Yah, the video is probably a little out of place without some background.

Joe Robinson has recently written a small book called Piscatorial Absurdities about what he refers to as "radical ultralight spin fishing." It's basically his opportunity to openly talk about and share his obsession of super-ultralight spinning tackle.

Not to over simplify things or put too many words in Joe's mouth, but one of his central arguments is that the true art of the spinning cast has been lost in the past 50 years. Modern rods are so stiff and modern lures are so heavy that the typical caster doesn't actually use much of the flex of the rod in the cast. The cast's power is generated by accelerating the tip of the rod as much as possible. These casts are the exact opposite of that style of casting.

The rods that he's using in those videos are all made on 1-3wt fly rod blanks, so they're much more flexible than typical spinning rods made in the past 30 years (TFO is now making a dual-purpose spinning rod / 3wt fly rod...you just switch out the reel to go back and forth between the two styles). He uses 7x tippet for his line (roughly 2lb test) and lures that are less than 1/20th oz. The casts in the video use very little motion from the wrist or arm, but take advantage of the dynamics of the rod to propel the lure. My background is in engineering, so I nerd out a little bit on the dynamics of the whole thing; however the timing and feel of the cast also make it very comfortable to me as a fly caster.

Joe does a much better job of explaining all of this than I do. If you want to read more about the topic, I would suggest you grab a copy of his book from Sportsman's Finest in Austin (512-263-1888). He talks about the whole process, from equipment to casting technique to general motivation.

I should also probably also mention the website that they're putting together to go with the book.

I must confess - I�m not a UL guy, let alone a UL spin cast guy �.. BUT - I am an experimenter and the posts on UL spin/fly has been of interest to me.

As a result, TFO has provided me with their new Spin/fly rig.
I tossed it in the backyard with a 5 wf line and got a decent ~35-40 ft cast but the action is a little slow for me - I lean toward fast action rods.
It may be more 3-4 fly rod than 4-5 wt?

Below are specs for spin rod - $100.00 for a premium UL �

Spin/Fly
Model Length Power Line Wt. Lure Wt. (oz.) Weight (oz.) Pcs. Action MSRP
TFG FWSF 601-2 6' UL 2-6 1/32 - 3/8 2.6 2 Mod Fast

Since I am presently grounded due to health problems I sent the spin/fly rig to Lake Murray with Robin Rhyne for test run and will anxiously await his report.