Moderators: Paul Arden, Bernd Ziesche, Lasse Karlsson
I do Paul, I’ll do it in my lunch break when I’m working from one. These are typical exercises, I vary the rod/line set up, the targets are all randomly placed.Paul Arden wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 7:49 am The nice thing about these casts is you can practise in your garden (if you have a garden), even if it’s small. In fact you can probably practise indoors.
I’m sure this is another Groundhog Day but how do you define performance? You could argue that random equipment and random tasks more like Danish Games are a good indicator of performance. A F1 car is undoubtedly a high performance machine until you take it off road.Yes the constraints are tighter. But that’s what happens as we progress; the constraints get narrower which is how to develop our performance.
It's funny Vince,VGB wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 8:29 amThat’s good John, lots of potential solutions - curves, mends, piles and the opportunity to improvise casts.My objective in short line casting is put the fly in the desired area, with the desired delivery line layout.
My sub objectives would be the ability to generate controlled wide loops, reduce the dependency on the rod arm to generate distance, line control during fishing, to recognise the symptoms of overhang and ticking, and be able to correct them. Unfortunately, this is not possible in a single lesson.What top level objectives do you pick up on when instructing a student in open water, long line casting skills and objectives?
Regards
Vince
in competition accuracy casting instructors get the student to generate wide controlled loops as a key fundamental to enhancing sighting and hover skills. They also reduce focus very much on reducing the dependency on the rod arm to generate distance, as I've said you don't want your student to have an arm-centric casting technique even for short line accuracy competitions. Of course as you would know, ticking the water kills a good accuracy score. Each of these short line skills become the foundation of any open water, long line casting skill. From that foundation, one of the key outcomes is recognising the symptoms of overhang and managing overhang variability. Very similar to your sub-objectives with a fly fishing student aren't they?
Sadly, no longer with us. It was too hot for him but he wouldn’t go indoors until I did.The dog seems impressed!
Very much the latter. I prefer to set typical problems that they will face and see if they can solve them, giving a bit of a nudge towards the solution where necessary. I don’t try to memorise the myriad of cast names, it strikes me as being too much like stamp collectingHow do you structure your presentation casting lessons, Vince? Do you teach using key casts or is it all line manipulation without cast names?
I’ll play with that but my top level objective will be that static fly. In fast moving water an underpowered curve that leaves the fly in slack water and the line in faster water is a great fish catching cast, and I practice that a lot. The current brings the curved line downstream with the intent of not moving the fly.Do you then go deeper (eg curve cast with slack at the apex vs slack at the fly)?
I use the B&A but there are sometimes better solutions like skittering a bushy dry fly upstream with leader only roll casts. I do FN because I have to teach it but it does bore me unless I’m sight fishing. It’s a great tool to catch lots of fish in most circumstances but I don’t go out with the intent of trying to empty the river any more.Do you consider the B&A cast to be fly fishing or is it a cheat like some think French Nymphing is a cheat?
I would think be how closely the fly and line lands according to our objectives. At first we might just want to curve or bend the line. Then we might want to curve around an obstruction. Then around the obstruction and into a target. The target can become increasingly smaller and the obstruction increasingly further away. Then we can add slack line to the system. We can also follow the same process off the opposite shoulder, and also by using a Jump Roll and later a Spey cast. The more challenging the successfully completed task the higher the casting ability of the angler.how do you define performance?
Ok in that case it’s useful. I still don’t know if it’s better to have the slack at the fly or the apex. Or if it even matters. I suppose it might be similar to hitting the crossbar.I’ll play with that but my top level objective will be that static fly. In fast moving water an underpowered curve that leaves the fly in slack water and the line in faster water is a great fish catching cast, and I practice that a lot.
