MCI guide need input

[Paul Arden]

Yes it's going to be an eye opener for me this summer! I'm actually starting to look forward to it. It's interesting to be in a situation where I know more about fly fishing for a fish species (Giant Gourami certainly - and possibly Snakehead now too - at least when it comes to catching free-risers) than anyone else but am still somewhere at the bottom of the learning curve. I've hooked only something like 30 wild gourami on fly. This makes me a guru haha! We actually had a shot at a gourami yesterday but saw it too late. This is ant time of year.

Another method I have yet to try is a popper and a clouser fished in tandem. I've been thinking up ways of tying the trailing fly to the popper that involves wire but maybe a better plan is to tie the figure of 8 knot in the wire bite tippet to include 40lb mono which can be send down to the Clouser. I need more time here.

There's Jungle Perch to be found on sounders, tilapia to be explored and Mahseer in the rivers. However I need a houseboat and Ashly needs to become a tour guide so we can get access to all the lake. In fact I need to sell 100-200 rods this summer!

Cheers Paul

[Bernd Ziesche]

back to the topic....

Hi Brian,

2. How would you explain to a student the relationship of the length of line being cast to the stroke length and haul length?
SA: Long cast, Long stroke, Long Haul. Short Cast, Short Stroke, Short Haul (If a haul is needed)
LA: For a longer cast, more fly line (accelerated mass) is loading the rod deeper; to maintain SLP, the stroke must be increased to include angular rotation (arc), and also usually translation to accommodate this deeper bend in order to avoid a concave tip path.

Let me offer a few thoughts here:

I adjust the size of the arc (and the length of the stroke = rod hand path) to the desired line speed in the first place.
High line speed = wider arcs + usually longer strokes and low line speed = smaller arcs + shorter strokes.
For example if I want to cast a long distance I will use a relatively wide arc and a long stroke in order to hit high line speed.
If there is a strong wind I will aim for relatively high line speed also on a much shorter casting distance. Thus I may also use a relatively wide arc and a longer stroke on shorter distances.
If I want to lengthen my line (after having stripped the fly in close to the tip) during the beginning of false casting it may be hard to get the (too short) line running thru the guides. Here I don't add any haul (because it would reduce the short line outside the tip even more) but I use a really wide arc in order to achieve extra high line speed. Thus I use a huge arc for this very short line for 2 or three false casts.
This is my daily casting routine when fishing and your "rules" don't really match, yet.

About rod loading:
I prefer to call it rod bend. We rotate the rod in order to create the desired line speed. As a consequence it bends. "Rotation makes (most of ) the speed."
The amount of rod bend is related not only to the casting length of fly line but also to the force application profile. Sometimes we may have more rod bend happening on a short distance (high line speed) cast as we have on a (low line speed) long range cast.

Oh and let me add: I hardly ever see a concave tip path happening by using a too small arc for the amount of (smooth enough) force application. In fact opposite is what I see in nearly every lesson. Students choose much wider arcs as they would have to.
Regards
Bernd

[Bernd Ziesche]

6. How do you teach? What is your teaching methodology?
...
If I have a few days with the student, I move to false casting, then accuracy, and trajectory “tilting the arc” (Krieger) to maintain 180 rule, then the double haul, and casting different-sized loops. If I have to pick only one, my preferred teaching methodology is verbal instruction as I believe that it is the superior form because it requires the most thought to process, and always resorts back to the “Why?” eventually leading a student to self-diagnose his or her own casting faults.

Matching trajectory, adjusting line speed and shaping the desired loop shape to me are the three main goals in fly casting. I would always want them to be in every beginners lesson, no matter how long the lesson may be. That is, if the student isn't aware of these three key points already...

About the double haul: If I have more than one day, I may decide to teach the haul on the second day. If I have just one, I want to teach it in that day, because otherswise the student easily may end up learning (or trying to) the haul by a fishing friend or anyone else who isn't good in teaching. Paul already mentioned this and it's a pretty good point for sure!

