The Slipped Lift

[Bernd Ziesche]

With just 2m fly line outside the tip slipping line during the lift gets truly tough. That little line weight doesn't offer much resistance to slip against. Maybe you usually start with little more here? I need to try to give a precise number. Cheers

[Graeme H]

Paul is also using a popper fly Bernd, which adds a little bit of resistance to help the slip during lift.

The "2 mins of fly fishing - snakehead" video shows a bit more than 2m of line outside the tip (maybe 2 rod lengths?) at the 18s mark, but the point of the cast being as quick as possible is the important thing, I believe.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Paul Arden]

The amount of flyline can vary from 2m outside the tip to as much as 4m when you know that you have a long shot coming up on babies. For free-risers 2m is the usual length. In the stumps, it can only be the leader. The popper helps, any fly helps. Water tension is very important. The amount of line you can shoot on the backcast is determined by the amount of line you can slip on the lift. I’m flat out at the moment. I’ll try to shoot some video with targets and distances in a few weeks when Stefan is here.

Cheers, Paul

[Bernd Ziesche]

Thanks Graeme!
Do we get pre bend due to the lift?

[Paul Arden]

It’s been a while since I’ve measured these shots. I know from standing on the boat with an 8WT I measured a reach of over 24m. I’ll find out what I can do now. Anything around 18m is a great distance. It’s all about speed of course (and accuracy).

I have no idea why you can shoot more in the backcast without it Bernd, certainly not from a 2m of line outside the rod tip start. In fact if you can then you’re not making it right - the backcast is just a touch of the line at some point in the stroke. Where many people go wrong is holding on too long. It is just a instant touch at the beginning of the Casting Sttoke. It’s an incredible cast that takes a LOT of training. So far I’ve only met one other person who does it - Jono Shales. I’ve simply refined it into a one cast shot.

After you’ve learned the basics you can use torque twist which speeds up the delivery. Also simply by tilting the casting plane you can make curved shots around babies or to create an angle change on the retrieve.

This week I realised that for short casts I’m actually quicker than spin fishers. Here you have 1 sometimes 2 seconds to make the shot. Never more.

Cheers, Paul

[Bernd Ziesche]

Paul,
can you give clock positions to define at what part of the stroke + arc exactly you slip/feed in additional line and when you stop slipping and start the main rotation?
Btw have you thought about cutting of the front taper in order to increase the initial line mass?
Cheers

[Paul Arden]

Thanks that’s an interesting idea. I can try that but I need to be able to control turnover and delicacy. I use a lot of SHOOT on the line (fine silicone oil).

Clock positions. Rod touching surface at 7pm. Slip through to 11 or 12 - touch the line - and immediately release, stopping the rod around 2. Pause. Startt the forward stroke, touch the line around 12 with a haul but release very early. Shoot line around the V of the thumb/finger and close to turnover.

You should find that you are only briefly touching the line with the line hand to send it on its way. The rest is slip or shot. You’ll have no problems going from 2m flyline out tip to 4 on lift to 8 on backcast to 12 on delivery. But you increase every element to make accurate shots to ~25m with such a short pick up and only one backcast.

There are two reasons for a short pickup - 1) it’s actually quicker to slip line on the lift than to lift it gently off the water - you could rip it but that’s disturbing and pulls the popper under leading to a non-smooth backcast. 2) freerisers can be close to the boat requiring a cast less than 9ft Rod plus 2m line plus 3m Leader. In fact for many casts I’ll start with just the leader out but then I can’t make the longer shots of course. Occasionally I start with up to 4m if I know I have a longer shot coming up (babies).

The icing on the cake is change of direction.

Incidentallly for speed I down-line. Stefan Siikavaara is over soon for 2 weeks. I’ll make a new video with his help. I’ve developed the shot considerably since when I made the last video. If he can shoot video from a wider angle you’ll get a better idea of what I’m doing.

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

I assume this will only work with a fly that floats at rest?

[Paul Arden]

Yes absolutely. It’s much more complicated with a sinking fly, and not nearly as effective. It’s possible to lift a fly that is sunk a little but it’s for this reason that I fish poppers. Also I grease the leader for the same reason. While fishing I remove slack by rolling out a little too far and slow figure of eighting to remove slack, and repeat until the shot appears.

Cheers, Paul

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi Paul,
So you are using an arc 12 to 2 to add enough speed to the picked up line for having it shoot well in the one bc? That seems to be an extremely small arc. Exactly where I couldn't make the short line shoot very well. I'll give it another go. Cheers B