Question - weeds / Mel

Walter & Group........

I posed this seemingly oversimplified question for a reason.

Sometimes, when giving an MCI exam, I'll do that to give the candidate lots of latitude to answer.  The answer to what seems like such a simple fishing question can tell me a great deal about his/her actual experience in handling and teaching mundane everyday solutions to real world problems not often discussed in the fly casting literature or courses.

Read the answers from members of our Group and you will see what I mean.

Gordy

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Question:  Your student asks you for various means of getting weeds off his fly as he fishes in waters with lots of surface weed growth.  What do you tell him ?

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Answer from Rene Hesse:

Short answer:

 

Roll the line out in a very small loop and 'snap' the fly out of the water as the loop reaches the fly.

 

Longer answer:

 

 Rather than make a roll cast with the big 'D' loop, try just lifting the rod tip up and keep it in front of your body.  Make a quick power snap and send the small tight loop down the line.  When the loop gets to the leader, make a quick pick-up on the back cast.

 

Oh but wait there's more!

 

Try false casting and (away from the fish) clip the top of the water with the fly to pull the moss off..

 

If you need to get the fly to hand.  point the rod 180 degrees from the fly, let the line come to your line hand, do a roll cast so the line slips through your line hand and the leader slips to your hand.  Tuck your rod under your arm and pull the leader in to clean the fly with your hands. 

 

Another way to get the line in quick is by lifting the rod up and back down quickly one time.  That  creates a loop that goes up and pulls the fly back to your hand. Caution should be taken because that fly will be coming right at you. (wide brim hat, glasses and sun gloves make this much safer)

 

Rene

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This is a Master quality answer. 

 

 It tells me that the "candidate" has real experience in fly fishing and that he has more than one way of solving a real world problem in his bag of tricks.  He starts with a SHORT ANSWER and then is fully prepared to expand with a detailed one.

 

Let's say that his student didn't understand his answers.  He might then go to a simple analogy in suggesting that this move is similar to the way we flicked towels at each other's backsides in the locker room at the gym when we were kids.  With the fly line, the move is very much like that.  I'd follow with a demo and then have the student do and practice it.  We might even move to Tom White's:  ADVANTAGES (Gets soft weed off in a heartbeat.)   and DISADVANTAGES (You will spook every fish in the pool if you don't do it well away from the area where they may be ...... and you stand the risk of damaging a less than well tied fly.)

 

If the student wanted more information on Rene's last paragraph, this could lead to teaching the SNAP PICKUP and the SNAP CAST.  (Ref: THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING, Jason Borger, p. 252-253.)

 

 

 

Gordy

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Jim Penrod offers a two part "SHORT ANSWER" as he touts one simple method of getting the weeds off and then starts the ball rolling in the direction of preventing the problem in the first place.  His second sentence dilutes the impact of the first just a bit.:

 

With weed on :

 

Roll cast pick up and then drop the fly again.

 

 If being on the surface is not that important use a sinking fly
or even a sink tip with weighted fly to avoid the weeds.
Jim

 

One neat trick in taking oral exams is to softly lead your examiners into asking the next question to which you know the answer well.  I might have answered it this way:

 

"Roll cast pickup and then drop the fly again.  That is one of many methods."

 

Your examiners are, then, likely to have you expand on it.

 

Gordy

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From Lewis Hinks:

 

 

    Weeds: An ounce of prevention..... Use a weed guard on your fly such as a mono loop, ues flies have have an upturned hook (unside down, if you will), cast to the clear areas in the weeds, fishing those and pull fly out before tangling, and a I have used several forceful false casts to 'shake' the weeds and other plant material off in the past.

 

Lewis

 

Lewis's answer is in no way wrong and offers some good advice..... however, it is a bit weak because he starts with prevention, which was not the essence of the question.  Much better for him to have started with his last statement and then added his ounce of prevention afterward or even to have waited until his examiner asked it.

 

CANDIDATES SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL TO LISTEN TO THE QUESTION AND FORMULATE AN ANSWER TO ITS MAIN POINT.

 

Gordy

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From Al Crise about Mel :

 

 

Howdy Gordy

  Thanks for the tribute to Mel. There are a few on the FFF site too

 I met Mel in 1999 at Gatlinburg TN Conclave. What a gentile man. Nola got to meet him in Mountain Home AR a few years latter. They to struck it off well and became friends. I would kid Nola that her Boyfriend would be at this conclave. That would ensure I got to go.

 I will miss Mel, his Tilly hat and mink fly. I too lost a friend. instructor mentor. I too have a bag of Talismans.

 A quote from Mel as he walked off from teaching the youth camp at SOC conclave.

 

 "Remember it is Stop Stop not Flop Flop"

 

 

ol Al

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Al....  One of many of Mel's great teaching "word pictures" !  Shows that Mel will be teaching long after he has been gone.

 

Gordy