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Walter & Group :
[GH] Many of you came up with correct diagnoses and with some good suggestions and "fixes". Don Pendleton suggests checking his line surface:
Gordy,
Is his line dirty? A dirty line can steal 10% from a distance cast.
Remedy, line cleaning explanation.
Don Pendleton
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[GH] Don,
I must admit, I didn't think of that. However, he made those 75' casts so well, that I doubt that was a problem. We did stretch the line to get any kinks out.
Gordy
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Here is what actually happened:
I considered the fact that this candidate was capable of making 70' - 75' casts very well. Not only making the distance with reasonable ease, but in doing so, demonstrated good teaching casts.
His primary problem was loss of control followed by "general system failure" with an expanding range of problems as he CARRIED MORE LINE THAN HE WAS CAPABLE OF HANDLING.
I figured that since he already knew proper technique including matching his casting arc and rod bend; both matched to the 50' or so of line he was carrying for the 75' cast, I didn't have to teach him how to do that. My job, then, would be to have him do the same thing while carrying enough line to make the additional 10' and a bit beyond.
Since (on average) good casters can usually shoot about 50% of the line they can carry while false casting, we felt that if he could carry just 55' to 60' of line with good control, that would do the trick.
A couple of gross approximations :
( 60' carried. 1/2 of 60 = 30. Carrying 60' and shooting 30' would give him a 90' cast. )
( 55' carried. 1/2 of 55 = about 27. So carrying 55' and shooting 27' yields about 82'. )
Having run across this very problem on several occasions with MCI candidates, I used a simple but very effective technique taught to me by Bill Gammel years ago and well outlined in his video *
Here is what we did together:
1. We went back to having him carry a little less than 50' and worked on honing very good casts to peak perfection. (Easy, since this was a well informed candidate who responded quickly to my every suggestion.)
2. Once the casts were perfected, we worked together to make small well directed (good tracking) loops, especially on the back cast ..... using the concept that the back cast is the set-up for the following forward cast.
a. The caster watching each back cast critically. with loop size and pause time considered. (Back cast loops got even tighter and timing improved ).
b. Picking a "target" such as a cloud, tree top, etc. directly behind ... 180 degrees from the forward target. (Tracking improved right away.)
c. Paying heed to trajectory (launch angle) on both forward and (especially) back cast.
3. Paying close attention to ROD BEND deep enough for distance casting while still matching the casting arc. The key to this was the emphasis of sssmmmoooooooth acceleration to a crisp stop. This was aided by his increase of back cast drift which increased his available stroke length.
a. Making the same good cast with primary attention do doing it with more speed than brute force. (Trying to get him over the problem of "Last Cast Syndrome" where the caster uses mighty effort on the delivery cast.)
b. Adding more speed to his HAUL. (One of the functions of the haul being to diminish the needed force applied by the casting arm.....i.e. "sharing the work".)
4. Putting all this consciously together.
THEN -
5. Doing all of the above slowly, followed with ever increasing line speed.... each time with the candidate being satisfied only with nice tight loops.
6. We repeated all this having added a bit more line to his carry .... i.e. 1' to 2'.
7. Once he was able to do this with the added carry and with high line speed to the point that his loops didn't suffer ......
8. We added another foot or two of carry .... AND REPEATED THE WHOLE SCENARIO.
THAT WAS ALL FOR ONE SESSION. HE WENT HOME TO PRACTICE WITH A COPY OF BILL GAMMEL'S TAPE which I lent him.
Now, he knew just what to do and was very well motivated. Time for self teaching.
This candidate returned 11 days later and demonstrated 9 out of 10 absolutely perfect 90' casts with beautiful layouts ! At my suggestion, he had used a 4 lb. monofilament nail knot drawn down a bit snug, but not jammed tight on the fly line to mark the line carried. It was moved each time he perfected casts with a longer line. Once able to carry 60', he tightened it as his "working mark".
This allowed him to feel the knot with his line hand. Even if he missed it, as he let out more line, it would "click" in the guides which served as a signal to allow no more line to escape. Same principle as Lefty's "line bump" leading to the "Telecast" years ago .... but movable as his ability to carry more line advanced.
Caveats:
# As I learned from Bill Gammel, with casters who are not savvy MCI candidates capable of making good 70' plus casts, I start this method with the student carrying only about 30' - 35' of line and go from there. Sometimes it's necessary to back track once the loops begin to deteriorate when the line carry increases.
# I do coach MCI candidates with much longer sessions than I would use for most casting students. Most of these candidates come after having been CCI's for some time and following many months of intensive practice.
# If this candidate had demonstrated inability to make nice tight loops on his shorter casts, we'd have worked on that problem first.
# I, also, taught him something I learned from Steve Rajeff. The idea, when competition distance casting, is to never make your delivery cast until you have picked the perfect back cast to precede it. Sometimes this makes it necessary to make an extra back cast or two.
# Having this candidate delay his rotation for tighter forward loops was something he did anyway on his shorter casts. When he became "out of control" with his attempts at the longer casts this, along with several faults wasn't done.
Gordy
* TEACHING YOURSELF TO FLY CAST, Learning the Essentials, by Bill Gammel, 2002, Gammel Outdoor Services, P.O.Box 348, Highlands, Tx, 77562
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