Filming yourself casting

[Paul Arden]

It’s strange because while “go pro start video” is not something I consciously put into general conversation, I must do quite regularly, because the go pro often films stuff unexpectedly.

[whinging pom]

Finaly
Last cast of the day see if this works
WPom

[James9118]

Not a bird to be seen anywhere - clearly scarecrows do work

[Paul Arden]

Hi Pom,

How much line are you carrying?

First cast you are straight into a long distance backcast. I don’t know what the pickup length is, but generally I would look for a blocked OSD backcast on the pickup. Just to get everything under control.

So what I’m looking at is you are not sinking your back leg on the backcast. I’m sure it’s because you are trying to send a high backcast. But that’s going to happen anyway because the trajectory is set by the line angle and not the rod tip path. So there are two points here. One is you are better to “sink” by bending the right knee as low as you can reasonably go. The second is that force application on the back cast should be circular/domed/torque and not straight.

You are better off to look to your targets and then cast to them. Which means you have to turn your head first, both back and forward, to sight targets. You are not doing this and it will take a while to learn. Nick and I will talk specifically about this in the third video. The way to learn it is to pick targets first. Then look, cast, drop the line. Reset, look, cast etc. You are not looking at either target before casting, at least from what I can see (closer filming would be better incidentally, ie you filling the frame!).

The reason I want you to drop your right/back leg is because you want to be travelling up on the forward cast for distance. If your back leg is straight the only way you can go is forward or down. You are actually launching up so that is excellent but it can be more.

Talking about the forward cast, there are two things I see here. One is you are not turning your torso so that the shoulders are passed the square line before you apply power. Doing so will make a huge difference to your cast. (In other words your power is too soon).

The other thing I’m looking at is you are bringing your hands together at the end of the back haul. This is straightening the elbow. Which results in all the line speed of the forward haul coming from the shoulder. Most of it should come from the elbow. Forget hands together and play with hauling from shoulder or aligned in front of the shoulder, from a bent elbow, on the forward haul. The torso twist will naturally bring your rod hand in front of your hauling hand.

It’s good, Chris!! It won’t take very much work to make it very good indeed! Slow down the beginning of the cast, get underneath the rod on the launch, tighten these few things up and you will be a very nice distance caster

You can learn all of the above in slow motion (learning them one at a time, casting ground to ground): slow slow slow slow hit. Before you launch check your position. It should be like a crouching tiger

Cheers, Paul

[whinging pom]

Haha Dr Strangelove is being funny
Scarecrow….my arse!

Paul thank you. James lent me a MED 5wt head that’s 52’ and I was picking up an extra 10 or 12 feet outside the tip ring , then letting out an extra 10 feet or so to carry before trying to get in to a set of casts.
I had a marker at 100’ and when they landed straight they were flirting around that.
I’ll take on board your words particularly the targeting and try and get my head round your description of the circular domed torque … back cast
In fact f…k it I‘d better a make a comprehensive list of those faults and suggestions to take down the field with me.
(OMG there’s so much to remember)!
Thankyou so much for the input , I really appreciate it.

…. Meanwhile I’m going to find some local farmers with wheat fields plagued with pigeons… finally a roll befitting me
Pom

[Lasse Karlsson]

Yesterday the vimeo site wanted to charge me today it seems to be playing ball ... love the old video lasse >> i cant see much wrong..., what was the mattress in front of you for,? did you fall over alot?!
and yes i ordered one of those manfronto grips hope fully i can get the camera closer and not perched on the nearest field gate.

Vimeo always asks

Not a matress, a tarp since the field was a bit hairy, that's what causes the flying spaghetti too, ticked the BC
Should have brought a matress though, we filmed the casts from the roof of my then Berlingo, it was scary jumping down

Cheers
Lasse

[Paul Arden]

Starting with 52’ head outside the tip with 12’ overhang? Phew! Yep that probably is straight into 170. To give you some perspective I usually pick up from around 17m or 18m in competition. I make the first backcast blocked OSD with pullback to set a tight loop backcast. Everything then is under control. The second backcast is either OSD or 170. The third and final backcast is 170. Of course you are practising carry but it’s difficult to bring a long length under control. I often see this attempted in competition and one or two false casts are wasted and sometimes the complete casting cycle.

If you know your ultimate carry point you can hold this first in your hand, continue stripping and hold the pickup point also in your hand. Then when you slip line while false casting you end up slipping to the held carry point.

I always work from the ground up. So the key points that I would advise are bending back knee to get low, look to targets first, apply force vertically around to the target (not straight to target), haul accelerating from bent elbow. This is not one session but probably 6-12 weeks.

Cheers, Paul

[James9118]

Starting with 52’ head outside the tip with 12’ overhang? Phew! Yep that probably is straight into 170.

Hi Paul,

I suspect WP means 12ft to his line hand - certainly 12ft of overhang with that shooting head would be a difficult pick-up.

If you know your ultimate carry point you can hold this first in your hand, continue stripping and hold the pickup point also in your hand. Then when you slip line while false casting you end up slipping to the held carry point.

This is what I use the tape 'flags' for - you know exactly where you've placed these (i.e. measured) and it's easy to feel them when they get to your hand.

Cheers, James

[whinging pom]

Paul
i was doing around 3' overhang, just enough to make sure the knot didnt snag the rings on the haul.. then saw James use my set up with a much longer overhang,
I wouldn't have been able to before that session. then found i could ,so did !( not that the subsequent loop formation is any proof of success and in no way resembles James's beautiful loops) and it takes a few casts to either create a kind of flying wedge or more often than not a developing Bolognese on the end of 40' of straight running line that eventually drops in mess about 70' away.

I guess I should pull back into my comfort zone where i can confidently form loops and discover my best carry point and mark it on the line and go for consistency..while developing the cast on your advice.

Im tryng to tidy some paper-work and procrastinating terribly on sexyloops before sneaking off for a quick visit down to the field to start bending that knee! ( Etc Etc Etc ad infinitum )
I am really very grateful for your input, and james for his time and patience, ........when it flies its just so satisfying!
pom

[whinging pom]

Hi James
No that was 10-12' , I d seen you do it and tried it, not with the same effectiveness of course, but it was a neat challenge to overcome. I just went at it a bit more like when i was getting a T27 back......" Whoa,..... I can do this "!!

But I guess thats why i was so in the dumps seeing the film that was nothing like it felt when i was doing it.
I had regressed into speeding through with no discernable acceleration when you look at the rotation at the end its not a flourish its a down turn almost coasting through to an afterthought!

( and not what you had me doing the week before which felt great) . the hauling arm i thought was pausing out there an age, but was immediately bouncing back at least
I can only conclude that Time does some really weird shit when your casting and Mr Einstein probably had some clever thought experiment to explain the phenomena...its beyond my ken!
pom