Away We Go

At left, fly casting analyzer as photographed by Mike Cline.

I believe this is an old Palm E2. I used both a T1 and a T3 back in the day. Yes, I too learned Palm script.

It was a handy little beast when your day was consumed with meetings. I could use Bluetooth and sync to Microsoft Exchange as I walked by my office. Very cool. Spreadsheets, word docs, pdf, meeting notes transcribed to text.

Almost as good a pen and paper and smartphone today.

The point in this image of the casting analyzer from technology now relegated to the trash bin is that our skills also age and pass from cutting edge to near useless.

I went out tonight on Mill Creek for a little casting practice with a three-stand wool fly on 4 wt line. Now, the wool is sure to be completely sodden quite quickly, sink, and present a real problem for casting.

That's the point.

Breeze, strong current, heavy sunk fly, sinking leader: these are the conditions that happen in spring swinging streamers or multi-fly rigs. We're at the top end of control for whatever is in our hand complete with obstructed back-casts and we have to perform. Not being able to fish means not being able to fish.

SO, I went out to practice.

The first fifteen minutes: not pretty.

I'm rusty after winter and the conditions outlined above are hard. They were still hard thirty minutes later when I could manage to roll cast the fly to the surface downstream; execute a snap-c to bring the wool wadding upstream, and because of wind and current, execute a roll cast off my left shoulder for thirty-five feet.

That's about as good as it got: thirty-five feet. I don't expect much else off a soft fiberglass rod and a heavily weighted set-up. With a strike indicator, it would have been worse.

So, work to do.

Everybody wants to fish as long as it isn't miserable. Controlling the line and fly has a lot to do with miserable - or not.

So, we'll have a casting practice session or two before opener. We can all learn some new tricks. We could all use some after-practice amber beverage.

To that end, some great instructional videos about technique. I enjoyed these.

Caution - these are provided as entertainment. It's about like watching Pen and Teller do a card trick. Looks easy. It isn't easy the first time. Takes some work.

Think of these as aspirational technique mastery videos.

Roll casting: not the big arcing useless beast you learned. [ I might have taught you that useless version, too].  Red's Fly Shop Roll Cast 301
 and
Orvis Crisp Roll casting

The standard Overhead Cast: Basic Overhead Tip

The Snap C to re-position a downstream line for a cross-current roll cast: Snap - C and Roll

The Snake Roll ( useful for no backcast re-direction with a surface fly):  Snake Roll

Lastly, some single-handed Spey: Red's Single Spey

Just want to fish? Here's a good one. Notice the casts: simple, controlled, close: Barnes Illustrative Fishing Techniques

If you have some favorites, link them in the comments. We'll set a video instruction series on the right column here in a bit.

Prost.