Conclusion

Take two, I have one draught am not happy with so I will try again!

 What is a loaded rod? A bent one. If it ain’t bent it ain’t loaded. If the rod has a bend in it has to be having an effect on the line, ie, you have acquired it and started it moving in the direction of the cast. The rod does not need to have much apparent bend in it to have quite a substantial load. Think about how you put maximum pressure on a running fish, you lower the tip so that the butt sections come into play. Thats where the power of a rod is.

 The initial translation may not have much, if any, rotation going on. The rod may just be translated with the tip only slightly up from horizontal, it doesn’t matter, if the rod is bent it is pulling the line. Translation is not at a constant speed, it is accelerated in the same way as any other part of the stroke, it’s just not magnified by rotation…yet.

 For those of us who are not as supple as we used to be rotation will start while the rod hand is still behind our shoulder and once it starts it has to be a progressively increasing acceleration to maintain or even increase rod loading and allow leverage. It’s difficult to say when the rod is at maximum load. It’s easy to say it’s when it is at maximum bend, or chord length is at its minimum. The problem is that the rod is changing angle rapidly so load will show up in different parts of the rod as the rod rotates so minimum chord length or maximum bend may not actually be maximum load. I believe the rod loads to its maximum quite soon after rotation starts and that allows the line to be levered forward. Perceived wisdom is that leverage accounts for about 70% of linespeed, the rest is made up of the haul (10 to 15%) and PE ( the energy released by the unloading rod, 15 to 20%). It therefore stands to reason that the longer the tip path can be accelerated then the faster tip speed, and therefore linespeed, will be at RSP (rod straight position).

 So in a nutshell I am saying that the longer you rotate (and accelerate) the faster your potential linespeed will be.

 Having said all that I still have the dilemma that working on Late Rotation has helped improve my distance. Why? I believe that without realising it I have had to work at progressively rapid  acceleration to try to achieve late rotation and that that is the key, not Late Rotation as such.

The Dark Side

mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance.

 This came up a while ago in one of the more technical discussions on ‘loops and the concept had been sort of making the rounds to various parts of my brain for quite a while now, you know, one of those things that just pop into your head when you least expect it and you spend a few moments mulling it over before something else comes along to take its place.

 It’s the force through distance bit that got me thinking. What force are we applying during translation? If you read the previous post then you will see that for a substantial part of  translation we are not applying any force to the line at all, or the real late rotators aren’t anyway. Don’t forget we are talking pure distance here, not ‘normal’ casting.

 To my mind the secret of distance casting is the ability to control acceleration. The ability to feed power in progressively rapidly. I do mean feed, it’s not wham bam thank you mam. Mel Kreiger used to describe it as whuuUMP and that’s actually a very good description.

 It occurred to me that I should really be accelerating the line as well as the rod, why waste line acceleration time by just accelerating the rod, that would be the equivalent of wheel spin. What we really want is traction, not smoking tyre’s. By the time the guy with wheel spin has finally got some traction the guy who didn’t spin his wheels is halfway down the straight.

 Of course this argument might just be me making excuses for my inability to perform a long horizontal translation, but, what if I have not actually ever been a Late Rotator?  I must have, and still be, doing something right because I would not be too ashamed to cast distance with the best in the world. I might not win but I wouldn’t necessarily come last either.

 I intend to write about the mechanics of rod loading next but I need a bit of time to get it sorted in my mind first….. so you might have a long wait.

The Jedi version

One of the main problems, as I see it, with ‘proper’ late rotation is the grip. You need to change it three times during a complete cycle. To start the backcast the grip needs to be palm forward, even finger on top. During the backcast pause the hand needs to rotate clockwise (if you are right-handed) and open up so that the rod is held very loosely in an open hand. The thumb becomes a fulcrum. The butt is not actually gripped, it’s held in position by just the weight of the rod and tension in the line. Hold your hand in front of you and describe a 3 or 4” circle, look through the C shape you have now made and swivel the thumb to point at your face. That’s the grip you use through 90% of the translation. To keep the rod horizontal through this phase you need to allow the wrist to move. You will probably find it easier if the rod is canted over a bit but, unfortunately, if you do that you lose distance, the best distance is from a near vertical rod. When your hand gets to a point just passed your head the wrist can no longer bend back any more and you will start a natural rotation. Rotation proper is a combination of squeezing your hand to a proper thumb on top grip and a powerful rotation of the wrist, this is where you haul as well. The combination of the push/pull squeeze ( you push with your thumb and pull with the fingers) and the wrist rotation/haul are what gives you the massive increase in linespeed.

 All the above is theoretical as far as I am concerned, it’s what I have strived, and failed, to achieve for the last several years. I have only seen it done properly by three or four people.

