AWAY / Ally / "Off hand"

I WILL BE AWAY FOR ABOUT 3 WEEKS .... THEN BACK TO OUR STUDY GROUP DELIBERATIONS ........ Gordy

Hi Gordy,

Re your comment “COMMENT: As many of you know, Ally has spent most of his adult life as a professional fly casting teacher of highest caliber. This explains how he was able to pass his MCCI exam one day after his CCI.

THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MERE MORTALS LIKE ME ! Near as I can figure from the responses, an average time between exams was 3 yrs.” Gordy"

Firstly thanks for the complement! Like you I believe that we will die learning fly fishing, there is always more! As for the 1 day between exams I think that is better understood if you say in my case that I was probably 40 years late in taking the tests. For me the pressure may have been greater and I prepared for the test to the best of my ability in isolation because I had no prior experience with the FFF tests. I produced written answers to all the questions and learned as much as I could about anything and especially stuff that I was unfamiliar with (thanks to John Breslin for assistance). I knew that terminology and teaching strategies differed between Scotland and USA and tried to context everything. Fortunately all went well during my tests and I passed and I put that down to 40 years and thousands of hours on the water, experimenting, analysing, teaching and most importantly fishing.

My advice for those practicing to become MCI is to get out and fly fish as many ways as possible, cast as many ways as possible and try to make every cast a demonstration cast. Attempt challenging situations and be self critical. Be prepared – to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail! How I wish I had been part of Gordy’s group beforehand I am so grateful to be able to share the knowledge and opinions that the group produces.

Best wishes,

Ally Gowans

See my web sites http://www.letsflyfish.com and http://www.flyfish-scotland.com

2009 Spey Casting and Salmon Fishing Schools at The Kenmore Hotel March 20/22, April 17/19 and June 12/14. Trout fly fishing and fly casting school "Tackling Trout" at The Kenmore Hotel May 15/16/17, 2009.See my web sites for more details of schools.

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I'd like to share an experience with you.

As most of you know, there is a task requirement on the new MCCI exam which will go into effect Jan, '09. This is the overhead cast and a basic roll cast using the "off hand".

CBOG's and Masters who test should all be able to do this, since it gives an advantage in teaching those who are opposite handed to their instructor. Also, most of us feel that we won't ask a candidate to perform a task we can't do well.

I have never been very good at casting with my left hand, since I'm quite right handed. I had, however, (over the years) learned finger and hand dexterity with both hands in my 46 years of practicing surgery ..... so I figured I'd learn left hand casting. After lots of practice, I found I could do it..... though I'll never be as competent as with my primary (right) hand.

THIS MORNING I CAUGHT MY FIRST TARPON USING MY "OPPOSITE" LEFT HAND FOR ALL MANEUVERS, BOTH CASTING, RETRIEVING AND HOOKING THE FISH !

Gordy

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Here is a question I posed for Ally Gowans:

Ally....

1.) What is the PLANET CAST ??????

2.) I didn't know the Greeks and/or Romans ever came out with anything written or depicted on fly casting. Are you acquainted with any particular source ????

3.) As I'm certain you know, discussions as to the earliest known written account of anything near fly casting usually start with Dame Juliana Berner.... (???)

Best,

Gordy

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Ally's answer as he helps educate us all :

Gordy,

I thought that cast would get a few rises!

Quote fro a letter written by Alexander Grant to Captain Tommy Edwards dates 23 August 1933:

"Now some observations on what I call and mean by practical fly casting. When casting on the Thames I called my cast a modification of the 'Spey' cast. Critical observers there called it the 'Planet 'cast. Arthur D. Crawshay (Silver Grey) called it perpetual motion, for the simple reason it was done with a tight line from end to end and not one atom of time lost in its delivery. I was unconcerned what they called it and allowed them to call it what they chose. In any case it is the natural and practical cast, adaptable under whatever conditions a fisher may happen to find himself at the waterside, with trees or rocks in close proximity at his side or behind him and getting out a correct line, longer or shorter according to the position, and, if the obstructions are four or five yards away, he has full freedom, as though on the top of a mountain, for any length of line he is able to execute and, with the slightest movement of his feet to the right or left, without putting any twist in the body of man or rod, the line is gathered elliptically to the centre and delivered straight and direct with full freedom at any angle the current may require for the fly to fish instantly it lands on the water."

Strangely now this is a useful teaching aid. A planet of course orbits a body and the orbit can be eccentric just as the tip ring of a fly rod orbits above your head (and to the side!) when you make a dynamic form of roll cast. If you tell people to imagine a horizontal ceiling and describe an elliptical path on the ceiling before rising slightly and delivering the cast forward they can very often grasp the mechanics of Spey casting. Try it, just make the planet (tip ring) orbit and go off at a tangent! Bet that it works first time if the timing is right (not too fast for the orbit but as fast as you like for the tangent always accelerating, always smooth).

Use of artificial flies, quote from Graham Turner in his book "Fishing Tackle a Collectors Guide" ISNB 0-7063-6839-8:

"The classical civilisations of Greece and Rome followed and respectively brought creative genius and stability to the world. The artificial fly was part of that creativity and was being used in both countries two thousand years ago. It is impossible to say with certainty which country should be credited with being the first, because the evidence available from each comes from contemporary writers. One was a Roman satirist poet called Marcus Valerius Martialis (AD 40-102AD) who is usually referred to as Martial. He was born in Spain and went to Rome when he was about twenty years of age. His famous lines of importance were - 'Namique quis rescit A vidum vorata decipi scarum musca,' which translated means - 'Who has not seen the scarus rise. Decoyed and killed by fraudful flies.' The other writer was a man called Aelian (80 AD to 140 AD) who was born an Italian but learned the Greek language so proficiently that he was able to write books in the language. These books became the accepted authority on the subject of natural history. He described the ecology of fish and flies and the construction of an artificial fly in the finest detail, which remarkably was one of only two recordings in fourteen hundred years, until Dame Juliana Bernes described twelve flies in Treatyse of Fysshynge wjrth an Angle published in England in 1496. The credit for the discovery of the Aelian text must be given to Stephen Oliver, who pointed out this important passage in his Scenes and Recollections of Fly Fishing, first published in 1834."

If the fly was being used it had somehow to be cast, how and with what we don't know.

Hope that this is helpful.

Best wishes,

Ally Gowans

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Ally..... Thanks ! A great deal I hadn't known.

Gordy