VARIABLES / Grant-Rudd history

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Interesting you bring up 'variables'. Several years ago I searched for a term to describe the variable elements of casting. I was not totally comfortable with the 5 essentials; they are good but did not fit with the way I wanted to describe casting to my students. I settled on 'principles' and 'variables' and teach the following:

3 Principles of casting - must be executed for every cast - they don't change - remove slack; load and unload the rod; and the cast goes in the direction the tip finishes. Those are the three 'principles' I teach and I'm still searching for a term better than 'principles'.

5 Variables: Power (hand speed/rod bend), arc, stroke length, timing, and trajectory - all varying with the amount of line/weight to be cast.

There is a lot more description and explanation behind each one of the above....but you get the idea.

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Your thought process parallel's Lefty's as he discusses PRINCIPLES in CASTING WITH LEFTY KREH...

"Principle 1. You must get the end of the fly line moving before you can make a back or forward cast .."

"Principle 2. Once the line is moving, the only way to load the rod is to move the casting hand at an ever-increasing speed and then bring it to a quick stop."

"Principle 3. The line will go in the direction the rod tip speeds up and stops - more specifically, it goes in the direction that the rod straightens when the rod hand stops."

"Principle 4. The longer the distance the rod travels on the back and forward casting strokes, the less effort is required to make the cast. "

Some might add : "There must be a match between casting arc and rod bend" (From prior messages between us, I know you agree )

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From Mac Brown ( His "short answer"). Mac and I enjoyed conversation on casting mechanics after dinner last evening. Note his use of the word "force". From a physics standpoint, this may be a better word than "power". I see the term "power" as strength and the term "force" as POWER APPLIED.

Having said that, I prefer the slightly less accurate term, "power" for teaching because the term, "force" is sometimes interpreted by students as meaning a burst of power rather than smooth, constant acceleration. G. :-

Hi Gordy,
Variables of force and timing.

Will write a longer one in the morning which are a spin off of those two.
Mac Brown

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More on the variables based on my actual questions from Lewis Hinks and Mark Milkovitch in our next message ..

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The Grant letter that I sent you referred to sketches and the overhead cast. I showed only the switch cast in the sketch included in the article. Last night I forgot to send the complete illustration including the overhead cast which is interesting because it suggests that although the casts are made normally the rearward drift may be made with a rotation? Grant was considered a perfectionist so this is unlikely to be a mistake but given the flexibility of his rods this manoeuvre would be very difficult I suspect!

Best regards,

Ally Gowans

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Ally,

I copied your diagram attachment to this message. From your description of the events, I'm assuming that Donald Rudd made the diagrams or had someone do them for him and that Alexander Grant approved them for the Jock Scott article.

In reviewing the straight line cast diagrams below those depicting the switch cast, I felt that the artist was not trying to show drift, rather straight line casting in each of two different casting planes.

When we studied drift we have noted that most casters use variable combinations of translation and rotation. Rarely did Tom and I see pure rotation with no translation or vice versa when we played with Drift by video casting and by trying to do it both ways.

If we consider the "Borger lay-back" as a form of drift, this would change since this move is almost pure rotation.

The "Lefty's stab" looks to me to be mostly translation of the rod tip with a thrust in the direction of the unrolling loop.

Note the simplified graphic depiction of drift from Bruce Richards in the second attachment.

Gordy