One other thing that needs to be cleared up is that the translation phase with the C grip only accelerates the rod  horizontally towards the waiting hauling hand. Think about it. Nothing the rod does at this stage can have any effect on the line, it is purely sliding down the line. Drag is a misnomer, it should better be called slide. Drag suggests line tension and slack removal. This is absolutely not the case. What you are doing however is accelerating the rod in the direction of the forward cast so that when you do start to acquire the line the rod is already moving at a substantial speed therefore the rod will load faster and deeper than if you has rotated from a static start. Translation should be looked at as a rolling start, you are already on the move before you cross the start line.

 Couple all the above with perfect timing and power applied through the legs and body and you too can become an Uber caster.

 As I said in my previous post I have now moved to the Dark Side, more of which later.

Feel The Force

I have outed myself as a bit of a fraud on Sexyloops, well perhaps fraud is a bit strong, misguided might be a better word.

 In the distance casting game ‘Late Rotation’ has been the Holy Grail for years and I have strived for years to attain it. However, in the back of my mind I always knew I had never achieved it despite the devises I used to perform a pseudo version of it. Proper late rotation involves the rod staying horizontal until the hand has translated from right back to right forward, if you include body movement that’s a translation of six or seven feet, if you include a forward stride that can become up to ten feet with rotation coming in the last six inches. Well, I could never get that. I used to kid myself that my rotation happened in the last couple of feet, which wasn’t bad, I could live with that. Of course when I reviewed a clip of my casting it always appeared that I was actually rotating for a much longer period but I would put that down to filming the wrong cast. Ok the early rotation may be slight, and, it did lead to an explosive finish but it wasn’t a Hartmann or Ardenesque stroke, just an approximation of one.

 In my heart of heart’s I knew this and spent endless hours trying to get my body to flow fluidly from back to front with the classic horizontal rod. I even considered taking up Yoga or Pilates to try and supple my body up a bit. I only considered it for a while though, being intrinsically lazy I just never got round to it.

 I recently came to terms with my inability to perform the drag properly and moved to the Dark Side instead. I am going to be the one that whispers that Late Rotation is bunkum. You have all been hoodwinked, deceived into thinking you are somehow not worthy, you are a lesser caster because you cannot perform this complicated manoeuver without having to resort to slight of hand. No, I am here to lead you down a different path, the path of enlightenment, the path that doesn’t lead you to an inferiority complex, the path of fact, not fiction. The truth, it’s out there somewhere.

E=MC2, Discuss

Whisper it, but I do occasionally use forums other than Sexyloops and I find there is quite a transition required. ‘Loops is stuffed full of casting geeks who will question something you have written, especially if you have made the mistake of being a bit lazy by not going into the details you have assumed everyone will take as read. Often they will just plain disagree, and say why. This, I believe is why Sexyloops is probably the premier fly casting site in the world. If someone offers a different opinion you listen, and hopefully learn.

 On other forums, and I mean absolutely no disrespect, this just isn’t the case. If someone asks a casting question the answers vary enormously, some good and some not so good. The problem lies in the fact that the person who asked the question may or may not be an experienced caster and may or may not be able to sort the wheat from the chaff. They may take the short and sweet (and often wrong) reply and just end up more frustrated.

 Writing about specific aspects of casting is difficult at the best of times and doubly so when you don’t know how good or bad the caster is you are answering. (Try it, tell me how to cast into the wind. I want stance, grip, casting plane, casting angle, power application, hauling, leader length, loop shape, linespeed and anything else you can think of. Keep it concise).

 I usually try and be reasonably brief, this often leads to more questions so I elaborate, only to be then told by some numpty that I have over complicated it and there is no need for all this jibber jabber.

 I will tell you what the problem is; casting is like the laws of physics, ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ and I like to point out just what these reactions might be and how they can be countered or even used to advantage but using the written word is not the best way to do it. Something I could show and explain in less than thirty seconds takes a hundred time longer to write, and probably twice as long to write it in such a way that there is no ambiguity and no room for misunderstanding. That’s not taking into account I might be wrong in the first place.

 Please be aware that if I answer any question it is will be correct to the best of my knowledge, has been sweated over and revised several times and I have not assumed you know one end of a rod from the other (unless I know you do).

And Now For Something Completely Different

I tie flies. Not particularly well I admit, but well enough to catch fish nevertheless.

 I have tied pretty well from when I started fly-fishing. I think I thought it was going to save me money! That’s a laugh. I probably have enough hooks and materials to last me a several lifetimes the only problem is they are never the right hooks or materials I need for a particular fly. I have just put in an order for another hundred quids worth because I want to tie up some flies for next years adventure into the world of salt and, of course, most of the stuff I already have just doesn’t fit the bill.

