Went to the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival this past weekend. One of the things I wanted to make sure I did was to listen and watch Lefty give a demo and talk on his casting. He was scheduled to do this 4 times during the festival-2 on Sat and 2 on Sun. Even though the last 3 classes were a repeat of the first I went to all 4 of them. The man is absolutely amazing, to say the least. Conditions were horrible on Saturday with 20-25 mile an hour plus winds. His casting is effortless !! Even with the wind he could do things with the line that an “expert” caster couldn’t do. Like lay a straight line out 40 feet on the casting pool and have the leader and 5 feet of the line flip to the left between two people–against that wind. He said where the line was going to go before he made the cast. And then he did it a second time, same way so it was no fluke. And then, Sat afternoon after the second class, I had a chance to have a few minutes of one-on-one instruction with him.
In all of my 55 plus years of using a flyrod, I have never had a casting lesson, never watched a video, or tried to use a book. This was a first for me and to do it with someone of that calibre is truly inspiring. Now I have to get out on the water and practice what I learned from him. Wont be any fishing for a while. Just practice, practice practice until I can undo all of my bad habits. Cant wait.
I still remember vividly the first time I met Lefty and watched him cast. He took the top section of a four piece rod and laid out the full length of fly line; simply amazing. It’s always fun to watch him entise some young buck to come up in front of the croud and show his stuff. There’s always one willing to step up to the challenge and then Lefty will say something like, "Have you ever looked at your backcast? When the guy answers no, Lefty will say “Man I don’t blame you, it’s hard to watch?” It’s all done in fun and he always takes the time to talk with folks and willingly shares his knowledge. Lefty’s a real character and wonderful ambassador for fly fishing.
I saw him on Sunday, very entertaining. He asked for volunteers to come forward and a man pushed his son forward and lefty said “Dad’s too chickenshit”. A lady came up and he had her cast and he said “You didnt listen to a damn word I said”. You would have enjoyed Ed Jaworowski, also, cast 50 ft with 2 fingers and could hook or “slice” the line either way he wanted, plus could do it by degrees, ie a draw or a hook. I took his class Sunday AM and he spent 3 hours with the 4 of us, very informative.
I feel priveledged to live in the Washington DC area and see Lefty do his thing at so many shows here. I’ve been “volunteered” numerous times for Lefty’s demos and always came away better than I started. At Tifest this year he was showing the crowd quicker ways to tie knots, I was watching intently how others progressed and the next thing you know Lefty looks at me and says “ok, it’s your turn.” He then proceeded to work with me directly on knot tying and I learned a lot.
Lefty is a wealth of knowledge and really enjoys sharing it!
The first time you see him cast a line with just the rod tip or even better just his arm, is a very humbling experience.
If I learn to be half the flycaster Lefty is before I die, I’ll consider myself pretty darn good.
George/Old #art: I know exactly how you feel, since I’ve experienced Lefty’s hands on approach several times.
Didn’t go vertical. The last 5 feet of the line and the leader sort of flipped horizontally to the left and dropped between the two guys. This is hard for me to explain. Lefty does a little “flick” or “jerk” at the end of each casting stroke, forward or back cast, with his rod hand that imparts a lot of action to the fly line, whether it be line speed, direction, or whatever he does to make the line do what he does to it. I could feel it when he was holding my hand and the rod and showing me how his cast should be made. With the line/ leader “flip” to the left-- at the same time the rod stopped he made a very slight “flick” up and to the left that sent a little wave down the line and that was what turned the end of the line to the left as the line layed down.
Host Ray, you may not be buying it but I felt it and saw it fall into place. LOL And again, that was after he said what he was going to do.
Its not a trick, if you throw with the rod in your right hand and on your right side you can make it hook left. If you move the rod tip to your left side throwing across your torso you can make it hook right. There’s a couple ways to impart the energy to cause that reaction and yes it can come in handy while fishing. Hooking around a cypress tree to drop a popper behind one is a common use of the maneuver when brim fishing.
