTW, am jealous. That's starkly beautiful country.

I will be driving to a different part of Iceland every day I am there, going around the ring road, so won't be meeting the guide till the morning of the outing. I will practice as much as I can tho, before I go.

Sucks to not be you!  Have a great trip.