Fighting fish / drift & followthrough / loop shape

Have you seen Chasing Silver A Tarpon Journey, it has a great sequence where Andy Mill explains putting pressure on a Tarpon? Andy uses a one piece Loomis Cross Current rod, he has a pulley system hooked to a table with a bucket of sand (12lbs I believe) he then demonstrates by pulling on the rod at different angles, explaining the effect and amount of pressure you put on the fish. If you haven't seen it Bruce Chard has a copy.

Rick Whorwood's
Fly Casting School
www.flycastingschool.com
(905)-662-8999

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I have seen it .... it's right on target. As you know, Andy has won many tarpon events and holds a 202 lb. fly caught tarpon IGFA record. My personal preference for large tarpon is that same one-piece cross current rod .... although I still love my Loomis Mega 8 1/2" rod. (That one has been out of production for several years ..... I have an extra blank in case I ever break it.)

As you know, I'm very much in favor of putting max pressure on these large fish. Trying to land them on "frog hair" tippets, following the fish for long distances, giving in to his directional changes, etc. all result in taking a long time finish the battle. When that occurs, it is doubtful that your release will be successful. Once that fish gets his, "second wind", the creature seems to pace and it becomes much harder to regain control.

Back when I used to fight fish that way, I'd release and then about 5 or 10 minutes later, several hundred yards away, I'd see a big commotion as a shark attacked. I'm pretty sure that was the fish I'd just released.

If I finish off a large tarpon with sharks approaching, I'll lip gaff him, slide him up on the deck of the skiff, fire up the iron and go at top speed for a couple of minutes to release in a different area. Of course, I can't do that if I'm in an area where other anglers are fishing, for if I do, I'll spoil the area for all of them. Since my, "thing" is to fish when I can where there are no other anglers or guides this is usually doable.

We did this one day when I was fighting a tarpon ..... two good sized lemon sharkes had already made passes at the fish. Dave used the technique of briefly turning the outboard engine on and off. He had to do that several times to keep them at bay. This technique won't work with bull sharks or hammerheads, I assure you.

Lots of shark tales .... to many for this board !

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Sir Gordon:

When using the backcast as the presentation cast how would one use the terms follow-through and drift? Do they reverse? Can one called the presentation back cast a follow through? In this case does the term drift apply? If so I was wondering how to conceptualize

these terms regarding the backcast being the presentation cast.

Just a thought!

Thanks, Jerry Puckett

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Jerry ... Firstly, the "Sir" is undeserved !

I look at it that on the back cast presentation, the move would be FOLLOWTHROUGH. On it's preceeding forward cast, I'd look at it as DRIFT. Why ? I relate the terms for my own use to what the move can accomplish. As I see it, DRIFT can increase available stroke length and rod arc (tip travel) and allow for repositioning of the hand/arm for the next cast..... whatever its direction. FOLLOWTHROUGH can have a similar movement of the rod, yet cannot do those things for the simple reason that when applied to the delivery cast, there is no next cast.

My personal way of terming it. Not written in stone and still under discussion by the Glossary Committee with nothing finalized in that quarter.

Gordy

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From Gary Eaton........

Hi Gordy,

You posted "...perfectly timed thrust in an upward-outward direction with split second timing very close to the RSP." in describing Steve Rajeff's cast. This whets my thirst for more.

Where does the tip move for this? Is the entire rod moved up & out, or just the tip? Is this the terminal movement to STOP or an after STOP maneuver as "... This appears, also, to minimize the effect of counterflex and rebound which may well contribute to the lack of waves in his line."

Thank you,

Gary Eaton

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Gary...

I don't know. When Steve tried to teach me how to do it, I never gained the skill to do it consistently as he does, nor did we try to video it so it could be timed in relation to his stop.

You can't thrust the tip without thrusting the rod, if you think about it. I look at, "thrust" as quickly moving the rod in the direction of its tip.

As he does it, it all happens so fast that the human eye can't discern the happenings at the very end of his stroke from the split second before his stop to loop formation.

I get best results as I try to do this by making my thrust as I make my stop. At least that is what my brain tells me is going on at this brief interval.

Steve is going to visit me in a couple of weeks. We'll work on this. After that, I may have a more intelligent answer for you.

A while back, we did video a curve cast done with a wrist twist and return ..... so fast that we didn't know if this was all done prior to , at, or after the stop. What we found was that the best curve was made with the wrist curving in the direction we wanted the fly to go a split second before the stop, while the return to neutral wrist position occured a split second after the stop.

I suppose, technically, one could call that a , "cast-mend". The, "cast" was in the direction the fly was to go, while the, "mend" was in the direction the apex of the loop was to travel. To the naked eye, it all appeared to occur at the stop.

Gordy