Difficult students / Difficult INSTRUCTORS

Walter & Group :-

One of Tom White's pet peeves:  The student who habitually started the cast with the rod tip high; line sagging down.  Bob Andreae pointed out that in the first edition of the fly casting merit badge manual for the Boy Scouts of America, the start of the cast is depicted this way.  Of course, this starts the cast with a bit of slack to overcome.  The caster has shortened his available stroke length and rod arc.

Peter Morse enters with his way of having solved that with a problem casting student:

I taught an old chap how to cast recently, I just could not get him to 
begin each casting cycle with his rod tip touching the water. I tried 
gentle persuasion, I demonstrated what it was doing to his cast, I 
repeated it ad nauseum but nothing changed until finally I said, "Ok 
from now on every time I have to say start with your rod tip touching 
the water its going to cost you a dollar".  I made 15 bucks before the 
"penny dropped".

Peter Morse
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Tom White's method was to slowly place his big hand on the student's rod. He give his well known infectious big smile and gently eased the rod down ....  and say, "Now you're ready to cast."      Gordy

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Along with difficult students, we have been discussing "difficult instructors".  We all have our teaching faults.  Mine has been "overteaching" ...  instructing the student with more than he can absorb.  Only be recognizing this, can I put the brakes on.

Rick Whorwood gives another example:

Hi Gordy

A bit more on giving students more than they can handle:

 

When I first started teaching Spey Casting, I would teach a Roll, Switch, Single, Double, Snap T or a Circle C, and if asked I would throw in a Snake Roll. All these with a floating line. Then I'd add a session with a sink tip ( in an 8 hour lesson).

 

After the first season I realized that in order to fish for Steelhead (as most of my Students do) that I would only need to teach a Roll/Switch a Double Spey and either a Circle or a Snap T. Now each student learns with a 6 foot sink tip attached to their fly line (the reason for this, is because in the real world you need to fish sink tips). I teach these casts off both shoulders, this will give all they need to fish both banks in either up/down stream winds. My goal is to get them proficient enough to go fishing. 

 

When I started teaching spey, I was very guilty of demonstrating my ability and not giving the students what they needed. I was very excited about my new found skill and wanted everyone to be also.

 

Not the best approach as an instructor !

Rick

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COMMENT: Lefty has an oft repeated statement which covers this problem nicely:

 

SHARE your knowledge.  Don't DISPLAY it.

 

It isn't easy for us to look at ourselves critically.  I do think that if each instructor did that periodically, we'd all be better at what we do.

 

Gordy

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Chase Pritchett had asked for more information on teaching fly casting for panfish, etc. Bob helped provide that in a prior message, as you know.  Now David Lambert has more to add :

 

Gordy:

To the bass and panfish books, let us not forget the more recent

additions by Terry and Roxanne Wilson, both truly panfish experts for

decades. Their books /Bluegill/ and /Largemouth Bass Fly Fishing/ are

thoughtful and useful.

Then there's Henshall's two books on black bass, great sources of reference.

As a side note: The old southerners in the lower Alabama and Georgia

and panhandle Florida used to refer to black bass as trout. I still run

across some old timers who use that reference. Never figured out why.

David

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David,   Thanks for those references.

Fish go by different names in different areas:  The Little Tunny in most areas are called, "Albies" or False Albacore.  In South Florida they are called Bonita.  The Mangrove snapper of florida is the Gray snapper of the Bahamas, and the Mangrove Jack of Australia.  The Coral Trout of Australia is a Grouper in our Florida Keys. ..... It goes on and on.

Years ago I fly fished for grass carp in South Carolina.  The good ol boys there called them, "Bugle Nose Bass !"

Gordy

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Great stuff Bob, thanks for the lit ref. This question from Micheal has sparked my interest in Bass and Panfishing even more then it already was. Where I live in Ga there are tons of small farm ponds loaded with these species and I am willing to fish and take notes on them and possibly providing us with a more up to date literature involving this topic. I'll keep you posted here and there.

--

Chase Pritchett

FFF Certified Casting Instructor

 

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From Lou Bruno:

Gordy,

Trailing... Tailing ...Tail...  Wind knot.

In my reading I have seen each of these words used to describe what I think have the same meaning. Do they?

Lou

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Lou ...    All represent the mechanism by which the fly leg of the loop crosses over the rod leg.  We could also add the term, "crossover".  The term "wind knot" differs only in that a double crossover occurs yielding an actual knot. (I haven't figured out why it is sometimes an overhand knot and occasionally a figure-eight knot. ) 

I learned a little pearl of wisdom from Peter Hayes of Australia.  He taught me a new way of loosening up wind knots which are not drawn down so tight that nothing will work.  The trick is to place the knot on the heel of one hand and strike it repeatedly with the heel of the other hand.  I have been amazed at how effective that can be.

I did many tests of leader material before and after removing "wind knots" with a needle.  Most of the time, this method greatly reduced the tensile strengh of the material.  Peter's method didn't do that.

Gordy

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