"Pick-up" ("Lift") / 2 attachments

Walter &  Group.........

From Michael Jones:-  (The bold red italics are my highlighting of Mike's own words.)

Gordy:

Do you use the term "pick up" in your own teaching? I do, and it

describes a 'vertical' movement of the rod tip and subsequent lifting

of the line from the water prior to the beginning of the back cast

(early translation). I read in Borger and Wulff a 'diagonal' lift

from waist to forehead to teach a move that encompasses both what I

would consider a pick-up, and backcast.

I challenge this approach of teaching in that I find it:

1. Robs the cast of casting stroke length.

2. Shocks the rod too much & too early by virtue of increased

cohesion between line and water, resulting in an upward trajectory

(this can be very beneficial) that requires disciplined timing to

overcome in the subsequent forward cast.

3. It sure as heck is not the fundamental movement we end up using to

lift a distance pick-up, air resistant bass bug, heavily weighted

nymph rig, or shorter shooting head without having to strip line much

closer to the caster and do the roll cast pick-up (too much time &

energy).

To keep with Joan's terms, I would be interested in hearing about a

lifting move AND a loading move.

I have never understood exactly why Joan and Gary have arrived at this

teaching model, and I am curious what others think about the role of a

well executed 'pick-up' or 'lift' prior to the backcast???

Michael Jones

 

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Mike...

Great teaching question.

Be careful not to misinterpret this teaching of the, "lift" !  

In her schools, Joan is clear that this lift is actually part of the stroke ...... starting with the first rise of the rod tip, it is what she terms the LOADING MOVE.  Not at all a, "pickup or "lift" prior to the back cast.  Definitely part of the cast.  For many casts, even her, "POWER SNAP" has completed the stroke as the fly leaves the water.   Of course, to this may be added a drift move (or with the Borgers, a, LAY BACK.)  Those occur after the back cast is complete and, therefore, are not part of the cast, itself.

I highlighted in bold red italics the clause in your text which tells me you actually know this !

Many of us teach that the lift is much more efficient when done with the rod tip, not at "waist" level, but right at the surface of the water.  This yields maximum available stroke length and rod arc.

With regard to your # l. :  Since the lift is part of the stroke and rod arc, it can't diminish them.

  "         "      "     "    #2. :  This is exactly why we teach the pickup part of the stroke to be done as smooth acceleration, "starting slow and ending fast".  If we blast it out of the water, we have not done that and HAVE shocked both the rod and the water, spooking every fish in the pool in the process and producing a mess of a back cast.

Nowhere is this depicted better (in my opinion) than on Lefty Kreh's video, LESSONS WITH LEFTY ( A Reel Resources Production, 1997, (703) 683-5666) as he teaches Sarah Gardner (an expert master instructor who plays the part of a student) to make these moves.

One of the things in my, "bag of tricks" is the teaching of this lift from the water as the actual back cast in having the student demonstrate to himself how much better it works to do it smoothly .... then using the same principles of application of power as he goes airborne for false casting.

Gordy

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From Robert Shigley :-

Hi Gordy;

 

I can see why there are so few Masters. Perhaps you can provide definitive solutions and answers to each of the situations you mentioned. Also, where do I find Bruce Richards works? I only have his Modern Fly Lines book.

 

robert

 

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Robert....

 

Rest assured that any Master can come up with more than one solution to each of the situations I mentioned.

 

One of the article handouts attached to the Master Study Guide is by Bruce Richards on his brilliant, "Six Step Method" for diagnosing and solving casting faults.  Reading it will give you the basic idea of how it works.   Actually using it over a several year period with teaching and coaching fly casting students gives true depth of insight.

 

That's when you learn things like correcting only one fault at a time even if multiple errors exist.  We, also, learned to pick the fault which was most detrimental to the cast as the one to attack first.

 

When Tom White and I gave our Master's prep course, we went over all of this material during the three days of the course.   I'm certain that others have done the same thing ... such as Joe Libeu in Southern California.

 

Robert....  take the time to study the two attachments I included.  This is not nearly as advanced as the material for Master study, as these documents were prepared for CCI level candidates.  (Among other things, you will find info on the 6 - step method here.)  Dusty Sprague deserves the credit for heading the effort to get this done.

 

Also, you may wish to check out Mel Krieger's DVD,  FLYCASTING FAULTS AND FIXES. (Krieger Enterprises, Inc., melkrieger@xxxxxxx .)

 

A lot of this and other valuable info can be obtained by reading the articles from past editions of the LOOP, now available on line from the FFF office. (MUST study for MCCI candidates !)

 

Gordy

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