Task 13 Discussion 4

Walter & Group...

[GH] A few of you will receive this message twice. Once without and again with the attachment.

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[GH] Michael Gallart sends his observations on teaching and practicing the distance cast :

Gordie,

It seems fairly simple, cast to 85ft. Let us all think back to when we could not cast that far. I'm not talking about as a youngster, but as full grown adults.

To earn the skills to get distance while casting I listened to, and watched accomplished casters and practiced. Mostly practiced.

Now as an instructor I'm asked to give instruction and advice to intermediate casters who seek distance when casting. Line speed, haul etc. are all elements of mechanics that can achieve distance. But the most important advice I believe I offer is how to practice. Two renowned instructors come to mind, Chuck Easterling and Macauley Lord. Chuck offers a workshop that is aptly named "Practice with a Purpose" I was a participant in one of these workshops. Chuck teaches to practice adding distance one foot at a time.

I practice and teach to work with the rod hand only(no hauling) and pick up and lay down 45 feet of line. Maintain a controlled loop, good tracking and a full leader tun over. Do this ten times correctly, then add one foot of fly line to the cast. Keep adding a foot( or two) after each repetition of ten. With each foot added notice the difference of the added line length. Observe: the stroke, casting arc, application of power, the timing. Notice the change required from 45 feet up till you get to 75 feet. By the end of Chuck's workshop I realized I was capable of a pick up and lay down of 75 feet of line. This drill makes you aware of the proper application of power, timing and stroke length. When you finally do add a haul to that, it seemed like a deserved luxury.

Another drill that Chuck taught was to make two or three false casts and on the final back cast, let drop to the ground. Look to see how well you are tracking. Notice how far off off of a straight line the backcast deviates from the forward cast. Its an eye opener. Again keep working up distance and dropping the backcast till your back cast lands 180 deg. from the forward cast. TRACKING has as much to do with gaining distance as proper application of power or stroke. If I find an a list of Chucks drills I will ask his permission and forward it to the group.

The other instructor I mentioned is Macauley Lord. Mac preaches good habits. In my opinion one of the most importantly to note for distance is to have a properly balanced outfit and clean line. With Mac's permission I have attached a list of " Eleven Habits of Highly Effective Casters" from his book FLY-CASTING HANDBOOK - An effective guide to casting farther and more accurately. The Lyons Press ç 2000

My performance advice for an 85 Ft cast.

I start with my 98% of my shooting head out beyond the rod tip. I have at my feet the remainder of fly line ( approx. 90 + ft) stacked with the running end on top. I have the rod tip low to the ground with no slack in the line. From there I make a smooth lift, maintain controlled parallel loops, concentrate on keeping my tracking straight. From there I go on auto pilot, let muscle memory take over and make a minimum of false casts. I strive for two full false casts. Joan Wulff has a saying- “Shoot a little on the forward cast… shoot a lot on the back cast. (shoot it all on final cast)

Michael

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[GH] Michael,

There are many methods and algorithms used to teach distance casting, as you point out. All can be served with the, "practice with a purpose" and the "practice to be perfect" concepts.

The specific approaches will differ widely.

Five entirely different approaches serve as examples :

1. Bill Gammel's "Learning by the essentials" method. Basically, the student is taught to teach himself with the casting essentials foremost in mind. The performance involves starting with a small amount of line and learning to make small, well aligned loops. Than adding line speed. Once achieved, the same litany is repeated as the caster adds one foot of line carried at a time until he reaches the maximum amount of line which he can carry at high line speed without the loops deteriorating. *

2. George Roberts' method which takes the position that the back cast is the key to an efficient forward cast when learning distance casting. He recommends that the student spend time doing nothing but making repeated back casts until perfection is achieved before even tackling the forward cast.... and goes on from there. **

3. Back in 1991, Lefty Kreh wrote a compact practical handbook called, "Longer Fly Casting". His method embodied is well known style of casting. The teaching was based upon that as well as adherence to 5 basic principles. ***

Over the years, Lefty has refined his description of these principles, though his basic teaching methods have remained essentially the same with a few teaching tricks and ploys added. ****

4. Joan Wullf's method taught at her schools and described in Chapter Five of her, "Fly Casting Techniques". She uses yet a different style and teaching approach. I do like her "See-Saw" description of trajectory. *****

Many other methods abound which work when teaching distance casting, including Steve Rajeff's use of overhang as a tool for determining the rate of head turnover, described and quoted by Jason Borger. ******

* TEACHING YOURSELF TO FLY CAST, Learning the Essentials, by Bill Gammel, 2002, Video production., Gammel Outdoor Services, P.O. Box 348 Highlands, TX., 77562.

** SALTWATER FLYCASTING, 10 Steps to Distance and Power, by George Roberts, 1998, Video (With accompanying text), White Mouse Productions, www.whitemouseflyfishing.com .

*** Longer Fly Casting, by Lefty Kreh, by Lefty Kreh,1991, ISBN 1-55821-127-6.

**** CASTING with LEFTY KREH, by Lefty Kreh, 2008, ISBN 13; 978-0-8117-0369-7, pp. 388-389.

***** Joan Wullf's FLY CASTING TECHNIQUES, by Joan Wulff, 1987, ISBN 0-941130-38-X, pp. 109-128.

****** Jason Borger's NATURE OF FLY CASTING a modular approach, by Jason Borger, 2001, ISBN 0-9711570-0-6, p. 240.

Gordy

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