im very new to spey, but picking it up fast. I fish a 12'6" rod and a 480 grain airflo skagit compact head with 12ft of T-11 sinking tip. to this i attach anywhere from 2 to 4 ft of mono and then the fly. having a good match is very important to good casting. my rod was a slug with the heavy 520? grain line it came with. i tried a 450 and 480 and the 480 makes it hum. the 450 is actually a switch skagit line, so its only 23 ft instead of 27. its a very fun line too because the short length makes it really easy to mend and fish. look on this site to get a cheap line or trade your line for a different ;line, then keep trying diff lines. or fish with people and try their stuff out. this is the most gear dependent fishing ive done so far. you really need to match things up.
the spey casts are very slow, thus the slow tip. do some research about "setting your anchor". once you learn how to set your anchor up better, the rest falls into place. this i found after lengthy internet research, and has helped more than anything for me trying to teach myself to spey cast. seriously, go to google or youtube or the spey clave and search "setting anchor snap t spey" absorb, reapply, prosper.
the last piece of advice i can give is really concentrate on pulling with your bottom hand and not pushing with your top hand like you do while single hand casting. If you set your anchor then come through with a very fluid casting motion using your bottom hand to pull instead of pushing, you will start to see some success. really focus on your mechanics like one might with a golf swing. good mechanics makes for effortless casting.