 I have tied for the annual Sexyloops fly swap every year since it started and this years swap was the best yet. I send forty scruffy looking things and get forty fabulous looking flies back. Result. My only problem, no, one of the problems, is that I can’t bring myself to actually fish with them. For some reason I treasure the damn things and hoard them away somewhere safe just to bring them out occasionally and drool over them. The other problem is guilt. Guilt that I have sent some pretty mediocre flies in and received works of art back. It doesn’t seem to worry Paul Arden though, he just tag’s the word ‘variant’ onto whatever he ties and no-one can say if it is supposed to be what he say’s it is or not. Pretty damn clever if you ask me. I have just started tying for next years swap, and I’m feeling a tinge of guilt already.

 About four years ago I entered the Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Magazine annual tying competition for the first time. What an eye opener that was. Part of the requirement is that you send in three identical flies. I have a problem tying one identical fly let alone three. You end up tying about twenty flies (not including the trial ones) and then sorting through them to find some that look pretty similar, then you photograph them and get them up on the computer and then compare them again…and again… and again. Make your choice, pack them carefully, post them off. Three sets in three months. Magnus Angus put’s a jaundiced eye over them and declare’s you equal 110th. I have the certificate to prove it.

 I did improve after that though, one year I headed the leader board, then fell away dramatically after I mistook size 10 as 1/0, Magnus certainly didn’t need a magnifying lens for that one!

 I would tie a lot more than I normally do but during the summer the little corner I tie in becomes so cluttered with rods and reels that it’s just too much effort to clear it every time I feel the need to tie but come the first gale I set too and tidy all the clutter away and I have my nice little tying area back again.

The first couple are my tying bench and the start of this years ‘loops swap and the others are just a small selection fron this years swap.

Fishless In Billericky

Ah well, there you go. Big disappointment, I’m so disappointed I just may have to go fishing again to get over it. God, I hate wind. I have fished in all weathers and made the best of it but wind just does my head in. I don’t mean a gentle breeze I mean a force five or six straight in your face that creates the sort of waves you would be better taking up surfing in. The sort of wind that creates waves that try to knock you over. The sort of wind that finds every little chink in your armour, and whistles through it with glee. And to make it worse it was (apparently) a classic, ‘you should have been here yesterday, they were queueing up to take anything you threw at them, there was hardly a ripple’, etc, etc. Yeah, yeah, now fuck off while I try and get this bloody line out more than twenty feet!. To cap it off  Hanningfield is so low that you have to walk though a hundred feet of mud to get anywhere near the water in the first place.

 Then , as you fish your way along the bank you have to navigate bait anglers intently watching their quiver tip or other anglers tossing toby’s as far as they can!!. I tell you, Britain is going to Hell in a bucket, what is the world coming to? I couldn’t even legitimately sneer at them, they were catching fish, I wasn’t.

 I even resorted to putting a lure on ( Sweeny Todd), I can’t remember the last time I did that. My final flourish was to launch the Woolly Bugger and I have never done that before either.

 On the plus side, Paul turned up (late, what’s new?) along with Steve (congratulations on passing your AAPGAI Provisional), Daniel (long time no see, great to catch up) and Trev (who has promised to show me how to catch huge Bass from the salt next year, obviously a top bloke).

 It then went back down hill again when we tried to buy a takeaway coffee in the cafe and was told we couldn’t. If we wanted coffee in a styrene cup we would have to go to a vending machine… two miles away!

 Hanningfield owes me a shed load of fish and I mean to get them. Pass me the maggots.

Taking A Chill Pill

Well, I feel like writing something… I just don’t know what.

 I am having a chill out day, well deserved after a hard week at work and an even harder weekend before that and as I look out of the window I don’t think I could have picked a better day to have one, it’s blowing a hooey and pissing down, typical autumn weather. I could have been casting at Paul’s  this weekend  and been out in it, so it looks like a wise decision not to go. I am, however, going up to Hanningfield tomorrow to fish with Paul and anyone else who decides to come along. I’m looking forward to that because it is probably the last time I will fish this year. Next year will be something new for me. I intend to fly fish the salt. I have never done it before and I am hoping it reawaken the excitement and enthusiasm for fishing regularly. Of course that will mean buying a few bits and bobs of new tackle, not rods though, I have enough of them to open a shop. I will need a reel that can stand up to salt water so if any of you can recommend a cheap(ish) reel that can handle salt, sand and a bit of a battering ,please let me know. I don’t want a work of art, I want functional.

