Instruction

Walter & GROUP............

Instruction while guiding topic-

A friend who is an FFF instructor told me of the salt water guide who hands a rod and line to clients as if he were getting the gear together and says,"Go straighten the line off that reel for me, please. You can go over there in the water and just throw it all out straight to get the kinks out of it."

He had been fishing with this guide before and asked him what he was doing?

The guide said - "My biggest nightmare is the man who has only trout fished before hitting this big water. I'll watch him a little and if he empties the reel casting the line, we'll go fishing. It only has 70 feet of line on it.'

When asked what might happen if he only unloaded 30 or 40 feet the guide responded.

"Then we'll go to a little cove where there may be a few small fish and I will give him a casting lesson. If he gets tuned-up and can cast well-enough, I will then let him fish some of my better spots."

When asked why he didn't make the demands of my friend, he said, "You are a certified casting instructor and I watched you from the dock before I introduced myself. I had already seen you cast."

This may be the other extreme of teaching instead of guiding but, in some environments it could be the better value and an appropriate priority. My experience is that casters with serious casting faults generally over state their ability and people who know they are pretty good don't oversell themselves and seek guidance because that's how they got to be good.

When someone falls in between I ask about fishing then about casting. What gear they intend to use for the situation can also tell you if they have a good idea of what is involved. For example - ' Where do you usually fish?" "What weight rod do you use for that?"" How far is the longest cast there?" "Are those fish very spooky?" "How big a fly do they like?" "What line do you use for that?""Where did you learn to fly cast?""How much do you practice?"

The answers to these questions will give me a pretty good idea of what's in store for a lesson or a day on the water. Another hint is the condition of the angler and their gear.

If everything is pristine and new and smells of the packaging, I have to see them work. If they have the 'big box' store brand combo, my expectations are a little lower. If they have the quality gear in the right combination and the reel is beat-up a little, we could have a great fish. The client who deftly hauls the gear and loads it up in an organized fashion and isn't breathing hard after that gives me a little confidence. The guy who looks like he just got furloughed from the recliner in the den and has the color and dimensions of a marshmallow deserves a little extra care. I enjoy most everybody. It's my job to observe and anticipate.

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Gordy:

I like Bill's thinking and agree that one would better serve a beginning student with a grip that works best for he/she without the confusion of adding additional grips choices. These additional grips can be added when a student has a good basic grip (default grip) that allows for sound comfortable controlled casting based on good casting essentials. I am still growing in my thoughts on teaching a beginning grip.

My main concern is how does one help a student determine a beginning grip that works for them? In my upcoming class I am going to try this experimental approach and see how it works. I will ask each person to grasp the rod handle comfortably and let them make a few cast while watching for line deviation from the horizontal and vertical plane. It may be only some slight modifications will be needed for a sound grip. If so I will make some suggestions on their particular natural grip that I think might work for them, discuss strengths and weaknesses of their particular grip, and let them learn and determine what best works for them. I am hoping that this may be a starting point for an effective grip. I will let you know how this works out, if it works at all. I do remain open to any all all suggestions.

When I was first taught to cast it was by a person who insisted that there was only one grip that works and that is the "thumb on top." When I relaxed and cast naturally my backcast curved to the left every time so, belatedly, I had to make some adjustments finding a grip that worked better for my anatomy. My thinking is simply this: try and find a comfortable relaxed grip from the beginning that works for each individual. At present I still lean toward "self optimization" by guiding and letting the student discover what works best for them. If I encounter that rare inquisitive student with a burning desire to learn, who wants to know more about additional grips, then I will delight with him in his learning and try and help. But for starters, with rank beginners, I think Bill is on target--discover a good basic grip that works for the individual. I just find it hard to place myself in the position of saying this grip will work best for you. I know Theresa Allen of Reel Women Outfitters is a supberb all around guide and caster and has cast a 5 weight 92 feet. She uses finger on top grip. I cannot bring myself to tell her some have said this is a weak grip, and for more distance she should go to thumb on top.

I still remain confused by slide loading and shall practice this more based on Gordy's description of this technique. It would be foolish to ignore something that worked well for one of the all time premiere casters. I somehow feel that slide loading adds to a deeper bend in the rod but can't quite visualized how at this stage.

What I have been praciticing thus far on the backcast is as I reach toward the guide with my line hand after the haul, I continue to let the line slide as it extends rearward and just as the line reaches it's candy cane shape and my hand is at the stripper guide, I pinch the line and stop extension before beginning stroke translation on the forward cast. What the devil this accomplishes I have no idea! I still remain confused on slide loading!?! Like Little Richard, "Some one help me please!" For those who know me I know what you are saying!

Happy casting!

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Jerry...

I'll ask Joan to comment on this.

Gordy

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From Al Crise, MCCI:-

Yesterday I had a lady that was as she said having trouble casting a sinking line to strippers. Using a 8 or 9 wt rod she did fine with a trout rod on the small rivers of CO.

It was a bit chilly out side in the 30s so to see if I could help inside here is what I did.

I gave her the but to my 3 pc 5 wt 9 ft rod. No reel no line just the butt.

I told her I was not wanting her to cast line I just wanted to see the mechanics of her cast.

I told her that to cast to a table about 40 ft away.

Took just few casting strokes for her to begin to relax and just move her hand. She had about a foot of stroke.

Now remember she did fine with short casting in trout streams. Her long line and heavy line casting fell apart.

I now asked her to make a cast that was 50 ft out. Still the same stroke. She just added speed and power all the way through the casting stroke.

I then took her hand in mine and made a move that increased the stroke length and put the rotation at the end of the stroke. We worked on this for a few minutes.

The still using the rod butt we worked on her hauling. Again putting it at the end of the stroke and making sure she had a "Give Back" ( before she did not).

Later in the afternoon we took her out in the yard and she found out just how much that helped her casting.

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Nice teaching tricks. Even when coaching MCCI candidates I find that sometimes the candidate does not increase casting stroke and rod arc to gain tip travel as he/she increases the amount of line carried out of the rod. This despite the fact that these same casters give lip service to the, "essential" of, short cast : short stroke / long cast : long stroke.

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