Casting in your daydreams!
The following are words of wisdom from one of our Ladies fly fishing club members, Margaret Lebien~
Get out your mind’s eye fly rod. Lay out 25 feet of line in front of the rod tip for a medium length cast. Point the rod tip down at the ground. Take a deep breath or two and relax, except try not to relax your hand and wrist, as relaxing the hand and wrist promotes a wide arc or curved path of the tip resulting in a wider back cast loop. There is no energy in a big fat wide open loop and life is already hard enough. Turn a little sideways so you can look up to watch your imaginary back cast. No cheating, you absolutely have to watch that back cast unroll all the way out before moving to start the forward cast..
Anyway, keeping a firm hand, wrist and forearm all-in-one-piece, starting at 8:00, think about smoothly raising the rod handle up and back with your index finger. Suddenly stop that rod tip pointing to 12:00 on an imaginary clock. Stop hard like you mean business. If the tip moves back to 1:00 the loop is too wide and you bent your wrist. You can try to fix a floppy wristed back cast by making a hard forward cast, but it won’t work. A hard forward cast only makes it worse. Do the back cast again with a firm wrist. As you watch your back cast line unroll, you can see the loop automatically tighten and get narrower and that sets you up for a good strong forward cast. Repeat several times back and forth and then relax again. Day dream false-casting should be fun and relaxing which is what we deserve in these hard times.
Your final forward cast loop can be tightened up even more by pushing down with the thumb and slightly turning down your wrist, immediately following the 10:00 stop on the forward cast. You see very good casters achieve a nice tight `V’ shape to the front edge of their beautiful loops because of this subtle follow-through with the turned down wrist. This slight turning down of the wrist simultaneously relaxes grip pressure, absorbs the rod tip bounce down, minimizes shock waves to the line and really tightens the loop. It is so subtle you can’t see it when you watch a great caster like Andy doing it but it is there and you can have those tight loops if you do it, too. (Note: Sometimes on the final forward cast you want the rod tip to bounce back and put waves into the end of the line and leader to avoid drag when casting a fly across currents– but that is another type of cast for another daydream.)
So, ok, while wide loops are bad, tailing loops* are worse. Awful.
Every caster has seen the fly catch the line or fold back on the leader creating big ugly knots in the leader and line. This is the infamous tailing loop, the opposite of too wide a loop.. We are all trying to get more distance into the cast and sometimes we resort to the`hit it harder’ method. At least I do.
*A tailing loop is the result of the tip of the rod curving under a straight line path because you are trying to overpower the rod. It happens when you are trying to throw the line way out there on your final forward cast and accidentally make a too short, too fast, hard punch stroke –which makes the tip top dip under and away from a straight line path causing a tailing loop. Smoothing out the power throughout the whole forward -and backward -stroke before you suddenly stop will reduce or eliminate tailing loops. Don’t jerk the rod up on the back cast or punch out the forward cast to try to make the line go farther. It won’t.
Take another deep breath. Relax. Don’t rush things. Keep the wrist firm, make the stroke very very sm-o-o-oth, stop the rod with sudden authority. Wait patiently to let the line and leader unfurl behind and out in front. (The sudden stop of the rod helps the tip track a straight line path; the closer to a straight path, the narrower the loop. The narrower the loop, the more powerful and straighter the line.) Ahhh. Wasn’t that fun?
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Jul 07 2010
Free fishing weekend events are a great opportunity for childrent to learn how to fish.
The regular season Wisconsin fishing opener is this Saturday, May 1st. This is a wonderful “tradition” time for many families and friends to gather and spend time in the outdoors with one another and create memories that last a lifetime! As you anticpate this wonderful time of year, remember to pack your fishing license, camera, and book your cabin for tonight and tomorrow night at