 It was the last BFCC  meeting of the year last weekend and I was lucky enough to win a couple of events, which makes a pleasant change, check out the news and results section at www.thebfcc.co.uk . I have actually been doing some serious distance practice over the last couple of months and it seems to be paying off. I even hit a new PB of 138′6” a couple of weeks ago, with a five weight. I had thought those days were behind me as I haven’t cast over 130 for at least a couple of years, not with a five weight anyway. It’s nice to know I can still do it if I want to.

 I used to practice several times a week for two or three hours at a time and come in thoroughly knackered. It took a couple of years before it finally dawned on me that I was often throwing my best distances as I got more tired, ie, putting less effort in and concentrating on technique. Now I try to concentrate on making little adjustments here and there and I rarely cast for more than an hour at a time these days, not distance anyway. When I look back I sometimes wonder how I got away with so few injuries. I sometimes had to stop casting for two or three months while tennis elbow, a pulled shoulder muscle or a sore wrist cleared up. I found out the hard way that you should never start again too early after an injury or you are soon back to square one. I don’t get any of that these days, as soon as I feel a twinge I stop. I don’t heal as fast as I used to.

 Ah well, I had better get on with sorting out my gear for tomorrow, who knows, I may even catch something.

Priorities

Perhaps I am in a feisty mood today or maybe I am just feeling a bit cynical. I have had a couple of personal observations that have coincided with one or two conversations recently and I am now of the firm conviction that of the three main components of fly casting (line, rod and technique) the rod is the least important.

 This is not how it appears though, is it? If you read all the hype (and are silly enough to believe it) then the super duper Ex D 200 ultra light weight, high modulus graphite, rolled on the thigh of a beautiful Cuban cigar maker will turn you from a moderate caster into a casting God. Yeah, right.

  I cannot deny that some rods are much nicer to cast than others, but, what suits me may not suit you so you think my choice is a pile of cack, while I am certain your’s is just a waste of good carbon fibre and we try and convince each other of our rods merits. Rods and their actions consumes thousands of pages of magazines and forum debates. Some manufactures rods are so sought after that whenever they bring out a new model their devotees can’t get rid of the old models soon enough so that they can make room for the new model. Can someone explain this to me please.

 Next into the equation are lines. Actually, a decent double taper will fit most river or lake conditions but line manufactures have given us some nice alternatives. But once again there is a lot of hype surrounding some of them. Some, we know, were developed specifically for good casters to maximize their distance. Some were developed to maximize the distance of some not so good casters. Fair enough. I think it’s fair to say that some lines suit some rods better than others, don’t ask me why, it just is. On that basis you are better off  trying to find a line that casts well on your rod than you are trying to find a rod you can cast such and such line with. Cheaper too.

Last into the equation comes technique. The problem here, as I see it, is that it’s the one part you can’t buy. No, it takes a little effort to acquire, and there’s the rub. Human nature being what it is most look for a short cut. They are convinced that the answer lies in the equipment and not with them, or at least they hope it is, God forbid they should have to put a little effort in and actually practice flycasting.

Down The Tube

It’s just occurred to me that I haven’t written anything useful recently. Well you never know, this might not be either.

 Recently on Sexyloops there was a comment that the Five Essentials are really only four, ”The rod tip must track in a straight line” (we call this straight line path btw, or SLP for short) is the objective and all the other ones ( Pause, Power application, No slack and Variable casting angle) are the things that must be done properly to achieve it. I don’t see it like that at all. If you don’t get the rod tip tracking straight in the first place then getting the other’s right won’t save the day, they all have to combine.

 SLP is a confusing concept because it is multi dimensional. We are not just talking about 180 deg back to front we are also talking about creating a horizontal straight line as well, which involves loading the rod appropriately for the amount of line you are casting. To add the confusion horizontal SLP is recognised as an ideal to strive for, in the hope you never quite achieve it, because if you did achieve it the line would just pile into the rod tip. In reality the tip path is always slightly domed and the difference between the top of the dome and rod straight position (RSP), where the line overtakes itself and forms the loop, plus a bit of rod rebound, ie, the bit where the rod tip goes beyond RSP and then comes back again, is the width that the loop will be. Confused? you should be sitting where I am!

 So how do you work out this concept? I try and imagine I am trying to fire a loop down a 24” diameter tube 10′ long, suspended at casting height, without the line touching the sides. Now you can see that if the vertical tracking is out then the fly leg and rod leg won’t be parallel and the fly leg will rub the inside of the tube and if the horizontal SLP is not right you won’t create a loop tight enough to squeeze through the tube.

 OK, I now accept that the Five Essentials do have an order and ”The rod tip must track in a straight line” should be number one on the list but I do not accept that the other four are subordinate to it.