If speycasting had a hall of fame, it would surely include many past and present names that have all made a tremendous contribution to the evolution of this wonderful discipline of fly casting.
Individuals who have helped push the boundaries of casting ability and performance of rod and line technology to a higher level by sheer talent and in-depth appreciation of their chosen skill. Although the list would include some hefty names, there was one man who was the epitome of the above and the godfather of modern-day speycasting.
Ironically, one of the greatest ever exponents of the art of Spey casting was a man few present-day salmon anglers will even have heard of. Alexander Grant was a native of the Spey valley and through the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century set a standard in Spey casting, which has only relatively recently been surpassed by modern day legends like Scott MacKenzie. By combining an unorthodox technical approach to tackle design and unquestionable ability as a caster, in his lifetime, Grant took the art of Speycasting to an unprecedented level.
Born in 1856 at his family’s croft at Battangorm near Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland, Grant began his illustrious fishing career in the silvery waters of the River Spey system. As a young boy he was also exposed to his other great passion in life – playing the fiddle. So much was his early interest in the acoustic properties of these instruments that he once refused to attend fiddle lessons from the local school teacher because he disliked the tone of his tutor’s fiddle. This early appreciation of tone and vibration was something he used in later life to outstanding effect in the design of his famous ‘Grant’s Vibration’ range of fly rods.
As well as being a gifted caster, he was also an accomplished fly dresser and in 1884 started a large-scale fly making business in his hometown of Carrbridge. This was to prove a challenging way of making a living and the following year he took up the position of fisherman to Lord Burton of Glenquoich Forest on the River Garry. In 1887 Grant moved from Carrbridge to Inverness to start up