Hauling Drill - Intermediate Level

[Paul Arden]

Hi chaps and ladies,

I thought I would share a drill with you. It's one I was using again last week and I think it's an excellent one. Generally when someone comes to a class with a double haul, the haul is a 3/4 haul, not to full arm stretch, the backcast haul is from the elbow and the forward cast haul is from the shoulder, and/or very ineffective because it still travels forward from the body instead of away from the rod and back past the body. My usual way to deal with that is to work on distance hauls, ie to a straight arm, starting from an initially bent elbow, opposite in direction to the rod hand. That's pretty simple. But what then of shorter casts? For very short casts I teach to haul with just the wrist, either flexing or twisting it, also away from the rod. This is also a nice exercise because you can really take out the power and just work on timing. And now to the drill:

Short Carry, minimum power, short wrist hauls... Increase carry, extending the haul... Increase carry to a distance carry, finishing hauls with a straight arm.

Why? it focuses attention to the haul, and gives - most importantly - a "variable haul".

Cheers, Paul

[George C]

During false casting with a long carry, after each haul there is a moment of slack before tension is reestablished. Is it better to raise the line hand back to a hauling position before tension redevelops or to raise the hand more slowly to cushion the impact that occurs as tension redevelops then finish raising the hand with the line under tension?

Along the same lines when shooting line into a false cast is it better to do so with the line hand low or high?

[Paul Arden]

Excellent questions George. I’m sure you’ve seen this page but I’ll post it in case a reader hasn’t…
https://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/compe ... ance-cast/
within there is this video…



So I think with a long carry it’s better to pause fractionally to allow the loop to form. “Down-and-up”.

Shooting is interesting. With long-distance Carry I’ll usually shoot as the hauling hand travels up. And I think that’s a great way to learn it. However sometimes on the delivery cast, and almost always on Snakehead backcasts, for example, my shoot is much earlier. Sometimes it’s before the haul even finishes! But generally-speaking I think pause first and then do stuff.

For me that way everything is under control… it’s just that sometimes we just don’t always have that option. That just moved the topic from intermediate to advanced

Cheers, Paul

[Lou Bruno]

Paul
I watched your excellent 170 distance cast video. I have a question of sorts, not totally relating to actual hauling, but more towards the initial 'pick up.' How much fly line do you have past the rod tip at the start of your cast? I ask because I notice on your back cast you stop your rod almost parrell with the ground.
If you shorten the fly line length on your pick up, do you change where you stop your rod (trajectory) on the back cast...as the initial fly line length becomes shorter do you try to maintain the 180 degree principle with the back cast stop position?
Lou

[Paul Arden]

Hi Lou,

My first cast is always under an element of control. Over water I pick when the fluff is at around 17m. First backcast will be like Rajeff, also I use pull back to set the loop. Second backcast I have the option to open into 170 or not. Third backcast I 170.

I’m not sure on that distance video if it’s starting at the first backcast or second. If it’s the second that’s unusual because I normally go on three. If it’s the first backcast then it’s quite “open”.

It’s actually a very common fault in competition to start the first backcast with the 170. The loop is open and it appears to me that the caster is always trying to gain control over the loop. This may explain the use of additional false casts.

If there is a very strong tail wind my first backcast will by low and off to the side of course. Getting everything under control from the start is very important.

This brings up another drill I teach: start with very short line (5ft flyline) and false cast with closed stance. Slowly extend the line gradually until you are at the max comfortable carry for this technique. Switch to Open Stance. Continue carrying line until again you have reached max comfortable carry. Switch to 170 and extend to max carry. I’ve been teaching this technique many times this year and have been getting good results. It really fits with my Zoom teaching where I start by teaching these three “core” techniques.

Cheers, Paul