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I have been so thoroughly enjoying your online magazine that I felt it
incumbent on myself to report to you my casting epiphany.
Fly fishing has not always been a part of my life. When I was in the
seventh grade I subscribed to Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and
Field and Stream and soon became enraptured with tales
of fly fishing. I asked for and received a Shakespeare fly rod for Christmas
in 1968. I did some fly fishing but with no mentor or reference base I gave
it up after a few years.
That rod hung around and hung around. I have it to this day. I have been
re-visiting fly fishing for the past year or so, reading online and
working to improve my casting. Yesterday I was on my father-in-law's stock
tank casting away. This is the epiphany part. As usual I was having
variable results, sometimes OK casts, sometimes a long curly blob of
line with a 15 foot placement. Then I turned and started addressing a
clump of willow trees to my right. I had to cast side-arm. Lo and behold
the line was laid out all nice and straight as cold be! I began to
evaluate what was different about my sidearm cast vs. classic overhead,
overarm cast. The conclusion was so simple! I have to tell someone and
you are "it."
It seems to have to do with rod loading and perceiving such loading. I
realized that the sensory perception was not all different from the one
used to jump on a trampoline or play with a Fli-Back paddle (wooden
paddle with rubber ball attached by elastic cord). When one is jumping
on a trampoline etc. one can sense the loading and know when its time to
kick off. If it is just right one gets a nice rebound. If too soon or
too late the energy is lost and dissipated. When I had that light bulb
go on I saw a 100% increase in casting skill and personal sense of
satisfaction and soon afterward hooked into a nice little largemouth who
fought a great fight!
My hope is that this information might be of use to any others aspiring
to improve their beginning skills as a fly caster. Please feel free to
use this if it has any value at all.
A final item - I tied up a mess of
Black Foam Beetles according to Al Campbell's instructions in your
Intermediate Fly Tying section and the bluegills would not leave
them alone! I used black sheet foam that I bought for 33 cents a sheet in
Wal-Mart's crafts department on #12 nymph hooks and it worked like
a bomb. So thanks for making that available on
your fine web site as well. ~ Robin J Rhyne
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