It seems that the casting stroke basics may well be stop & stop…and the rest is style…
Many of the gurus are no longer youngsters and may have started casting with fiberglass or early graphites…
Is it likely that their casting styles are the result of the materials they grew up with?
Go ahead challenge all of the above 
Am I an “older folk”? Well I’m 50 and still fish glass and boo, as for the stop/stop casting style…yup, thats me. Just waiting for the rod to tell me what to do (as in waiting for the tug when it’s loaded). Still love the old ways, not that the new is wrong.
I do not think so Duckster
A good casting stroke is the same elements for all rods except the speed is changed for the rod taper speed.
Why you young whippersnapper, I’ll have you know I am as modern as the next guy.
I have my ultra modern new improved lazer controlled fly line hover above the water till the built in sonar detects suitable prey. Then the auto fly select ties on the correct fly and gently deposits it on the waters surface. A silent impulse from the nerve center in the rod butt sends a hypnotic pulse thru the air into the water stimulating the fishes brain signaling for it to strike. The fish complys and in an instant he is on! Much better than the olden days when we had to wave the rod back and forth to get the line out.
:lol: :lol:
Most of my fly rods are Fenwicks :lol:
I’m sure from whence I came certainly does influence my casting (and probably other things as well) ~
My very first fly rod in 1949 was split bamboo, well used and probably somewhat rump-sprung, and this was the rod I learned to cast with. But my next rods were fiberglass and they were the ones I really cut my eye-teeth on. For that reason my present preference in a graphite is a mid-actioned rod, like the IM-6. I do have a couple of fast action rods for some specific applications, but my prefernce is the former. Having these graphite rods and using them mostly, every so often just have to get the glass out for that yester-year feel!
Dale
I started out with glass. My second glass rod was a Fenwick but I don’t believe that has any effect on my casting today.
I like to cast rods of different actions from the slowest cane to glass to the fastest graphite.
I consider it a challenge to get in time with any rod, feel it out and “make” it cast.
Dale W - “Rump Sprung” One of my favorite descriptions of Gene Shephard describing his mothers bathrobe. “And there would be my mom at the door, in her rump sprung red chenille bath robe with the petrafied egg on the lapel…”
Thanks, made my day!
"Many of the gurus are no longer youngsters and may have started casting with fiberglass or early graphites… "
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I need a time check. What age are we in now? Paleographite, Mesographite, Neographite, Postgraphite?
Things happen so fast. I blinked around '85 and Boron was gone. But the Pocket Fisherman survives like the Possum and Cockroach. How long do you think it will be before graphite has gone the way of greenheart?
Step back and take a broader view. I used a tubular steel flyrod in 1960. Where would that put me or my style? Or the fly instructors who teach the basics using a broomstick made of pine? Where do you put those talented individuals who can cast 60 feet without any rod at all?
:idea: Ahh! Having demonstrated that casting style does not depend on having a rod, I believe I have demonstrated that casting style is independent of rod material.
:arrow: So your answer is,“No.” QED
Well, I suppose if you youngsters like the new fangled super duper fast action boron space age graphite XXX rods. Then the old way of casting is not for you.
However, if you like the classic smooth action of bamboo even if it’s in the form of softer graphite. Then the older casting style will suit you (and me) just fine.
Cast with style and grace. Save the jerky styles for casting contests.
As one who is sliding into the early years of geezerdom, let me assure you that the answer is yes and no. I like bamboo because it casts like I do. The only graphite rod that I really like is a first generation Lamiglass blank. It is slower than anything made today – I think. And there a certainly other cranks and crackpots like me, out there.
And then there is the guy who has always had to have the newest and latest all along. And nothing wrong with that. But this guy has evolved along with the fly rods. Every change was relatively small and easily adapted to, even exploited. Lots of those folks out there too.
So – yes and no.
AgMD
Thanks for your column this week ,JC.