Newbees/environment supporting casting accuracy/meaning of l
Perhaps I am stepping in over my head, or shall we say over my waders, but a couple of threads of mine perhaps need some consolidation or clarification, probably due to one or more of my character flaws. But I am an artist trained to take risks, and a scientist whose stock in trade is questioning. A disclaimer: In my entire history of fly fishing I have seen only one fly fisher other than my wife, and that was when I was crossing a low bridge and saw a wading man fishing a hair bug. I quickly drove down, and on the bank opposite him I made a few casts to show him that I too, fly fished. He, a Korean, walked out of the water, quickly got out of his waders, and got into his car and drove away. Everything I know has come from books, videos, and Web sites.
In response to some genuinely thoughtful and positive comments in the other threads: Although I will never, ever qualify as even a waterboy for the likes of Roberts, Kreh, and Castwell, I can lay out a 90' 5-wt line, plus leader, into the backing. I have Roberts' video and Kreh's DVD, but they have done nothing for me. It was Joan Wulff's video that got me a few feet from the backing and Castwell's series of stills that got me into the backing. (I am not saying Wulff?s is the best video, just that it was first. Any would probably have worked.) In all seriousness, at the age of 59, five years ago, I was into the backing within five days of starting with the video. It is hilarious -- I can't dance, my attempts at skiing were a joke, but fly casting fell right into place. Maybe it helps being tall and long armed, and I lift weights. Anyway, I have this idea, probably irrational, that fly casting distance is not something that you add a foot a year to, by practicing an hour a day, it is something you put together quickly. If it is done well, we hit our physical limits in a few days. I am influenced in this (probably irrational) idea by my college pottery teaching. Students at many colleges often take months before they can center the clay. I can teach anyone, anyone, to center in five minutes, maybe one. Anyone. You don?t sneak up on centering by persisting through a few thousand attempts, you just do it right from the beginning.
I fish mainly large poppers for bass, wading in a wide, very clear and very shallow river full of small islands and large herons. Essentially, a cast is a failure unless it is within 2 or 3 inches of a nice spot at a bank, AND it lays out at least 50' of fly line, AND it doesn't cause ANY motion in the grass overhanging the bank or the common small (2-1/2") lily pads. The bass either hit the popper immediately or they don't, and fishing the popper over ten seconds is a complete waste. A second cast to a place is useless. Thus there is great motivation for distance, accuracy, and stamina. Just like in places a few million other fly anglers fish in.
I fish about four times a week, about 4 hours each time, with no break. I can do it with an 8-wt, too. My wife, although she is 38, stays in shape, and also lifts weights, takes breaks but she still gives out after four hours. Then we go home. Like a few million other fishing budies.
Newbees. Although an online dealer once included some free flies with an order (against my wishes), I have never ordered even one fly. We tie our own. The online dealer teaches tying, and he insisted we start with hare's ear nymphs and bugs from slit preformed foam. How BORING! We are both trained artists and are good with our hands, but more importantly we have an eye for detail and proportion. With Nix's video we were doing solid Dahlberg Divers in less than a week.
The dealer sent the popper kit, against my wishes, and it still sits in a box, unopened. Now I have never taught tying, and many of you have, but as I said, I have taught pottery at the university level. I would never start with a foam popper kit or a hare's ear in a tying class. In the first month we'd spin some big purple and yellow hair bugs, and we'd tie some dries in size 24, so that an 18 would soon look big. The flies would be ugly, but we wouldn't slow down enough for students to have time to develop fear. Now I know that this would probably make for a high dropout rate among the lawyer and secretary newbies, who may want a PRODUCT NOW, not a good foundation for later growth, so making the class financially worthwhile for a tying instructor might require, "Today, class, we will begin our first fly, a gold ribbed hare's ear. I will show you exactly how to tie it. Match it as closely as you can."
Granted, there are two schools of though on art education. Mine, and the one that leads students through highly structured training. The Kansas City Art Institute was highly unstructured. Different strokes.
Newbees. OK, maybe they need some protection, but it shouldn't take five or ten years for a fly fisher to wake up one morning and conclude, as Lefty Kreh has, that "There's more BS in flyfishing than there is in a Kansas feedlot."
Newbees. When I was a grad student in evolutionary biology at Cornell, a visiting historian of science, when asked what one principal he had arrived at from his research, responded, "In general, a scientist believes for his entire life whatever he learned in graduate school." Perhaps a broader approach from the start is best for all newbees.
So, why not have a beginning casting class, after students can cast a bit with a balanced five or six or three, discover that a six line on a ten rod works, or a six line on a four rod works wonders for a short cast. That seems far better to me than them believing their weenie or boobs will fall off if they try to cast a four line on a six rod.
I will end by saying that, along with a good red wine, a whole fish with a red Thai curry, a Beethoven string quartet, a Fellini film, or my wife?s smile, fly fishing gives my life meaning. I have a few dozen fly fishing books, and my favorite is Schullery?s philosophical ?American Fly Fishing.? It has all the strengths of a book written by a trained historian, and the warmth of a book written by a fly fisherman.
I love the traditions. We bought a partridge skin and starling skin, plus snipe and woodcock wings, along with silk thread, from England. The beauty of that partridge skin, or a single feather from it, can stop my breath for a few seconds.
Fishing, I see a bush a long, long way away and know that wading toward it will likely put any fish there down, so I use the wind and considerable luck to drop the popper, at the tail end of the cast, under that bush. After I release the fish I walk past the bush and notice it is still glistening from it coating of water from the fish?s hit. Can it get better than this?
If I have any regret in life, it is that I did not get into fly fishing sooner.
The wife has the gear by the door. Gorgeous day. Off to fish.
Busbee
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