One curious observation that I made, that was also not addressed in the video, was that his flyrod had an extended fighting butt, similar to what I have seen in the past on “Switch” rods. And I wondered if “switching” to a two-handed technique might be something he did to lessen the physical burden, and if it would also benefit me?
It struck a nerve because a close friend of mine, due to his good nature (or maybe something else, but he is happily married) introduced two young women to flyfishing for large tarpon. He actually guided them (for free) into catching their first and, eventually, one over 100#. The two ladies are YouTube influencers, supposedly, and travel around making fishing videos. As they are from Canada, they did not have the most popular tarpon tackle, instead they used a Musky kit, which had - you guessed it- an extended butt like for switch casting. The fact that my friend commented on their casting, when he is frequently treated to watching my fabulous casting sort of bothered me. (I think he did it on purpose!)
Asking around, or more accurately, up north, to some folks I know, I was schooled a bit about Pike fishing. And it turns out that the extended butt is not necessarily for casting. But rather, it allows for a common technique of “figure-eighting” the fly next to the boat before lifting for the next cast. It seems that Pike and their like often follow the lure (or fly) all the way to boatside, and can often be seduced into eating when this technique is employed.
Does anyone commonly do this elsewhere in the world, for Pike, or anything else?
A curious side note, almost lost to history here in South Florida, is that this “figure eight” technique was commonly done for snook back when it was still legal to commercially catch them. But, instead of a traditional rod, the tool used was an extremely strong bamboo pole, called a “Calcutta” rod, if I remember correctly. (This practice actually ended somewhere around when I was born.)
The very strong fishing line only extended about 2 feet beyond the tip of the pole, but the line was attached to the pole in multiple places all the way back to the butt… since the poles would occasionally break under the weight and strength of the large snook that were targeted (up to around 50#). The lure was simply moved in circles and eights on the water surface. And when the fish struck, which I guess was not uncommon, the rod was retrieved hand over hand while directly pointed at the fish.
Not completely unlike how Paul fights Snakeheads!
