Essentials / Substance

Gordy, I must be in a coma. Who is Steve Hartman?

When I think of champion distance casters, Rick Hartman and Steve Rajeff come to mind. Rick Hartman uses a lot of translational movement, too.

Is this guy from across the pond?

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Randy .... My error. I happen to have a friend named Steve Hartman and I must have had his name in my brain.

Of course, I meant RICK HARTMAN. He's the caster.

Thanks for pointing this out.

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From Rene Hesse:

I'm glad Lewis questioned the SSSPP (my way of remembering Gammel's essentials). That gave me more methods of remembering teachers and acronyms---TAS...STAND...

When I give the students a hand out, I deviated from his order. The written hand out I use is based on the

S-get the SLACK out....

S-go in a STRAIGHT LINE....

P- POWER-smooth acceleration....

That being the basis of a class and study material I then give them a 'SOUND' to remember it by WHILE

THEY MAKE THE CAST. You can imagine (hard to write) starting out with a soft 's' and increasing to a

louder 'S' and putting a hard "P" at the end.....ssSPP!

As you have said, people learn in different ways. The 'sound' of the cast is just another way I use to

remember and teach the Essentials of a fly cast. I haven't changed the text, just the order and gave it a

You brought up a great question about deviating from the essentials and the thought of using a tailing loop

as a cast. I just about dropped my coffee at work when the thought of using a tailing loop could be a

'good cast'. I grabbed my micro fly rod and went down the hall in my office, and started shooting

tailing loops 'under' chairs and tables...............THIS IS FANTASTIC!

By tilting the rod to the side the loop can stay higher than the 'low branch' and the fly can scoot under and

in to the bank-----with out a knot--WOW-it works!

Now if someone says that I tailed a loop, I can say, 'No that's a trick cast i'm working on'.

You have educated and inspired me again Gordy.

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I don't claim to have thought of this myself. I tried it after seeing it done by Chico Fernandez, years ago. I saw Lefty do it, too. Rod Harrison also showed it to me when fishing in Australia.

I used the name, "Maloney Cast" only after reading about it in Jason Borger's book, THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING, p. 76. (Michael Maloney is author of: POCKET GUIDE TO FLY CASTING. He's known for his writings on rod balance.)

We can add some other ways to cast to advantage by violating an "essential" or two. For example:

Last week, I had a situation where there were dense weeds about two rod lengths from my skiff in the direction of tailing fish. If I had stuck to the dictum of "slack must be kept to a minimum" by making my back cast pickup with my rod tip close to the water (to avoid the slack made by a high rod tip with the line hanging down in a "belly") I'd have been picking up weeds. So, to avoid this problem, I made the violation by hi-sticking at my pickup. Worked OK.

I'm sure we could come up with many others.

This in no way denegrates the concept of the essentials being the substance of efficient fly casting. A wise man once said, "The exceptions prove the rule."

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From Walter Simberski :

Gordy,

I was beginning to think you were having email problems again.

With respect to the Hartman Hop I think you mean Rick Hartman rather than Steve Hartman.

Some thoughts on deviating from the essentials:

Slack - when making an underpowered curve cast I can underpower the cast by using less power than

needed for the line to completely unroll. Another method I've found for underpowering the cast

is to release the line with my line hand just before I make my stop. Allowing slack into the cast

at this point robs the cast of any energy it would have received from the rod unloading and this

can be used to cast an underpowered curve. By using a "gentle stop" I can combine a curving

rod tip path with the early release/shoot to throw a very pronounced curve at short distances.

Slack also contributes to how the line piles in a pile cast.

Power - agree with your reasoning about the use of the word correct.

While a change of power from one cast to the next will change the cast (e.g. an underpowered

curve cast vs an overpowered curve) the amount of power applied and the timing of the application

of power is essential to achieving a desired result.

Timing - We can apply similar reasoning as with power to timing. If we think of timing as the pause

after the stop and that the purpose of the pause is to allow the line to unroll then it is independent of

how fast we wave the rod (moving the rod faster means it takes less time for the same amount of line to

unroll but this is cadence, not timing). We could then say that we change the timing

of the cast to achieve a snap because the line may not be fully unrolled when we begin the snap.

On the other hand if we look at timing as the point of time at which the line is correctly positioned

to begin the next phase of the cast (regardless of the type of cast being performed) then it falls

under the same category as power application. We could use a shorter pause when performing

a snap and we could use a longer pause when we want to change line trajectory but the timing

must be "correct" in order to accomplish the desired result.

Path - I think of this as, "line follows rod tip". To make a straight line cast with tight loops use a nearly

straight path. Deviating from slp results in a different loop shape and can be used to change the

presentation (e.g. straight line presentation vs curve).

Arc - This is a bit of a stretch but Steve Rajeff uses overhang to control turnover (Nature of Fly Casting p 240 -

241). We use the _expression_, "short cast, short stroke - long cast, long stroke", or more correctly, "short cast,

narrow arc - long cast, wide arc". The reasons for this are to help maintain slp commensurate with the

amount of line being carried and to assist with the smooth application of power but if our purpose is to

change turnover regardless of distance being cast then we could change the amount of line being

carried in order to change the amount of overhang and this would require us to change our arc in

order to maintain slp. Again, there is a subtle difference between saying "short cast, narrow arc"

and "early turnover, narrow arc" but there is a difference. I could apply this turnover principle to a

tuck cast or preparing for a check haul for example.

Stop - I view adding stop as a sixth essential unnecessary because the stop results by applying the

correct amount of power at the correct time. When the rod is in motion I stop it by applying

power in the direction opposite its current motion. I feel that it's important for students to understand

that the stop is not an instantaneous event - it requires a smooth application of power just as the

casting stroke leading up to the stop does.

Cheers

Walter