Any fans of the "big" stick?
I use a 7wt switch or a 7wt spey. Only use the spey on bigger or higher fast stuff.
At times I throw a "big" fly, maybe 7-8" long. Hard to throw the bigger stuff on a regular 8wt with no room to back cast.

Yes, I use a 13' Meiser for steelhead fishing.

I've been trying to learn to Skagit cast a 13' 7wt for the past 3 weeks without much progress.  Its definitely humbling

Yea, it takes awhile. I've been doing it for 3 years now if I remember right. Its starting to click.

I too use it for steelhead, browns and coho's.
Occasionally I'll catch the odd northern pike, smallmouth bass and lake sucker.

Yes I have a few. As a matter of fact I have a new one on its way to me.

When I fish it is my preferred method wherever possible.

In spey casting is very, very easy to establish bad habits. Find an instructor and you will cut years off the learning curve.

Here are some basic tips:

Don't continue your cast if your anchor is not where you want it. Keep your anchor close. Your best casts will be with what I call danger close anchors. Everything lines up for a perfectly parallel cast that way.

Do not rush your sweep to key position. It is very important that your rod tip move in a controlled linear path to key position. I see so many casts killed when the rod tip rises and then dips on the way to key position. The line hits the water and the cast is basically DOA at that point. Remember that EVERYTHING you do prior to key position is just positioning the line. It should be very relax and methodical. Don't rush it!

When you reach key position don't let your rod tip drift back and down. Make sure you have your rod tip in perfect key position before starting your cast stroke. If it is not perfect go into a perrys poke to line everything up perfectly.

Make sure your casting stroke is linear with a good start and a solid finish. Most people drop their tip on the forward stroke.

Remember the rule of parallel casts. Your cast flows strait out from your shoulders rod tip on one side line on the other like train tracks.

Keep your arms inside the box of your shoulders and hips. You should not be reaching with your upper hand when you finish your casting stroke. Keep it tight and focus on your lower hand.

That all for a quick brain dump and it should be useful for your skagit casting.

Some of us can learn from reading, some by watching and others only or best by doing. Unfortunately I'm one of the latter.
I'm still learning.
I sometimes do a fantastic cast, then I can't do one to save my life. The more I think about it the worst I do.
I know the ability to do longer casts hurts on fish catching at times, longer casts more parallel to flow in slow deep bends vs shorter casts square to the flow.
Other times when the fish are happy it doesn't matter.
I've fished with other guys who are much better than me. They say all you gotta do is this, swoosh, whip, flip. a waste of time for me. I gotta feel what I'm doing.

I've often thought that a softer rod would help as it would give me more "feel".
Maybe one of these years I'll get it. Hopefully before my shoulder gives out.

If your feeling it in your shoulder your not keeping your arms in the box. Keep it tight and relaxed and you will feel no pain.

I know, easy for me to say...

Enjoy!

All excellent advice. Two years in to my two-handed journey and still learning a lot, but even at this early stage of the game I've found that I enjoy Skagit casting alot more than traditional single hand fly casting. In fact, I find myself sometimes doing sustained anchor casts on my single hand without really thinking about it. For two-handers, I have an 8wt switch, and a 7wt Spey, both Beulah Platinums-- love those rods!