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Walter & Group...
[GH] Questions about the present MCI exam from Shaun Ash:
Gordy just a couple of quick questions about the MCCI test I am already working my way through the tasks and as a result my fishing and casting skills have grown and I am getting as much teaching in as possible and here is the rub.
Due to wind and a mostly saltwater fishing environment most people once they can cast pretty well want to cast 8 to 10 weights and learn to handle shooting heads or very big flys so most lessons have to go down this path, yet for me this is not represented in the test.
or in much of the lesson plans and support articles.
Re hauling as it is in the MCCI test why is hauling not more used if a person taking the test at that level should be able to decide when hauling is or is not needed,
So I guess the questions are why does the test limit hauling and have nothing on shooting heads.
Shaun
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[GH] Shaun,
Valid questions. In answering, I'd like to call attention to a bit of fly casting history here in the U.S.A.
As many of you know, back when the FFF was first organized, most of the members including officers were fresh water fishers. The majority were primarily trout fishers. As a result, teaching the use of heavy salt water tackle wasn't done very often. These fresh water fishers made up the bulk of the original BOG when the CICP program was started some years later. It is important to note that the concept of style and substance was not appreciated in those years; so the majority of the BOG members used, taught, and touted as efficient casting a style which worked fine for that kind of fishing.
Lefty Kreh was at the forefront of dissension over the methods used for trout fishing being the "preferred" method of casting. He championed a low elbow, stiff wrist, off vertical rod plane style which most salt water anglers found worked a great deal better. The differences of opinion resulted in Lefty leaving the BOG.
I was part of the thrust toward our development of methods which worked best for us in the salt as I learned to fish in the Ocean and bays after growing up during the 1930's and 40's using an off vertical style which I learned from my grandfather who taught me what he felt worked best. He'd been doing that on Long Island since before 1920 when he came to the U.S. from the U.K. right after WW I . As a youngster, I simply found the vertical rod plane style difficult when using salt water fly tackle. Fine when trout fishing and for short distance pin point accuracy.
The development of the double and the single haul was a revelation to me (and many others). We saw it as an integral part of almost all casts. A balance between what we did with the rod hand and what occurred with the line hand. Problem was that we had begun to use it long after having developed efficient basic casting strokes, whereas new casters were using it "to throw their mistakes farther" (Lefty).
How does all this affect my teaching ?
As with you, Shaun, most of the folks I teach are those who are competent fresh water fishers. They come down to the Florida Keys and find they cannot handle the combination of wind and the heavier salt water tackle as well as the lightning quick presentations both forehand and back hand to moving fish. Some of these fishers are well seasoned Masters. It was just that they hadn't been exposed to this sort of fishing before.
Though I use a haul even for a 30' cast, I do NOT teach new casters to do that. I don't even bring it up until they have developed a good basic casting stroke without it. I add it for the many things we all know it can accomplish once this is achieved.
I encourage new casters to develop a style which works best for them. For those fishing in our salty waters, most gravitate to a low elbow / off-vertical rod plane style. Strong, athletic men can make the needed distances for salty fishing with heavier tackle even when using vertical styles . Being on the foredeck of a flats skiff holding a 10 - 12 wt. outfit for hours at a time, however, leads them to lower the elbow and go to an off vertical rod plane quite often.
Steelhead fishers using single hand tackle, the California bay fishers and many surf fishers use shooting heads. Learning the fine points of this casting is a subject in its own right. The basic principles of fly casting pertain, but the variables differ and must be learned and practiced.
To answer your questions specifically :
1. When testing, most examiners feel that it is easier to judge the candidate's basic casting stroke when a haul is not used. Having said that, I'd be OK with allowing hauls on any of the tasks if it were not for the fact that the exam is not so much a test of casting ability as it is a test of casting as done for teaching demonstrations.
2. The casting tasks do include double hauling. (Task 12.)
3. The candidates' judgement as to when to use hauls is not really "tested". Perhaps it should be.
4. At first, I bristled as I disagreed with the use of a vertical rod plane casting style for the loop control tasks. I mellowed out by looking at this specifically as a "teaching style" used so that students could more easily see the loops when they are demonstrated by candidates in that manner. Frankly, I think it can be done just as well with horizontal "ground casting".
5. Knowledge of the mechanics used for casting shooting heads is often addressed on the oral portion of the exam. One reason it isn't part of the casting portion is that up to present we have not required the candidate to bring and use shooting head tackle.
6. While salt water techniques and styles are used by an ever increasing number of fly fishers, it is still "the new kid on the block" compared with the many years and numbers of fly fishers who fish fresh water. That s reflected in the exams including the lesson plans, etc.
This is gradually changing. The MCI casting portion, now includes the "salt water quick cast" ("speed cast" ) and modifications needed when wading salt water flats.
Gordy
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