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Walter & Group...
[GH] From Bob Tabbert :
Hi Gordy, What a wonderful, insightful essay on the 'salt water speed cast'. Thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience.
I am up at cabin in northern WI making maple syrup, we have 100 trees tapped and have 7.5 gals bottled with another 5 gals planned. At a 40 to 1 ratio that is a lot of maple sap, collected & boiled down! No fishing yet.
As you may know Rick Williams and I have volunteered to run FFF's Conservation program. It has been a time consuming, pleasurable activity. However my casting world has suffered & has been placed on the back burner while Rick & I try to bring FFF's Conservation Program back to the importance it deserves. We are making progress.
Phyllis & I are staying north for the summer, so we will not be making out May trip to the Keys. I look forward to visiting with you at West Yellowstone. Give our best to Pris, Keep going! Bob
Robert L. Tabbert
Conservation Director FFF
Exploration Geologist
Conservation, Fly Fishing, Exploration
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[GH] Question from Ckling Ling :
Hi Gordy,
Is holding 15ft of fly line excluding leader outside the rod tip considered excessive?
Thanks
Ling
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[GH] Ling,
Not at all ! Experienced salty flats fishers can sometimes carry twice that amount.
Having said that, I should point out at this point that it is NOT a good idea to use this cast unless you have had some experience with it when fishing in high winds from the deck of a rocking skiff.
Learning it by lawn practice rarely suffices.
Many fly fishers inexperienced with this kind of fishing, learn it that way, then book a flats guide. When the first fish shows, the whole thing turns to disaster and the fish is gone. It might well have been the only fish of the morning.
Even those who have used it for other species such as bonefish, can't make it work when confronted with the approach of a 100 + lb. tarpon on a shallow flat. The eyes bulge, the hands shake, and the knees knock. The cast goes to pieces. (Some guides call that a "KK" (Knee Knocker).
For that very reason, several of our best Lower Keys guides firmly request that their clients not use the saltwater quick cast technique unless they have that experience and can do it well.
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[GH] From Dan McCrimmon :
Hello Gordy;
Line control device. The simplest one I have seen is a plastic bucket with a small traffic cone on the bottom with a little water. Slick and cheap.
Dan
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[GH] Dan,
Good budget item.
Works unless it's really windy and nasty. Then that bucket is "too slick" and slides about. I found that adding a piece of soft plastic material called, "bench vise" from a hardware store beneath that bucket helps a lot.
That metal handle can sometimes catch a loop of fly line that missed the bucket, too.
Del Brown probably caught more permit on fly on the flats than any other. He met the challenge of an errant fly line in the wind by designing and using a floating fly line with a 25' segment of heavy sinking line in the belly. The idea was that the heavy segment of line would stay on the deck in the wind. As you may imagine, it wasn't fun to cast. Del never claimed to be a really good caster, so most of the fish he hooked were close. The Del Brown Fly Line was yet another entry into the endless quest for ways of controlling line when flats fishing. One of the reasons for his success was that while others were fishing for many other species he concentrated on permit..... Also, he fished with some of the very best dedicated permit guides available, and spent many days doing nothing else.
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[GH] Bob Stouffer describes the "Wading Saltwater Quick Cast" in outline form :
Dr. Gordy
Wading Saltwater Quick Cast
1. Clearing Cast to outside range of expected sighting.
2. From lowest stripping guide, strip longest loop and place it on little finger of rod hand then second longest loop and lace it on ring finger of rod hand, then the third longest loop and place it on the finger-finger of the rod hand.
3. Tilt the rod back and capture a length of line outside the rod-tip great enough to make a D loop with your line hand and transfer the line to the thumb and forefinger grip of the rod hand.
4. Make two more loops and transfer in order to the thumb and forefinger of your rod hand.
5. Bring in the fly and line-leader connection and secure the fly hook point out in the thumb and forefinger of the line hand.
