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| 19 September 2009
I arrived at Hlyton Sports ground around 7.00am Sunday morning, Cappuccino in hand and bag full of bits and pieces for the casting lesson, it was surprisingly warm for this time of year, especially this time of the ,morning, is this a sign of things to come I wonder, I started my warm exercises ready for the mornings casting.
The two rods I had brought along where quickly assembled, reels put on and fly line threaded through, a new leader was attached and the fluoro orange yarn attached to the end of the leader, all ready to go, a quick flick and all was ready! I always love the first feel of the cast of the day, feeling the fly line fly through the air and the gentle sway of the body in sync with the rod and line, nice tight loops and smooth, this was to be the focus of the lesson today.
As the guys arrived I was feeling excited about the morning, the members who attend where Peter Frere, Damian Webber, Garry Kent, John Robertson, Dave Miller and John Roberts, my main focus was teaching them the basics and then focusing on their casting style and making the appropriate adjustments (polite way of saying correcting casting faults ooopppsss did I say that)
The trainees, can I call you that, well too late now, they learned how to thread a fly line through the rod and how not to have the reel on the ground with the reel handle resting against the ground (guides hate this and it damages your reel) the fly lines where double over and threaded through the guides, the idea behind this is that if you let go of the fly line it will form a large loop and get caught in the runner and won’t fall all the through the runners to the ground.
The trainee’s where then show the correct grip(s) two basic grips thumb on top or form a V with the thumb and fore finger on the rod cork either works, fluoro yarn was tied to the leaders and we were ready to go, I had everyone start casting, and then stop, I now had idea of what I was to help fix, shotgun in hand faults where quickly corrected?
I picked up a fly rod and got everyone to start casting circles, this helps teach line control, casting circles in front, to either side, above and even behind for the more adventurous, they then started casting figure of eights, this is the basics for a standard back and forth cast, then we flattened out the figure of eight and hey presto a basic cast, I then enforced the concept of straight rod tip and smooth, smmmmooooooottttttthhhhhh casting, rod tip straight and smooth these are the basic essence of a good cast, the team stood side on so they could view there back cast, this is very important when practising your casting, as the back cast makes the cast, poor back cast diabolical cast, you want a nice smooth tight back loop, watch for waves in the loop this is called “shocking the loop” this is caused by to much force, let the fly rod and fly line do the work, overall I thought the guy’s where pretty good.
The other item that needed correcting was the elbow, nearly all had elbows out, keep this in, not tight against the body but next to it and when casting give the rod a slight flick with the wrist as you come forward and backwards, this was all done with the fly line gripped on the cork and no line let out.
The next step was the basic roll cast, I had the team put there rod tips down near the ground to there side and then bring the rod back and up to in an “L” shape and then bring the rod forward and flick the rod and the fly line will roll forward, I was asked a question here, that we don’t always have room behind us for this type of casting, which is true, but you need to adapt to the conditions, think about where you are and adapt, break the rod down, you may only need the top two sections? I find this useful on the streams I fish.
We then practiced the roll cast and I had a useful tool to use, it is a piece of pool noodle (one noodle cut into three) a piece of bamboo stuck in the ground and the noodle slid over the top, next a tent peg is placed about 1 metre from the noodle and the leader is tied to the tent peg, you then have to roll the fly line and leader onto the pool noodle (ensure the bamboo is not sticking out the top of the noodle as this can damage a fly line) and then roll off?
I have some fish targets and we practised casting to the targets to help improve our accuracy, when I practice I place these target all around me and not always in the open, I hide them under low tree’s and bush’s round the back of bins, behind me and off in the distance, this teaches me how to cast in different directions and conditions when fish are spotted.
Overall the morning was fun and we all had a good time, I hope the guys learnt a lot and I hope to do more in the future.
Tight Lines
Ivan
