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Walter & Group...
>From Lefty Kreh:
Gordy,
I enjoy reading the comments the board members write. The last comment here was by Bill addressing loop size. I don't have a college degree so much of what is said I don't understand. But I do think there is third factor about loop size I never see mentioned.
When a large vertical loop is made—sometimes needed for fishing— something has to hold the loop up or support it—that something is energy..... has to come from the caster.
Lefty
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Lefty,
I think you already found it and described it. When we make a large loop we are throwing some of that energy "around in a circle" (Your words). That is energy placing the dome of that fat loop up against gravity. It has to come from force applied by the caster against gravity.
I did a little experiment after reading your message this morning..... went and made some casts with the rod upside down while leaning over the second story rail of my stilt house here in the Keys. Casting that way, gravity is acting on the fly leg of the loop which is no longer the, "top leg", in the opposite direction. I found that I had to cast with higher line speed to keep a tight loop. Why did that work? I think it is because by casting faster, gravity had less time to make the fly leg of the loop sag down toward the ground. When I tried to make a looooooonnnng cast that way, I couldn't maintain a tight loop. I think that was partly because even though I used high line speed, gravity, with that long cast had enough time to act that it opened my loop.
When great distance casters make a long back cast which sags a bit in the middle, they never have a collision as they would with a tailing loop. That apparent cross over of the loop legs I'm convinced is unavoidable if you get enough line back there as they do, because of gravity having time to act upon the line. I called that an "underslung loop" for lack of a better term. Maybe I should have called it a "gravity loop" or something like that.
I think even the scientific boys will agree that gravity is here to stay !
Gordy
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>From Rick Brown:
Gordy, I would like to comment on the ''natural caster'' question.
I have always been considered to be well coordinated and athletic. I began fly casting in my teens and became a reasonably proficient caster with no lessons or outside help whatsoever. I fished with many people and guides and always seemed to do about as well as anyone else, or better.
At one point, I made the decision to improve my casting and the obvious solution was PRACTICE and that is what I did. It soon became evident that I was not improving no matter how many hours that I put in. I made the decision to take some lessons and that is when I hooked up with Al Crise which led to Keith Richard and Tom Jindra and latter the CCI.
The point is that no matter how gifted a person is, a fly caster will only progress so far until he/she learns the basics and builds from that.
best wishes,
Rick
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[GH] Rick,
Agree. Casting with and after working with a good coach yields the best background for practice with a purpose.
Gordy
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>From Frank Harford:
Gordy
There is a section on SexyLoops devoted to casting games that are helpful when the usual practice routines get dull .
Frank Harford
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[GH] Frank,
Yes. Also the casting games held during Conclaves (Fairs).
We can set up our own "games".... and many of us have done that. Some examples:
- Placing a tight loop through a suspended hula-hoop.
- Trying to smoothly pickup as much line as you can from a pond with minimal water disturbance.
- Lefty Kreh's casting a tethered plastic bottle from a rod tip.
- Lefty's bright gilded mouse trap. (Try to trip the trap with a weighted fly.)
- Trying to hit a moving target as it is drawn across the grass or water.
- Lefty's version of that ... using a fake "fish" with a patch of Velcro on its head using a yarn fly:
"Gordy—I think you'll like the Office Rod—it is especially nice for inside clinics. I don't know if Rick sells them but when we designed the little rod we had made some neoprene cutouts about 10 inches long of fish with a stamp-size piece of Velcro glued to the head. If you threw the line properly the fuzzy yarn end could catch on the Velcro—kids loved it and some older kids did too—also taught accuracy casting. If you need one of these I have two or three and drop a cutout in the mail to you.
Lefty"
- Tom White and I set up a casting "game" so that the caster had mangrove bushes about 5' behind him. The idea was to use all different methods to place a fly out as far as possible. (modified Spey moves, various ways of doing the "Steeple cast", Snake rolls, etc.)
- Trying various techniques to make a weighted fly land on a pond with the least disturbance. (Such as using Joan Wulff's, "upward curving power snap" to make the loop travel out and unroll in such a way that at the end the weighted fly would go briefly in an upward direction and then fall gently to the water .... etc., etc.....
- Flipping a tight or even an out-of-plane loop under a door or big board placed horizontally on various supports .... ever lower and lower. Sort of like the Caribbean "limbo stick".
- Placing a back cast loop accurately through a small "hole" in the tree branches behind the caster.
- Placing a fly around a tree trunk to a target, right and left using curve casts.
- Clipping the tops of the grass with ever faster horizontal casts without crashing.
- Placing a fly accurately to targets behind you on either side starting with a forward cast which, before landing, was converted to a snap cast. (Floyd Dean was expert at doing that and showed me how to do it. If I live to be 100, I'l never be as accurate as he was with it !!)
- I recall an on the spot game set up at the Idaho Falls Conclave. There was a line of bushes behind the casters. Standing midway between the bushes and the Hotel, the idea was to make a back cast which was just short of or above the bushes followed by placement of the forward cast up onto the first floor balcony, then the second floor, then the third, etc. Among several of the CBOG's and MCI's who tried it, I recall that only one reached the 4th level balcony.
- No end to the things we can do ! Its all good practice. Turned into FUN STUFF!
Gordy
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>From Jim Dowd,
The masters study group has become a "lifeline" that keeps me engaged in the MCI practice.
Its value is huge.
Thank you very much!
Cordially,
Jim Dowd
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Jim,
Others have told me that, too. I very much appreciate your thanks.
This is why, though I'm now in my 83rd year, I didn't retire from hosting it after thinking I might a couple of years ago.
Someday, though, I will. Then I'll be looking for someone or a group among you to take over so it doesn't die. I hope some of you will give that some thought.
Gordy
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