Go take a casting lesson
- This topic has 19 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated Nov 13, 2007 at 11:01 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
I just finished a two hour casting lesson with a FFF certified casting instructor and man-o-man do I feel energized!
I agree with Neal totally!! 😀
Zach is a great instructor!! Speak of experience…, Not only Free!, there are lots of cold drinks in a hot summer day!! I did benefit a lot by watching his cast. Precise controlled back cast and smooth forward cast. Effortless reach 100′. It was a great lesson. 🙂
PS. Zach, I would love to participate another event in Atlanta, maybe include spey cast?
Right! Lando
Spey cast with single handed rod is as fun as two handed rod. I did it very often in tight vegetated creek.
Neal when it goes to shit like that wind in the line so you have only around 25 feet out (plus leader), put your left hand in your pocket and with just the casting hand make a series of casts with as little effort as you can possibly get away with to just turn over the leader. (TURN SIDE ON AND WATCH THE LINE) Do that until you get the feel and the timing back then rebuild it from there. Think smoooooooooth.
Every time you lose it go back to that exercise – its a great way of reminding ourselves that as far as fly casting is concerned technique will beat effort EVERY time.
Morsie
FFFCCI
I did a second lesson yesterday and learned that one of my major problems was in my casting “planes”.
Casting is simple… as soon as someone tells you anything different it is time to start questioning them….
Load the rod stop. Unload the rod… stop. Straight line path of the rod tip.. keep it smoooooth (As Morsie says)… that’s it.
You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
Casting is simple.
I stopped reading your reply as soon as I read that.
Your statement just doesn’t sit right with me.
Casting is simple… as soon as someone tells you anything different it is time to start questioning them….
Load the rod stop. Unload the rod… stop. Straight line path of the rod tip.. keep it smoooooth (As Morsie says)… that’s it.
It indeed is simple as long as you don’t want to progress any further than just getting the fly out there.
I guess what you’re saying can apply to driving a car too. Hit the gas… turn the wheel and brake when needed. Simple.  😉
Neal I think we all learn best with hands on. I know what Clark’s saying, we can over complicate it by tying to throw too far and by trying to be too tricky too early on. The track of the tip sounds like its giving you problems. Most mistakes happen in the back cast area, especially at the point of the “stop” when the rod tip can wander all over the place. The rod tip has to stop dead and the only other movement it can make is backwards and downwards, but still in a straight line path – anything else is going to cause grief. That’s why I suggested you turn and watch the tip of the rod. Choose a point you want it to stop at, use a sighter such as a tree or a point of a house and watch the rod tip and that point – make your stop stop.
“Creep” is the act of coming forward with the tip of the rod while the line is still going back and leads to all sorts of problems that usually manifest themselves as tailing loops (its only one of half a dozen causes of tailing loops). Thats why the stop and a slight backwards drift are so important.
Morsie
Neal, many years, but above all lots of practise, I love casting. I spent a lot of time with a guy called Gordon Dunlop, a really fine caster and someone with an analytical mind (an accountant in real life). He had one of Lefty’s very earliest books with lots of pictures and analysed his cast that way. By the time we met up (1975) he was already a bloody good caster who introduced me to the world of shooting heads. The first time I saw one of those things go was a “holy shit” moment. When Lefty came to Australia in the late 80’s Gordon and I managed to spend some time with him, it was like having a team of formula one engineers work over my old Toyota – it was just bloody awesome. I still practise almost every day, usually something different; accuracy or distance, curves or dhanders – I try a different rod or line combination every day and sometimes I’ll take one rod and three different lines or 3 rods and one line – was out with a new 611 switch rod yesterday, finally got the right line for it and POW!
Find a mate and practise together, that’s a great way to learn. Use targets as well – anything, just have something to throw at and constantly vary the distance its at.
Morsie
…I know what Clark’s saying, we can over complicate it by tying to throw too far and by trying to be too tricky too early on. The track of the tip sounds like its giving you problems. Most mistakes happen in the back cast area, especially at the point of the “stop” when the rod tip can wander all over the place. The rod tip has to stop dead and the only other movement it can make is backwards and downwards, but still in a straight line path – anything else is going to cause grief. That’s why I suggested you turn and watch the tip of the rod. Choose a point you want it to stop at, use a sighter such as a tree or a point of a house and watch the rod tip and that point – make your stop stop…
MorsieGreat summed up!! Morsie! You are giving out a lot of secrets 😀
Thanks for the great tips and descriptions!!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.