May 29, 2024

Fly Casting: Measures, Weights and Economy of Effort

We fly cast with a long flexible lever, the effect of which is to amplify the movement of our rod hand – for gain or loss in the (fly line) outcomes of our movements. We get an added bonus from desirable movement of the rod hand and we get extra penalties from undesirable movement of that hand. 

What is desirable and what isn’t depends on the type of cast and the intended outcome(s) we seek to produce. However, for the purposes of this post let’s assume we are intending to make a medium length overhead cast using a basic or foundation stroke. Let’s also assume we are using a nine foot, 5wt rod. I’ll start with the rod.

Just for the heck of it I wanted to get an indicative measure of the relative distances travelled by my rod hand and my rod tip. To do this I knelt down in my backyard and, rotating my upper body while leaning over into a position much like a standing cast, I stuck a nail in the ground about where my hand finished on a pantomimed back cast and another where the forward cast stroke ended. My tape measure said they were 430mm apart.

Using the rod hand backcast nail as my reference I next marked the back cast rod tip position and then its position at the end of the forward cast. The tip had “travelled” 2790mm or nearly 7 times the distance travelled by my hand. To be clear this exercise was intended to render indicative results and not exact measurements of an actual cast which allowed for rod bend which decreases and then increases the rod effective length during a cast. The point is that the amplification of hand movement is extremely significant. I know we know this in a general way but I’ll bet the actual multiple raises a few eyebrows. 

On to weights. The first thirty feet of a standard 5wt fly line should weigh about 9 grams. Let’s call it a 5wt double taper and estimate that when we carry sixty feet of line we are towing about 18 grams of line. Let’s broaden the picture to put that in another throwing context. If I was tasked with making an accurate throw to a target 20m away with either a table tennis ball or a golf ball I would choose the golf ball. Guessing you would make the same choice. With the golf ball I could do it using a variety of throwing movements from underhand to overhand to side arm. (FWIW I can still throw a golf ball a helluva lot further than I can cast a fly line.) With the table tennis ball I’d be limited to a carefully executed overhand throw and even then I might not make the distance without wind assistance.

A golf ball is about the same size of a table tennis ball. The golf ball should weigh around 46g and the table tennis ball should weigh about 2.7g. A golf ball has 17 times the weight of a table tennis ball. Thirty feet of my 5wt DT floating line weighs about as much as 3.3 table tennis balls and so 60 feet of that line weighs as much as 6.6 of the same balls. 

So, when we set out to make an accurate fly cast, out to say 20m, every 10cm (4”) of rod hand movement produces about 70cm (28”) of rod tip movement. To make the cast we are throwing the equivalent of about 5 or 6 table tennis balls. The margin for error is pretty small and we all know from experience that as the cast length increases the margin for error gets smaller. 

Putting this small weight and highly amplified distance into a movement context should help explain why the answer to meeting the demands of getting it right lie in doing some things pretty counterintuitive to what throwing balls and stones has taught us. The primary counterintuitive thing is to use less effort rather than more to throw further. 

We need to optimise the extent to which we tow a straight line in straight lines (mechanics) and to do that we need to move as accurately as possible. To do that we need to slow down our movements because we move more accurately when we move slower that is, when we exert less effort.  If I snatch a glass of beer off the bar and drive it toward my mouth the result will be lots of spilled beer – a clumsy mess. A friendly observer in Oz would probably say, “Shit mate. Take it easy.” Over powering a fly cast produces the same outcome and I offer the same friendly advice to all willing to listen – myself included.

Both the distance amplification of the fly rod and the light weight of a fly line permit and demand that we slow down our casting movements. That means using less effort. We can apply X amount of accelerating Force using strokes of different lengths – short stroke equals more effort and longer strokes equal less. Playing around with minimum effort/power casting drills can be fun and informative. 

Efficient movement to produce mechanically efficient fly casts is the end game. Mastery of a movement is achieved and demonstrated by the removal of all superfluous effort.

March 25, 2024

Effort, Distance and Conceptual Frameworks for Casting

Sorry folks, no how-to content in this one. It’s just me reflecting on how we think and talk about fly casting. 

Rather than trying to make and take analytical points I want to put up a few thoughts and questions which will rise or fall where they may. For those familiar with my fly casting journey – research, theory and practice – not much of what follows will come as a great surprise.

Starting with something relatively uncontroversial I’d wager that most casting teachers would agree the most common problems experienced by their students (and lots of anglers who aren’t anybody’s student) are over powering and over rotation. The two problems are rarely seen apart implying that they are causally related. My guess then is that over powering a cast frequently (if not invariably) causes over rotation. Too much effort produces too much rotation. The reverse seems unlikely – that over rotation causes over powering. Keep those thoughts handy as I leap to the next stage.