In general I add less theory and more casting exercises as soon as (for example) it gets colder. This of course may never be a point in Australia. Here it is. Especially when I have women in the winters lessons. Starting the lesson by talking about theory for an half an hour ruins the whole lesson immediately cause all woman then will be frozen. The mix between making the student listening and/or watching (explaining and demonstrating) and casting him/herself (casting exercises) I adjust to weather, to the single student (every student has different desires/targets) and/or to the group and to the fishing.
When I started teaching I soon hit a point of starting all lessons in almost exactly the same way of explaining theory for about 45-60 minutes first. Then I got very much used to running the lesson exactly that way. Later on I learnt many different ways of teaching and realized that it is well worth of thinking about which schedule/story board will match best for THIS student/group. It happens easily that we get into a (I find) too fixed teaching routine.

Finally pls. don't get me wrong. I was just offering some additional thoughts (not saying your points have been inproper).
Cheers
Bernd

[Bernd Ziesche]

7. What communication methods do you use with your students?
Verbal, Visual, Kinesthetic in that order, where Verbal and Visual methods are often used together. Verbal to also include auditory (listening to the cast: the snap of poor timing, the whipping sound of misapplication of power)

That's what I did within my first years of teaching, too. And it works well.
It also can work excellent (and very fast) to start directly with casting together (kinesthetic). For example I cast and the student will put his rod hand on my rod hand. Afterwards I change and we cast together the opposite way. This often leads a total beginner casting quite proper (of course) short lined loops for the first time within 3 minutes. In my experience this is another great way to start the lesson with an "eureka-moment" for the student.

By the way this would be my answer to:

10. You have one student who has never cast before. You have five minutes. What is your approach?

Depending on the country (student) you may want to check if casting together is fine with him/her. In Germany this is never an issue, but I was told in GB it easily can be. I always ask anyway.
Cheers
B

[Bernd Ziesche]

17. In your small class of students you have progressed from explanation and demonstration of basic mechanics to practicing straight-line casts. All seem to be progressing except one student who just doesn’t get it. What do you do with that student?

Pretty interesting question to me. This happened to me several times in my beginnings of teaching.
Today I have to say, that if I have already spent (significant?) time for explaining and demonstrating and a student still did not understand it, then I should already have realized this while explaining and demonstrating. It's exactly then when I want to adjust my explanation/demonstration (or better add another different explanation). The moment of starting the exercise I want everyone to know what it is about. Otherwise I have missed to succeed in my first two steps of explaining + demoing...

So in my book the question isn't put very well! If the one student struggles on doing/performing what he/she has fully understood... well than I will indeed have a one to one casting tuition with him (as you mentioned in your fine answer).

I would have put the question like:
How (and when) do you secure/check, if all students get your explanation/demonstration right?
Cheers
Bernd

[Merlin]

Has anyone seen the record of a purely straight line path? I have never seen one.

Merlin

[Bernd Ziesche]

Has anyone seen the record of a purely straight line path? I have never seen one.

Hi Merlin,
I've seen many, just never for the tip of a fly rod during fly casting.
Seriously the SLP is a wrong concept for me. I don't use it anymore.
In reality we never will hit SLP between RSP0 and RSP 1, nor will we hit it between RSP1 and RSP2 and so on...
If we would hit it - I think - the line would run into the rod.

From what I have seen in slo-moing some truly expert distance casters I'd say they come close to a straight tip path for the first two thirds of tip path during acceleration. During the last third of accel. tip path they all achieve a clearly convex path.
For me this is ideal.
Cheers
Bernd

[Merlin]

Hi Bernd

Makes sense to me. This is the type of tip path I am getting with my 2D casting model under development.

Merlin

[Bernd Ziesche]

Looking forward to your model to be finished!

[Merlin]

Me too Bernd, it is a bit complex given the number of tuning parameters (rod and caster).

Merlin