And The Secret is

I am flattered that you wrote about me. I'm the guy with 1 years experience repeated 35 times. Well thats probably not true. I've got one years experice repeated twenty times and a second year repeated 15 so I guess I'm improving (though slowly).

My son once told me in a very exasperated tone that "I know how to do it... I just can't". Isn't that how much of fishing really is. I've seen it, I practiced it and got it once or twice and about every tenth time it works.

I do believe that line control is really one of the most important things to be able to do well for successful fishing. Here is another take on it. You cast a dry fly out and your line was over powered and it kicks back leaving "S" curls. Well, I wanted to cast and have some slack for a better drift. You do the same cast and the line is straight. Well there I wanted to have no slack so I could respond to a strink. Same to casts with a nymph. First one I've put in some slack so the fly can sink. Second one, well I'm trying to keep the line tight so I can feel the fish. My point is really that while we should decide where and how we want the fly to act, there are so many theories and methods that often we do something and then say ahhh it was that technique.

Well maybe I am still on year one, 35 times.

jed

Obviously to me, you are doing the 'slack-line cast' intentionally. That IS line control. Making a straight line cast with a dry fly is probably one of the worse things one can do as you have instant drag.
Unless you are casting directly upsteam and the drag is balanced by the fact the fly is moving toward you...now how much line to gather up and how fast is another problem.



[This message has been edited by LadyFisher (edited 10 April 2006).]

"The part I am trying to get past now is why in hell do I still sometimes continue to fish when I find a knot in my tippet?" ~ James Castwell

Mind control sometimes becomes as important as anything else we do. Over the years of repeating the same mistakes/bad habits (give it your own name)the one I have the most difficulty with is leaders. I've never taken the time to study leader dynamics, and what a badly constructed leader/tippet will do to your presentation. I find myself overpowering, or manipulating the rod, to try to get the fly to do what I want it to do, when having the right leader length/taper/fly size ratios would eliminate the problem. "Them there fish are risin' all over the river, and I ain't got time to mess around changing tippet or leader length. I might miss that "riser" right over there under that there willow bush". There are lots of ways to assure better success on the water. Like dressing the line before starting your day. Leader construction. Good knots, both line-to-tippet, and tippet-to-fly. Positioning on the water. Stealth. But........none of it does us any good if we botch the presentation. LINE CONTROL. Way to go Ladyfisher. Again my thumb waves in the air.

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Lew

LF, those straight casts are also... intentional. I want my flies to skate on the water. It is a technique that sometimes works, especially with Caddis *G*

So does trolling a dry fly. My daughter proved that one evening when she was 10 years old. She made up a song to go with

I caught a fishy,
I made my wishy,
and I'd put it in the pan
if it were a little bit longer...

It was 9 7/8 inches long. Minimum length was 10.

If I knew what I was doing, I'd recommend the following for beginners. Learn
A slack line cast
A reach cast
A roll cast
How to mend.

These will help you with 80% of the situations you come across. The other 20% you will just have to learn later.

jed