Distance casting has a huge influence in the fly casting world. It’s almost literally the elephant in the room.  I’ll pan away from tackle design and marketing to ask why casting further is such a pre-occupation. It once was for me too. The logic seems to be that casting further requires and demonstrates improved skill. If I can cast a long way that means I’m a good caster – doesn’t it? If longer casts necessarily imply more skill then it’s a short step to assuming that the longest casting is performed by the best casters. Thus casting a long way becomes a demonstration of casting authority – knowledge and expertise implied by performance.  If the passage of most casting threads on the forums I (still) occasionally visit are any guide, then the allocation of authority, express and functional, generally follows this road.

As has happened often in my life, I found myself on a different road with a different outlook. My deviation prompts me to offer two questions for your consideration.

What advantages and disadvantages come from the assumption that greater distance is the primary objective and Key Performance Indicator of our fly casting?

What would happen if the focus shifted from absolute length to relative effort?

February 23, 2024

Practice Regime Update 4.0

Just to let you know I’ve updated the Practice page again, this time after reading and writing about Fly Casting As Movement. I’ve deliberately introduced more play, more variability and greater ease with, and reliance upon, trial and error. Most significantly, however, the focus has sharpened on doing more with less, on eliminating superfluous effort as the key objective and means of improvement.

I’ve also incorporated a couple of new things including teaching myself to cast with the non dominant (right) hand and using progressively longer PUALDs, out to maximum distance. Among other things this helps with extending sustainable carry and allows for cognitive input into the effort profile of the next stroke.

The incremental regime changes, now four of them, don’t represent a departure from anything I wrote previously about structured and mindful practice. The principles haven’t changed. What I do to implement them has changed. Indeed, the fact of repeated changes is evidence of adherence. Change supports mindfulness and promotes play and control through variation.

February 13, 2024

Plus Ca Change

Following on from my previous post about future directions for the site I have been busy. Existing pages have been re-edited, mostly proof editing.  Earlier posts about Movement have been put together as a new page. The homepage has been amended and a new bit added which sets up Mechanics and Movement as the bookends of my learning journey (so far!) thus providing, by way of introduction, a summary of the story the site aims to tell.

Rather than consolidate the whole thing into a “book” form I’ve made changes I think will provide greater and sufficient narrative continuity without altering the links to all the bits and pieces.  A lot of visitors are clinking on links to particular parts rather than to the home page so I’m trying not to mess them around too much.

I’m also investigating a new theme which includes facility for drop down menus. I tell you this for several reasons. As my subscribers you are best placed to know if things aren’t working properly after the change and will hopefully let me know of any problems. Everything fits in the current theme menu, just, so if nothing better comes along it could stay as it is. However, the menu is too busy for my tastes. Lastly, and to be honest, my level of tech savvy makes big changes a big deal so a bit of teeth gritting is probably on the horizon. Wish me luck.

December 30, 2023

Where To From Here?

Earlier this month I got back from an exceptional trip to Tasmania – the bush camping and the fishing were both deeply restorative. To my considerable delight I found that my practice casting was pretty well integrated with my fishing casting. As always there are a few things I want to refine and doubtless some others I will want to learn.

Overall, however, the fly casting objectives set over the past 5 years have been met. New objectives are needed or new directions for this site will have to be found. I’m open to ideas and happy to discuss them. Please use the contact link if you have suggestions.

If nothing bold and new comes along I might consolidate existing pages and posts into something with more narrative continuity – more bookish and less blogish. What I won’t do is make stuff up as though the journey continued as before. That would depart from several of my core values for the site which will remain untouched. Something has changed, however, and I need to process the change.

Best wishes for your fishing and casting in the New Year.

October 5, 2023

Practical Ideas for Fly Casting Practice : Part 2

We have all heard about the Straight Line Path (SLP). Physics and common sense tell us that it is most efficient to apply force to something in a straight line if we want to move it in one particular direction. 

If we optimise the amount of force applied in a straight line we optimise the efficiency of our casting. Combine that with slack minimisation and we get “use less effort to cast in straight lines with straight lines”.  Simple and fundamental to efficient casting.

Tracking

The efficiency of the straight line applies in several ways. From a practical point of view, and especially for any overhead cast, we need to consider tracking  – the extent we make the rod travel from back to front or front to back in a straight line ie. 180degrees. How good is our tracking? Three ways to find out.

The simplest form of tracking exercise is using a straight reference line on a structure and to move the rod along it in slow motion watching what happens. A string stretched between two trees at the appropriate height will do the same job. 

Alternatively we can cast beside a straight line on the ground and see how the fly line lays out in relation to it – for both back casts and forward casts. The shape of the line on the ground gives us a clue about the shape of the movement which produced it.

