Bob Rumpf on Roll Casting

Hi Gordy & group,

 

                           In regards to roll casting on the grass, as Gordy indicates, there is a lot to be said about where the line is placed prior to the cast. When I want to make 50 to 60 foot roll casts on the grass, I make sure that all of the line is behind me in as straight and narrow a loop (laying on the grass) as possible, with only about one and a half rod lengths of line in front of me. Without the "stick" or anchor the surface tension of the water provides, the vast majority of the load must be created by the energy exerted against the weight of the line itself. I make sure the line has stopped moving, because some people would not accept a "live line" cast. I start with the rod tip almost on the ground behind me, and with a steady slowly accelerating forward stroke. load the rod until the tip has moved to a point past vertical and is in line with the target. I then make the roll-over and hit the butt section very hard with what I like to think of as (Doug Swisher's) micro-wrist. This involves a super quick hand surge incorporated with an immediate dead stop. It really sings the line out and I have no trouble making over 60 feet from either side. It takes practice to get your loop back where you want it (with very little or hopefully no slack), and also to make the super quick application of power with the dead stop, but the results are well worth the practice. In the roll cast situation, to haul successfully, the haul has to be timed to perfectly match this power surge. It always boils down to the same thing, practice, practice, practice.

 

Regards,

 

Bob Rumpf

 

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Bob....

 

Ah...yes.  The exact quote from Doug Swisher is, "microsecond wrist".

 

Good point about the loading of the rod.  With short roll casts done on water, most of the load comes from the surface tension on the, "anchor" (The fly/leader/line on the water in front of the caster.)  With distance roll casting.... particularly when done on grass or a Gym floor, most of the load comes from the inertia of the loop of line behind.

 

You are right about that timing.  We often teach that the forward stroke on the roll cast is nothing more than a perfectly executed forward casting stroke.

 

That's true, up to a point.

 

In truth, the timing is a bit more critical with the roll cast because the spike of power at the end of the stroke is steeper than that for a standard forward cast. This has been depicted graphically in Jason Borger's book, "....THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING" p. 156.  Here, he has charted the angular velocity of the rod butt for each cast in figure 9-3b.  One simple way of looking at this is, "longer loading move/shorter power snap".

 

Gordy