Walter & Group.......
An important personal message from Troy Miller :-
Thanks, Gordy –
Joe Humphreys was my first “real” flycasting instructor at Penn State in 1980. The decade before that, I was just lousy as a caster. The style that Joe taught was certainly effective for 95% of the fishing done in the Northeast at that time (I don’t think the striper fishery was much targeted by flyfishers back then). Then I moved to Alaska, and had to learn how to throw T-500’s (thus my natural shift to Belgian/Oval casting for salmon with a single handed rod). Remember that I’m a skinny guy, and going from 4 and 5-wt rods to an 11-wt required new muscles and new methods…
From Alaska to TX, where I got heavy into bass fishing (big poppers, at all ranges from 15 feet to 100+) and into fishing the windy flats for reds and specks. The techniques that worked for my trout in PA and salmon in AK were not totally effective for the fish I wanted to conquer in TX. Then, throw in some ling and kingfish and dolphin offshore, and poons on the jetties, and I had to morph my casting yet again. TX forced me to lengthen my stroke when appropriate. I learned that you could make a totally effective cast and have your rod almost completely horizontal behind you on the backcast – providing you kept the tip traveling in the SLP. Since I normally fish alone, and have not studied casting literature or video, I was left to my own experimentation and engineering to figure out how to create really fast, properly shaped loops. Not until Lefty came down for the opening of Bass Pro in Houston did I get any help on my distance casting. He watched me cast for more than 30 minutes before finally giving me two significant tips that helped me over the threshold I was unable to hurdle ‘til that point. I had to let go of some old beliefs to benefit from Lefty’s wisdom. Diving into the dark underbelly of the bamboo rodmaking world forced me to maintain some balance between highly refined technique and raw power casting. Midging a little Payne 98 and then an hour later belting out 100+ footers with a TCR will keep you cognizant of the essentials on a conscious level.
In the last 6 years or so, we’ve had these internet discussions which have expanded my casting mind further. Hopefully I’ve given back as much as I’ve learned. Thanks to the likes of Joe Libeu, Guy Manning, Bruce Richards, Roger Simonsen, John Wilson, and you and Allen – I feel like we’re all moving to a place of greater understanding in flycasting. I think Bruce said something interesting at the Arkansas workshop last summer, something to the effect that NOW is the golden age of understanding the flycast. In 100 years, they’ll look back and say that around the year 2000 is when we broke out of relative ignorance and finally started communicating on what an effective cast looks like, and exactly how one can go about trying to achieve it.
Oh well, probably more than you cared to know about my past. Thanks for indulging me on my trip down memory lane… J
Regards -- TAM
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Troy...
All should read your note. Your personal odyssey reflects that of flycasting knowledge. My personal journey started with bamboo rods, greased silk lines and Cuttyhunk (linen) backing for salt water fly casting on Long Island in the 1930's. I caught my first striper on a fly in 1937. My father and grandfather had been doing this before I was born (1930).
I agree with Bruce Richards' statement which you have paraphrased. As we all know, he is at the forefront of applying science to the art of fly casting and the methods of teaching.
We are leaving dogma behind and listening to reason. An exciting time to be alive and fishing !
Your contributions to our Group teachings have been sterling.
Modern reasoning is more inductive. Reasoning of the past was for the most part deductive as casters and instructors did little more than observe those who excelled and then deduced from what they saw the, "way it should be done". Despite this, we must respect the past as the foundation for what we are now starting to achieve.
Gordy
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