Here’s something a little different. Watch yourself slow motion casting in front of a mirror. I don’t need anything in my casting hand but anything from a pencil to a butt section would do.  Go through each of the casting stances you use and watch where your rod hand goes. I’m fortunate enough to able stand in an open doorway with a mirror in front of me. The door frame, mirror and my knuckles show me what is and isn’t straight about my hand path. Big lesson? Rotate your torso first and then extend your arm. In biomechanical terms it’s the proximal to distal thing, making sure to get the first out of the way of the second.

The SLP and Rotation

Again this is about optimisation. The longer we can keep the rod tip moving in as straight a line as possible the more efficiently we cast. If we make the rod tip dip below or rise above the SLP we lose efficiency. If we make it do both during a casting stroke we are asking for tailing loop trouble. 

Moving more slowly helps us to move more smoothly and accurately. My self talk script used to be “start slow, go easy and finish full”. This year I changed it slightly adding “stay easy” between “go easy” and “finish full”.

The extent of your SLP can be shown by using the same reference line on a structure as I mentioned for tracking. I use a sleeved fly rod broken into half sections. The sleeve provides protection and containment as well as having a tip that’s easy to follow. Same sort of exercise, move in slow motion and watch for deviations above and below the reference line. On the forward cast I use everything from a hard stop high to a full lower arm extension at the finish.  I can likewise check out a full or partial arm extension on the back cast. My house has a pergola with nice long beams at a handy height.

It comes as no surprise that it’s fairly easy to stay straight during translation. Rotation is where it gets harder. It’s where windscreen wiper casting strokes are made. It’s always been a problem and over time different solutions were written into the religious texts of fly casting. First it was “use no wrist” – book under the arm and 10-12 strokes. Then it morphed into using a bit of wrist but stopping high and hard. Then we started having to cope with the heresy of wristy “stopless” casting.  Setting the wrist free is a risk reward undertaking. The reward is a longer stroke length and the risk is moving out of the SLP too much and too soon. The harder you go the higher the risk – ergo go easy and stay smooth.

Just because I could I got an old rod butt, some masking tape and a tape measure. Using a sliding door frame as my horizontal line I made some slow motion (basic or foundation) forward casts movements with full lower arm extension. I marked out the distances travelled by the top of the rod butt during forearm extension and then wrist/hand extension. 

The total distance covered rounded out nicely at about 100cm. The forearm extension and the wrist/hand each contributed about 42cm. The other 16cm probably came from the upper arm rotating down and then up again. What stands out? The wrist/hand contributed as much as the forearm and a scary 42% of the movement overall.  By moving slowly I was able to optimise the straightness  and length of the SLP. I have worked long and hard to do this in my practice and fishing casting.

Why would I want to use a religiously hard stop, much less one coupled with zero wrist? Not saying this is for everyone but am saying each of us must find what amount of movement of which body bits we can use before things start getting untidy.

I have written more than enough about getting the “wrist snap” out of it.  More recently I watched a video of Simon Gawesworth making static roll casts and imploring the viewer to do it effortlessly. Static rolls are among my least favourite casts but he got my attention with the effortless bit. Connecting some dots I used the static roll with maybe 30’ odd feet of fly line and 10’ of leader out and I played around until I could get nice loops and full extension by delaying uncocking/releasing  my wrist until my forearm extension made it happen “automatically” – without any conscious effort. Ok, nice, so how much is transferable to dynamic rolls and overhead (or any other plane) casts? 

Here’s some practical things to play with in the search for what works for you. Make static rolls, dynamic rolls and standard casts while playing with varying amounts of wrist at different cast distances. The wrist can be anywhere between frozen solid to completely free as in a flailing motion. See what happens. See what you prefer. I know what I like and when and I still play around with it all – well, not much of the frozen wrist stuff. 

October 3, 2023

Practical Ideas for Fly Casting Practice : Part 1

Indulge me for a few minutes while I set the context. I’m going to put out there some ideas – some things I do or have done which helped. The way my mind works is that I need a organisational framework for ideas, a conceptual structure. That means starting with clarity of purpose. My primary purpose is casting efficiently and accurately with the gear I use for fishing. Casting without superfluous effort helps me enormously. You might be on board for some or all of that but it shapes how and what I practice.

It also helps me to have specific objectives, consistent with my overall purpose – specific things I’m trying to achieve and build into my casting. From a motor learning perspective, my experience matches with scientific studies showing that external objectives are particularly useful. These can be as simple and useful as the shape and behaviour of the line we are trying to produce. Examples include producing loops the size and shape we want, keeping the line legs parallel and getting full extension of the line or as otherwise intended. 

After we have learned the basics of casting technique I now believe our best friend and mentor is trial and error.  (Without practice, of course, we aren’t going to deepen the friendship or impress our mentor.) I’m not saying that teaching and the teachers of fly casting have no use beyond getting folks started. On the contrary, they can be very helpful, especially when they adopt guided self discovery as a fundamental principle shaping how they teach. You can see straight away how trial and error is a very nice fit with guided self discovery.

