|
April 13th, 1998
A Rose By Another Name
It's been said that everyone is famous for fifteen minutes
sometime in their life. This may be your chance for immortality.
Have you ever envied those which invent flies and so get to
name them? Or those which name some unique cast? Or some
method of controlling the fly line? If so, then read on. This
could be your big chance!
I have found over many years of observing those around
me which cast rather well, one and ONLY one, common
denominator. It occurs at dissimilar times for each of the
studied parties. It seems not to be a respecter of age, ability,
social class, nor any discernible thing. Yet, it may be the very
element which binds all of us fly casters together. It is such a
common thread that I find incredible, in all of the books on
casting, there are none whom will address it. I shall here
attempt, however crudely, to describe the maneuvers with
which it can be produced. Please keep in mind that due to the
vast assortment of casters and their personal variations, I
cannot include all of the possible articulations.
I have noticed if one will wait just a trifle long before
starting the forward cast or make a rather weak backcast it
seems to be helpful. A variation on this is to apply severe
thumb pressure in the middle of the forward cast; being
careful not to let it happen too near the end, or stopping point,
of the forward stroke. There is one school of thought that
claims your equipment can be tuned to help produce it; but, I
feel that can only lead to, not actually perform, it.
This may be getting a bit confusing for you, so perhaps an
illustration may be in order. You and a friend are on the water,
fly casting for your quested-quarry, when you yell over at him.
"Hey, they're rising behind you!" There you have it; you have
just witnessed one of it's forms. Let me do you another. You
reach out into the wind with a beautiful sixty-footer; the line
rolls out like a oriental rug only to have the leader drop in a
series of coils like a slinky. Well, that's another one. There is
the non-rolling roll cast, the slack-line cast that lays out
straight, the delicate presentation that smacks the water like a
squirrel just fell in, the loop-of-lead behind you, and many,
many more.
Now, the odd thing is, these are of such great interest to
the "better caster" that I can not understand why they are
not discussed in detail in all of their writings. We may have
stumbled onto something very important here that they don't
want us to know! And, even odder, they have not yet named
this cast! Well, now we, or you, have the chance of a lifetime!
Let's do it! If we name "IT" we can. If the results come off
rather poorly when attempting to perform "IT", simply explain
that "IT" is a very complex cast and we have not yet mastered
all of "ITS" perplexing ramifications.
There is a name for everything we do in fly casting; this too
cries out to be named. We have waited too long! We need this!
Whether it occurs in front of us, or behind us, we need to have
a name for "IT". After all, we call bobbers, "strike indicators"
and tailing loop knots, "wind knots", and artificial bait,
"nymphs". This needs to be done. We need ONE name to
cover all of these anomalies.
I can just hear it now. "Hey buddy, they're rising behind
you!" "Yeah? Well stuff it Clyde, I'm workin' on the (cluster
cast, the fanortney-flip, the turbo-twist, the rocket-wrist)
cast, and it's not that easy!"
So now to address the unheralded worm fisher. He with no
organization, no library of books each resplendent with wonderful
pictures of various worms in fetching poses. To him who has no
need of excuses and never has been tempted to go that devious
route, I say congratulations, you are indeed a man. A man in a
man's world. One who needs no one. Needs no reason for not
excelling. You simply go out and fish. As man was meant to do.~ JC
Till next week, remember ...
|
