----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008
8:27 AM
Subject: Question - weeds /
Mel
Walter & Group........
I posed this seemingly oversimplified question for a reason.
Sometimes, when giving an MCI exam, I'll do that to give the
candidate lots of latitude to answer. The answer to what seems
like such a simple fishing question can tell me a great deal about
his/her actual experience in handling and teaching mundane everyday
solutions to real world problems not often discussed in the fly casting
literature or courses.
Read the answers from members of our Group and you will see what I
mean.
Gordy
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Question: Your student asks you for
various means of getting weeds off his fly as he fishes in waters with
lots of surface weed growth. What do you tell him ?
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Answer from Rene Hesse:
Short answer:
Roll the line out in a very small loop and 'snap' the fly out of
the water as the loop reaches the fly.
Longer answer:
Rather than make a roll cast with the big 'D' loop, try just
lifting the rod tip up and keep it in front of your body. Make a
quick power snap and send the small tight loop down the line. When
the loop gets to the leader, make a quick pick-up on the back
cast.
Oh but wait there's more!
Try false casting and (away from the fish) clip the top of the
water with the fly to pull the moss off..
If you need to get the fly to hand. point the rod 180
degrees from the fly, let the line come to your line hand, do a roll
cast so the line slips through your line hand and the leader slips to
your hand. Tuck your rod under your arm and pull the leader in to
clean the fly with your hands.
Another way to get the line in quick is by lifting the rod up
and back down quickly one time. That creates a loop
that goes up and pulls the fly back to your hand. Caution should be
taken because that fly will be coming right at you. (wide brim hat,
glasses and sun gloves make this much safer)
Rene
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This is a Master quality answer.
It tells me that the "candidate" has real experience in fly
fishing and that he has more than one way of solving a real world
problem in his bag of tricks. He starts with a SHORT ANSWER and
then is fully prepared to expand with a detailed one.
Let's say that his student didn't understand his
answers. He might then go to a simple analogy in suggesting
that this move is similar to the way we flicked towels at each other's
backsides in the locker room at the gym when we were kids. With
the fly line, the move is very much like that. I'd follow with a
demo and then have the student do and practice it. We might even
move to Tom White's: ADVANTAGES (Gets soft weed off in a
heartbeat.) and DISADVANTAGES (You will spook every fish in
the pool if you don't do it well away from the area where they may be
...... and you stand the risk of damaging a less than well tied
fly.)
If the student wanted more information on Rene's last paragraph,
this could lead to teaching the SNAP PICKUP and the SNAP CAST.
(Ref: THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING, Jason Borger,
p. 252-253.)
Gordy
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Jim Penrod offers a two part "SHORT ANSWER" as he touts one simple
method of getting the weeds off and then starts the ball rolling in the
direction of preventing the problem in the first place. His second
sentence dilutes the impact of the first just a bit.:
With weed on :
Roll cast pick up and then drop the fly again.
If being on the surface is not that important use a sinking
fly
or even a sink tip with weighted fly to avoid the
weeds.
Jim
One neat trick in taking oral exams is to softly lead your
examiners into asking the next question to which you know the answer
well. I might have answered it this way:
"Roll cast pickup and then drop the fly again. That is one of
many methods."
Your examiners are, then, likely to have you expand on it.
Gordy
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From Lewis Hinks:
Weeds: An ounce of
prevention..... Use a weed guard on your fly such as a mono loop,
ues flies have have an upturned hook (unside down, if you will), cast to
the clear areas in the weeds, fishing those and pull fly out before
tangling, and a I have used several forceful false casts to 'shake' the
weeds and other plant material off in the past.
Lewis
Lewis's answer is in no way wrong and
offers some good advice..... however, it is a bit weak because he
starts with prevention, which was not the
essence of the question. Much better for him to have started with
his last statement and then added his ounce of prevention afterward or
even to have waited until his examiner asked it.
CANDIDATES SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL
TO LISTEN TO THE QUESTION AND FORMULATE AN
ANSWER TO ITS MAIN POINT.
Gordy
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From
Al Crise about Mel :
Howdy Gordy
Thanks for the tribute to Mel. There are a few on the FFF
site too
I met Mel in 1999 at Gatlinburg TN Conclave. What a gentile
man. Nola got to meet him in Mountain Home AR a few years latter. They
to struck it off well and became friends. I would kid Nola that her
Boyfriend would be at this conclave. That would ensure I got to go.
I will miss Mel, his Tilly hat and mink fly. I too lost a
friend. instructor mentor. I too have a bag of Talismans.
A quote from Mel as he walked off from teaching the youth
camp at SOC conclave.
"Remember it is Stop Stop not Flop
Flop"
ol Al
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Al.... One of many of Mel's great teaching "word pictures"
! Shows that Mel will be teaching long after he has been
gone.
Gordy