----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 8:27
AM
Subject: 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