Walter & Group........
I asked Jim Valle to send us a critique of the Two Handed Casting Course which Al Buhr gave in New Jersey . This is his response. (A lot to be learned.) :-
Gordy,
The Spey Workshop (2 day) and THCI Workshop (1 day)
Wow! About describes it! I am still whirling with all the new stuff.
First Al and I spent about 6 days together.
Went to see Floyd who is doing very well and between Al and I we found a way to adapt a Spey rod for Floyd who was making some good distance, Floyds loops are unbelievably tight! Even with a two hand rod!!!
We did get to do a little fishing, found a few Stripers and Al caught his first. We will have a few stories to share at the Conclave.
Al is an amazing caster, consistent extremely tight loops, single or two handed. Al gave me a crash course the day before the class on what and how we were going to teach. I learned so much about diagnosing two hand casting faults … Al can look at the cork only and describe the resultant cast, amazing diagnostician… Can’t tell you how many times I heard …
“nice sea-saw”, “good top hand” (meaning not so good for a two handed rod), “Nice Tail!!!”
A little humiliating….But I learned... most of the time he was pretty gracious… ! (actually he was kind)
Overall for anyone who wants to learn to cast tighter loops take a two handed and do about 6 continuous 80’ overhead false casts, everything gets magnified ….. and it ain’t so easy!
Al is very insistent that the single and two handed technique should be the same, he can do it… I am still learning.
We debated many principles and my thoughts at this point are although the principles of the casts (single or two handed) are the same, the two handed is a multidimensional (multi-plane) cast with various accelerations and decelerations. Lots of thinking to do on this but when you start playing around with directional momentums in different planes and then add the concept of different momentums you move to another level of thinking. (Now I have to go back and re-read Mac Brown’s, “Casting Angles” …. Heavy!! And I am just getting started … look in the middle of his book at the Torque Twist….again magnified with a two handed … but bring your rod forward with just translation and then twist it…How that cast accelerates and jumps out there is just amazing! I am still psyched !!! MUCH more later as I explore and discover this dimension.
What’s to be learned:
For the Spey Workshop
Al wrote his book on Two Handed Casting with the student in mind. The book is a progression of steps in the order they should be learned, one builds on the other. The book is a learning manual and intended to be… so I would recommend not to just read the book but to work through the steps and as you learn move on to the next step.
We had an interesting mix of 6 students. (Some CI’s, CI candidates and new Spey Casters)
Started the course with very brief explanation of equipment, stance and grip.
Did a very valuable Simon Says exercise without lines or tip sections…very impressive from a teaching perspective.
Switch Casts, ..small COD Single Spey, Double Spey, Snake Rolls etc.
Lots of hard casting for 2 days … few aches and pains..
One quick moment worth mentioning, and it regards instructing..
One gentleman had a horrific problem with “Top Handing”, it actually approached a violent move, wild erratic application of power. He could tie some of the best knots in his leader and fly line and admitted he had problems with tails in single handed casts. But he had a great attitude and was willing to learn. (if you look in al’s book you will find the description of the “pull”, as we have all discussed before if we push with the thumb ie lead the stroke… we end up with large loops, with a long rod everything is magnified and the cast just won’t go). Well top handing is the issue and it is critical that the lower hand drive the stroke to be effective. We had each made numerous attempts to resolve the fault but it just wasn’t connecting. I finally just went back to my experience and stood directly in front of the student leaning out for the pick up an sweep and then leaning back in with my hands crossed above my head only a few inches from the reel, forcing the student to pull down without thrusting his top hand forward, a little bit of concern about the reel and my teeth… but it worked. Al thought it was great… but a bit suicidal!
What’s to be learned:
No matter what teaching situation you get in… Rely on your experience and adapt!
The THCI Workshop
Start by qualifying your line, that means… You will make whatever cast you want, casting to 80’, that will determine your hold point for the entire test, throw a bunch of squiggles with a total of 5 or 10 feet of extra line and you will have to cast that extra 5 or 10’ throughout all the tasks. Tough … yes .. but you have to admit it says a lot about a candidate's line control and casting ability.
Overhead casts … continuous false casts at your hold distance. Tight and wide loops…Try this as I said above, the path must be straight and the lower hand must apply the power, top handing will eventually destroy the loops, etc…
Single Spey If you use the proper rod loading technique FROM THE VERY FIRST MOVEMNET OF THE ROD, the load will be established in the butt of the rod. Maintain the load through constant tension. Don’t and the cast will suffer.
Double Spey is a bit easier until you understand the finer points of the proper cast. When you drop the anchor it is not just a matter of close, you see it is expected that the fly pop out of the water in the same plane as the line not 2’ upstream of the “D” and 180 degree forward cast. Frankly I thought this was a bit much, until I understood it … that little bit of 90 degree pull does take a lot out of the cast.
Now I don’t want to give the wrong impression I think (or maybe hope) there is some latitude, but there is no arguing about the fact that proper technique requires much less effort, to the point of being totally effortless.
From there we did Snap T,Z, C and a few more.
Circles and Spirals
Torque Twists
And all of this has single hand applications.
One aside - Al had previously written a little book on “How to Design Fly Lines” …I recommend it! (have to contact Al).
His core centers on designing lines for the particular rod and fishing situation. Al would think nothing of sitting down and chopping up some lines to get exactly what he needed for a particular situation … Like Striper fishing. Point is his knowledge and attitude about altering fly lines really demonstrates his understanding.
Well you asked!
Hope this helps.
Jim V