Quote Originally Posted by cycler68 View Post
My take on this is the #1 ingredient in making a good cast with any rod is the man. A good man can make a good cast with about any rod & some few can even cast a fly with no rod at all.
When I was a good deal younger and first joined TU (1975?) all of the older gentlemen there took me under their wing to bring me up the right way in fly fishing (I was barely a teenager then). Some of those men I'll never forget - George Miller, John Whitaker, Larry Mohn, and even Harry Murray came over from the valley every now and then. One of these guys, when teaching me to cast, was throwing 30 to 35 foot casts into an aluminum pie plate - just using his reel, fly line, leader and right arm. Taught me that it was technique (and the line as opposed to the weight of the lure/fly) that made for accurate fly casting. The same gentleman also demonstrated how to cast by standing in a gymnasium, one pace out from the wall, and hit the same pie plate 45 feet away using his seven and a half foot 4 weight -- standing his backcast up to the ceiling without hitting the wall about three feet behind him.

Wow - thanks for dredging up those memories Cycler!