Sorry Stam, but the same devil was at work here, too. The only thing obvious is that Coley is vouching for you.
And Scandinavian here, not that it matters.

Coley, maybe you should post up some pics of Stam Spey casting, for verification and critique, ya' know.

I hear comments like yours about Spey caster/fishermen a lot, but I don't identify with it. Makes me think that I hang with an entirely different set of the fly fishing fraternity. I see Spey guys on some rivers who don't look like they know a lot about fishing. I assume they are new to the game, and often I see them fishing with guides.

I think you're being short-sighted to say that casting to fish regularly means casts no more than 40'. It depends on the river and where the fish hold in my experience. That's not to say that the fish aren't holding closer to one side than mid-river. I fished the Skagit and Sauk successfully for over 20 years regularly casting 60' - with a single hand fly rod - and not because fish held 60' out. Often I'd be fishing to steelhead holding 20 to 40' out, but with the idea being a low and slow swing, the 60' of line presented well. Weekend before last on the Klickitat a line of about 45 - 60' was about right for a swung presentation. The day before while bobber-dogging from the raft - that's totally different. A cast over 40' was out of control, so the shorter the better the control, up to and including dapping.

The only places I know where long casts as fishing casts are the norm and are effective are the Clearwater (ID) and the Thompson. That's because the channel morphology is such that the steelhead hold all across the stream cross section and can be taken anywhere you can make a suitable presentation.

Anyway, it's fun and entertaining to see Stam venturing over into the light side, the Stam who said nothing good can come of fly fishing. He he.

Sg