6. Capture the line-leader connection between the finger-finger and forefinger of the line hand.
7. Transfer the outside-the-rod-tip loops from the thumb and forefinger of the rod hand to the little and ring finger of the left hand.
You are now holding loops between the reel and stripping guide in the rod hand and loops outside the rod tip in the left hand.
8. At fish sighting, execute a forward roll cast (or a backcast - your choice) on the lee side of your body, simultaneously positioning the fly to that side and releasing the loops from your hand..
9. Allow the energy of the cast to pluck the line-leader connection and fly from the line hand.
10. Re-grip the line high between the stripping guide as the cast unrolls.
12. False cast with a haul.
13. Shoot line from your rod-hand loops as required to reach the target.
14. If the target is at the limit of the range (1. above), shoot the first loop from the rod hand on the second false cast and the remainder on the relaxed delivery cast.
Bob Stouffer
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[GH] Bob,
Well done.
Now, let's look at this from a test taking perspective -
Consider the task statement, "Secondly, explain the line handling challenge that an angler faces when wading an ocean flat."
If I were taking the exam, I'd base my answer including both EXPLANATION and DEMONSTRATION on exactly that. I'd enumerate those specific challenges, then demonstrate the methods of meeting them as I performed the casting demo.
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[GH] From Peter Morse :
Gordy I can think of another couple of reasons to control the running line through your line hand.
To pull the cast up short, you might need to do this for several reasons, the fish changes direction, another fish appears in closer which you might otherwise line.
You might want to add a check haul.
You really must be in control of the fly from the moment it touches down.
Peter
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[GH] Peter,
Agree.
We can do so many things by maintaining this line control.
Often, here in the Florida Keys, I'll use an intermediate sink or sink tip line in deep water at the edge of a flat. Then we spot fish right up on the skinny flat in very shallow water. I can make that intermediate line perform like a floating line by making my cast, then using a check haul as the first strip as I literally begin my retrieve before the leader and fly even hit the water. With rod tip elevated, as long as I'm retrieving, that fly and line won't sink enough to catch on the bottom.
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[GH] Here's another ploy for maintaining good line control which goes beyond the Task 14 requirements. Something I learned from Lefty many years ago :
When fishing from skiffs which have lot of things on deck or in the cockpit which can catch your fly line, it's a good idea to bring a roll of tape. Masking tape or Duct tape will do just fine. This tape can be applied to cleats and any other protruding objects in a manner which will make it less likely they will catch a fly line blowing around in the wind or inadvertently placed upon or near them. At the end of the day, they can be removed in minutes.
This is particularly important when you plan a trip to Central or South America, the Islands or other venues where the guides may be fantastic at putting you on fish, but don't rid their skiffs of these items.
If you read the references I cited yesterday, you will find Lefty's notes about line handling devices which can be made portable for use when traveling to these places.
The short speed cast can be used when casting the "whole chicken" to a billfish from the cockpit of a sport-fishing boat. The tape comes in handy here if the cockpit isn't clear. One thing you can't "tape" is the outrigger behind you, however. If that can't be raised up out of the way, then you may wish to make that speed cast with an an off-horizontal casting plane.
When using a saltwater quick cast while fishing for permit, I don't want my rod tip any higher than necessary. I can't count the times when all I did was to raise the rod for a back cast and that was enough to send the fish off in an explosive panic. So for this situation I use an off-horizontal or even a horizontal rod plane.
I'll never forget the time Ted (Tibor) Juracsik was giving a talk on nervous permit at our fishing club meeting. He said, " They spook and go 'round and 'round like somebody gonna drain the pond !!! "
Once, a few years ago, Bob Popovics wanted to get some video footage of permit on the flat. It was "bright sky - flat calm. As long as I had an angler up in the bow with a fly rod in hand, we could get only distance shots. As soon as that rod was put down in the skiff, we were able to get within 20 feet of large tailing and flashing permit on a shallow white sand flat. They are the Kings of Spook !
Gordy
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