Janus,

The pickup, like the forward and back stroke, should begin slowly and accelerate to a snap. It's the ACCELERATION that flexes the rod to its peak just as your stroke reaches its end. It's just like a pitcher winding up to throw - always accelerating to maximum velocity just at the point of release. This is why you'll hear a beginner's rod swish swish swishing as they move it as fast as possible through the stroke and a more knowledgeable caster's stroke is quiet and appears almost effortless.

The water tension creates resistance and loads the rod better than when the line is in the air. For this reason, the lifting stroke starts even slower (like winding up a shot put) and can generate a lot of energy (providing of course you start with the line straight and the rod tip low). If you start with the slack removed and the tip near the water, you will get the rod to begin loading right away and you wont have to bring it much past vertical. Of course the accelerated pick-up has the added bonus of not scaring every fish in the pool and the horizontal pick-up makes the lift even stealthier.

Bill O.