Video of Piffen casting

[Paul Arden]

Same angle from the side! No need to see the loop. This is all about your form. This, for me anyway, is one of your core "foundation" casts.

Cheers, Paul

[piffilus]

Ok, I'll do that then! But filmed closer to myself.

[piffilus]

Heres the PUALD from a bit of a crappy angle maybe. I think I need to stiffen my wrist up, it seems too floppy. I don't know if I still use too much power in my strokes. I am still more pushing than pulling to get the loop tight, probably because of the floppy wrist? It was a little windy so I believe I used a bit of force because of that. I think I need to practice this on water to get the lift right because now it looks like I am doing the fish scaring lift now.
https://youtu.be/oaJMmt9pc8Y

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Piffen! I'll have a look tomorrow

Water is good because you can watch the small waterfall run down the line as you pick it off. Grass masks errors. I've examined CCIs who have obviously not practised over water. It's a really excellent drill and worthy of very many hours practise.

With Snakehead it's extremely important not to start the Casting Stroke until the leader has been picked out the water to the fly, otherwise when you begin the CS the first thing that happens is that the Popper gets pullled under the surface and comes out with a forceful plop that affects the integrity of the backcast.

The Lift is an important and deliberate action in itself. The straighter you can make the Lift the straighter will be your backcast.

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Incidentally I don't know about others here but I find "moving into the Lift" to be very effective. There is a slight but pronounced forward weight shift into the Lift. With a change of angle this forward weight shift should be directed at the target.

(This might be too much information but you'll need it when you are here. Snakehead is 90% PUALD shots.)

[piffilus]

I might add that it's 9 meters of flyline outside the tip on the video. But it strikes me as a bit hard to lift that amount of line out of the water before the CS, I know you say 2 meters for Snakehead PUALD though. When I tried this the first time with the popper I did it all wrong and got some real splashes every time. Note is taken. I also see the rationale in the moving into the lift.

So in a Snakehead lift, I should "touch" the line as soon as the leader is out of the water to get momentum for the CS and shoot line before forward cast? Or does the popper have to get out of the water too?

[Paul Arden]

I slip line all the way to the vertical, on a long shot, so the fly hangs in the water. The touch is after the rod has passed vertical. The key is to see how much line you end up with at the end of the backcast. Always remember there is a target up there - I think of it as ringing a bell. And that bell aligns to your forward target, not necessarily aligned to where the flyline was initially stationed.

Checking your video now

[Paul Arden]

Looks good, Piffen. Slow it down. And raise your elbow slightly during the Casting Stroke. This brings your shoulder into play. You're still using too much force. And lastly, on the forward cast imagine you are flicking a soft plum off the rod tip - this slows down the beginning of the stroke.

If you can find some water that is not frozen pay great attention to how the line peels off the water, you should see a small waterfall run down the line. It shouldn't be splashy at all.

Looking good mate

Cheers, Paul

[piffilus]

Cheers mate! I'll go down to the water on saturday and/or sunday, hopefully both, and have a go in daylight. I have watched the Snakehead shot video again and I see how soft your casts are and I must learn to slow down and be more gentle. You mentioned tapping a drum, but I can tell you that when I played in the punk band it was everything but soft tapping... I do play quite a bit softer now and I am going to think of that when casting.

[Paul Arden]

And those are fast shots! Designed to shoot as much line into the backcast as possible - when necessary anyway.
Piffen, have a look at the PUALD video in the Master Class:
http://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/pick-up-and-lay-down/

I'm casting the same rod and line weight as you. Mind you the amount of line was shorter so that the loop can be seen.

There is a drill called minimum power which is a carry exercise. http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/minimumpower.shtml

As well as working on the PUALD you should try this. One drill we often use in teaching is to ask the student to throw a tight loop that doesn't fully unroll. It's actually very hard - with short lengths of line anyway And once this is established to add just a little more speed.

If you can cast tight loops slowly, then when you decide to turn on the speed it's electric

Cheers, Paul