[i]This is what I don’t understand. There are two types of sidearm “hook” casts that can be made, a “positive” hook that actually flips the loop over on itself, and a “negative” hook that collapses an fails to extend. It the vertical plane, the positive hook would be the tuck cast and the negative would be the puddle cast.[/i]
Lefty casts left handed. What qrrfish1 describes is an overpowered “positive” sidearm cast. But notice that an overpowered sidearm cast off the left side hooks to the RIGHT and not the LEFT. Now you can do an underpowered “negative” cast, but an underpowered “negative” right hook cast from the left side cannot hook “positively” between 2 people as it is described. An underpowered cast that you try to place between two objects does not actually hook around the closest object. It collapses, but to collapse between the two people, the collapsing loop has to go through the first person.
Therefore, a negative hook cannot hook around the first object to come to lie between the two. It will hit the first object before it can land between them.
Said another way, when you cast sidearm from the left side, the upper leg of the loop is to the left and it will straighten on the standing leg of the line to the right, so the momentum and energy of the cast will flip the fly over to the right and not the left.
So then, I ask how the cast was made? Was it a cross body left handed cast from the opposite (right) side as an overpowered “positive” backhand cast? But that is not what was said. Was it made vertically? That is why Host Ray said he didn’t believe it. Unless I am mistaken, that “positive” hook cast to the left between two people has to be made vertically or as an overpowered “positive” crossbody cast when you cast left-handed.
The way the cast is described leads one to assume that it was a standard sidearm cast from Lefty’s left side. That does not make sense to me.
I’ve looked at some videos of Lefty casting and he casts with his right hand so he can make a positive hook as described. I assumed he casted left handed.
I’ve looked at some videos of Lefty casting and he casts with his right hand so he can make a positive hook as described. I assumed he casted left handed.
He was born left handed and that’s where the name came from. Years ago, he injured his left arm in a freak bed making incedent and he has been doing his casting demo’s with his right hand since the injury.
Sorry Old #art I didn’t make it to the show this year, sounds like I maybe should have. I got up Sat and with the wind blowing and cold, I went up in the moutains hoping to get some of the winds blocked for some brookie fishing, that turned out really well, Very glad to here you all had a good time of the show…
Glad that was cleared up. Yes, he was casting right handed during all 4 classes. And I don’t know why he is called Lefty. I never asked him.
Like I said in another post, I don’t get too technical with my use of a flyrod. I just enjoy being on the water whether I catch any fish or not. I consider myself to be above average and I can do a lot of things with a flyrod but if I analyzed everything involved with laying out a line, to me that would be engineering–not fly fishing. For me, that would take all the joy out of it. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have Lefty give me some pointers and show me new ways to enjoy something I like doing. It was a great weekend. I would suggest to anyone in the area to attend the festival next year.
The curve or hook cast that Lefty often demonstrates is made with the rod moved normally in a vertical or near vertical plane. This cast can be used to cast the fly around an obstacle to the left or right. The left hand curve is imparted by quick motion of the wrist when the rod is stopped. For the left hand curve, the right handed caster this motion is to the left, the palm of the hand facing toward the caster at the completion. For a right hand curve the the motion is to the right with the palm facing away at the completion of the cast. It is much, much, more difficult to make the right hand curve (left hand for the left handed caster). With practice, the caster can place the curve at different points along the line and develop some degree of accuracy. The cast is illustrated in some of his books and shown in his videos. A few years ago I had an extended opportunity to discuss casting with Lefty and he said this was perhaps the most difficult cast to describe with words and to illustrate, so I am not even going to try to do so effectively. The motion is also very difficult to see live or in video. Ed Jawarowski covers it in his book “The Cast: Theories and Applications for More Effective Techniques”.
I practice these casts regularly but I find that if I do not practice for awhile I almost need to relearn the casts. I have executed a left hand hook or curve cast around obstacles on several occasions and hooked fish. I have not accomplished a right hand hook while fishing and am inconsistent when practicing - and during some practice sessions I fail to make the cast properly at all.
Lefty also demonstrates the more commonly seen and more easily executed curve cast made by making the forward cast in a horizontal plane.
Tim, I looked for you but never saw you. Sounds like you had a good day even if it wasn’t at the festival. We will get together again one of these days.
Sounds like you folks had a good time.
George…Sorry I missed it. Hopefully I will be back next year, fudge & all, including Tim…I guarantee you that if I get back, Tim & I will both be at the show, & in the mountains, & on Mossy Creek, &…
Mike
