Bowing / Curve cast: teaching & practice

I believe that Harry Kime, who fished daily weather permitting for several months each year at Casa Mar camp in NE Costa Rica probably caught more tarpon 60 pounds or larger than any fly fishermen. There were days when he boated as many as ten tarpon.

I fished with him many times there and other places on the planet. Over the years on a few occasions when I would bow to a tarpon the fly line would wrap around the rod tip--sometime losing the tarpon.

Harry Kime as one of the most innovative fly fisheman I ever knew. He always used IGFA class tippets. He wanted to produced CONTROLLED SLACK. He developed a technique that virtually eliminated any tangling of the line, produced controlled slack and it works perfectly.

As the tarpon started its jump instead pointing the rod toward the tarpon and bowing with the rod tip above the water, Harry simply pointed the rod toward the tarpon and immediately placed the rod tip just below the surface. This created gentle curving slack in the line so the tippet didn't break and made it impossible to tangle the line on the rod. As soon as the fish went back into the water Harry would resume a normal fishing fighting position.

Lefty..... I'll try that. Makes sense. I have had the misfortune of bowing to a tarpon which jumps wildly toward me and have had a loop of fly line catch on the tip section of my rod.... came tight and broke 6" off the tip and lost the fish to boot ! Once had the line loop about the reel handle. That handle wasn't tapered, so when we came tight I couldn't slip it off.... another lost fish.

"BOWING" - I INSTRUCT MY CLIENTS TO POINT THE ROD TIP IN THE DIRECTION OF THE FISH AND TO EXTEND BOTH ARMS - ROD HAND AND LINE HAND - TOWARD THE FISH - AND BOW FORWARD - THIS CAN BE DONE QUICKLY - THEREFORE CREATING SLACK IN THE LINE QUICKLY - YET THE LINE SLACK CAN BE QUICKLY RECOVERED BY STANDING ERECT, BRINGING THE ARMS BACK TO THE FIGHTING POSITION AND MOVING THE ROD TO THE SIDE OPPOSITE THE FISHES DIRECTION OF TRAVEL.

Hi Gordy,
I've been reading about bowing to a fighting fish very interesting and informative. Unfortunately, over here "bow" can be spelt in different ways, (bow as in lowering the top half of your body as in if you were greeting the President, "bow" as in archery, and "bough" in the limb of a tree" )all pronounced the same!! However, I am now going to digress, has anybody in the U.S. heard of what I call the "feeder strike" I have used and taught this strike for years.

Basically, if you are fishing downstream (as on the "dangle") a fish takes or "knocks" on your fly especially in Atlantic Salmon fishing you actually "feed" line to the fish. What happens is, your line and fly are taut due to the direction of the current and if you strike you are pulling the fly out of the fish's mouth. However, if you feed line (up to three yards!) the line forms a belly in the current, (behind the fish) causing the fly to enter the fish's mouth and when you strike the fly pulls INTO the fish's mouth giving a better hold, as we say into the scissors. This will increase the chances of hooking the fish properly and given the angler a "fighting chance" of landing the fish. I'm throwing this open for comments from all and sundry to see the feedback.
Best Regards,
Liam Duffy,
P.S. Your's buyin' at the Conclave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Liam... That "feeder strike" or "bowing on the take" is something I've done when fishing the salt. I use it when sight fishing for small tarpon while using a slider or a gurgler. The fish comes up on the fly and tries to take it but the shock wave of his motion pushes it out of his way a he's trying to get it. "Bowing" the rod tip to "feed him" sometimes works well.

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I teach curves in several ways. I advise practice by going from straight line cast to curve cast on the same series of false casts. For example - "throw two straight then a curve". As they advance or want to learn more methods of throwing curves I may instruct,- "two straight, a hook then, a straight, then, a reel-twist curve". Other curves come into play and I have a class just on curves & mends that covers slack-line or underpowered curves, In-the-air mends that put a curve at the end by occurring early after the stop, hooks (side arm), corkscrew, etc. The simple truth is that any curved path of the rod tip may be transmitted to the line to produce a curve. This will occur anytime the curved tip path continues into the late acceleration phase and the line is delivered high enough above the surface to completely react.

Curves that end with the fly going toward casting side as well as away are also taught. Most overpowered or positive curves are taught from an opposite shoulder (line-hand shoulder) straight cast position if they are to curve finishing toward the rod hand side. Yarn flies may not have the mass to make a hook or curve appear impressive, so I sometimes will use a clipped fly, a pipe cleaner instead of yarn, etc for demonstration - especially if the curve is turning into the wind.

A side note, I weighed a pipe-cleaner (the hobby shop calls them craft stems) and it weighed nearly the exact weight of the #2 Bauer Crab fly I caught Permit on. This has become my simulation fly for Salt-Water prep students.

I also teach to curve into a target and around an obstruction. I encourage practicing placing targets and obstructions at varying distances from the caster. Advanced work can include more than one object or an obstruction and a target. Increasing distance away from the caster usually involves shooting line at some point. There are many things to discover but, my students usually go to a longer belly line, like Expert Distance, to increase their versatility.

I make it a point to teach the Tuck cast as a vertical curve. Changing the distance on this one may include the check haul to force the tuck at a distance.

This leads us the direction of formal application of mends. At the very beginning, I ask students to describe the fishing situation that would provide the opportunity where this presentation cast is applied.

I encourage student practice include these aspects, too.

Gary Eaton, MCCI

You have noted the vertical curves of which the Tuck cast is one. I use an upward vertical curve to present a weighted fly to bonefish ....... another subject which we can tackle at a later time

I have found that students learn better control of an underpowered (so-called "negative") curve cast if they make this cast with the rod in a more vertical plane. The rod tip is swung in the desired curve pattern, initially accelerating, then with diminishing power followed by rod fade.

No question about it, the use of a weighted fly makes it much easier for them to kick it around in a nice curve. I'll start students that way. Once they get good at it, however, I want them to know how to make those curves with a dry fly or even with no fly attached. Takes much better control to do that. I like your pipe cleaner idea.

# Using that 30' of line, once they have the technique down pat, I have them practice by repeatedly making curves to the right and left in sequence. When they get pretty good at doing that, I have them reinforce the kinaesthetics ("muscle memory") by having them make rapid curves to each side WITHOUT HAVING THE FLY OR LINE TOUCH THE GROUND OR WATER. That way, they can make several curves to either side per minute. ...... Burns it into their chromosomes !

# To learn the powered curve cast produced by a sudden wrist twist at the end of the cast, I start with a demo, then have the student pantomime rapid wrist flips (twists). We do that with no rod in hand, then go to a practice rod handle, then an unstrung rod and finally with line to actually make the casts.

The problem is always with the curve to the outside. The inside curve is learned well first, but learning to rapidly twist the wrist to the opposite side is very difficult for most students.

I never graduate to the corkscrew curve or max. distance curve unless I'm coaching advanced students who have mastered the other techniques well. If I introduce that too soon, it leads to confustion and frustration. I even avoid demonstrating that to the students, because they are not ready for me to share that technique, so it becomes a demo without purpose.