I'd recommend Mark Bachman also, he taught me how to speycast when I bought my rod from him.

You can cast one at the sport show, but you really need to be on a river to get the whole spey casting thing down.

It's a fun way to fish if you like big water. Once you learn how to spey cast, you will find yourself using the tech with your regular rods.

You'd be suprised how easy it is to cast the spey rod all day, if you have proper instruction. It is very fluid and relaxing. The weight of the reel is very important also, If you are under-reeled the rod will feel heavy in the tip, and it will fatigue you casting all day with it.

Now landing a fish by yourself......that's another story when you've got 14' of bug rod out in front of you.

Aaron