There are plenty of ideas out there and some are a lot more useful than others. I like to try out different ideas, keep what works and dump what doesn’t. I’ll give a lot of things a fair trial. I might not use the idea as originally proposed but I might adopt some or all of it for a use not originally intended. Also I’m not ashamed to do the occasional bit of dumpster diving. 

A friend of mine played and taught golf at the elite level before he got into fly casting in a big way. He has a lot of time for Ben Hogan and Hogan had a lot of time for trying out ideas.  Let’s throw a few ideas out there and see if you can find some that are useful. 

Use Ground Targets

It’s standard procedure to aim our casts at targets on the ground – I reckon the smaller the better. 

Conscious attention space being limited, it might sometimes be useful to switch off from hitting the target and concentrate on making a movement adjustment required to improve accuracy. I switch back on to the target and off again, repeating as required.

Use Air Targets

It’s often advised to aim at distant targets in front and behind us, things out there on the horizon, but this is something different. Exactly where do you want the rod tip to be at the end of the forward cast, especially the delivery cast?  I imagine making the tip top kiss a pea suspended on a thread. This is where I aim the whole movement of the cast because it is a precise version of having an intended direction.

Reduce Effort

How much effort do I really need to make this cast? Using less until it’s not enough to complete line extension helps to get better answers.

Where am I putting the effort in that isn’t needed? For me and most people it tends to be during the rotational phase of the casting stroke.

Watching Our Casts

Watching how I move is essential to solving the puzzle of how I want to move. Video has its uses. During practice the standard bag of tricks includes opening the stance, using Lee Cummings Triangle Method, combining Pick Up and Lay Down casts (PUALD) with standard overhead false casts all the while, watching and experimenting to find what works best. I use different mixes from side casts to overhead casts – including oval shaped casting strokes – low to the side and back followed by overhead to the front. 

Make a Change and Vary the Application

What happens as you vary the vertical plane of your cast from side casting to upright overhead casting? Can you maintain the same timing and effort profiles? 

Changing the effort profile of a movement is consolidated by successfully varying the nature of the movement. For example, vary how you finish a cast and then try it out in different casting planes. 

Lancio angulato is cool. Worth trying it with dynamic rolls as well as overhead casts. We get the idea of a low arm extension and try doing it with different casts. It works for me. 

 The overhead casting variants range from the basic or foundation cast with a closed stance to a partly open stance with some torso rotation to a fully open stance with significant torso rotation. It also includes casting off the backhand. Can we keep the overall effort profile as we change things like stance and torso rotation?

We can also experiment with different stroke lengths for the same target distance. Short and snappy with a hard stop is one thing. Long and easy with full arm extension is at the other end of the range. In between there are lots of variations to play with. What works best as the distance increases?

August 4, 2023

My Fly Casting Journey: the Last Five Years

Today I got back from a very uplifting practice session. Blessed with light airs I was once again able to concentrate on refining technique unhindered by adverse conditions. A few things I’ve been working on seemed to be well on the way to being grooved.  All these things and many others over the years can be organised around the idea of casting efficiently or, to put it in movement terms, without superfluous effort.  (For the record today’s session focussed on optimising the co-ordination of hauls and rod movement, discarding any vestiges of “wrist snap” unless I wanted it for variation and control and overall, starting slow, going easy and staying easy all the way.)

As ever I’m going to write about works for me. What works for you might well be similar but it probably won’t be exactly the same. Prescriptions are what doctors write and pharmacists supply. Not my game.

I don’t expect to reach a fly casting state of bliss where there is nothing more that needs to be learned or refined. However, today’s casting did prompt me to reflect on the journey, the latest stage of which really began in 2019 when I moved away from trying to cast long as the path to casting better. My objective became instead to cast more accurately by casting more efficiently. You can read about it here. Two posts from 2020 and 2021 will give you a sense of where I went next – this one and then this one which marks the move away from performance to self expression.   A year later there was another post in which I tried to pull things together.

Thinking back again about the bigger picture of what I’ve learned and written about on this site and elsewhere, at this focal length I’m not looking for the detailed navigation of difficult terrain. What I’m looking for are the mountain peaks that poke up through the mists of time, memory and detail. These peaks, of learning and experience, are the dots which mark out both my casting journey and the narrative of what I’ve written about. Pleasingly, they make sense, at least to me.

So here’s quickish whip round of the standouts for me over the past five years of research, thinking, discussing and doing.

Mechanics

Two simple equations remain meaningful. The first and most important is Newton’s Second Law of Motion – Force equals mass times acceleration. Because the F in F=ma is the net Force applied in a single direction it gives me three important precepts for casting efficiently. 

  1. As far as possible we need to cast in straight lines with straight (fly) lines: that’s the straight line path (SLP) thing, tracking and slack minimisation.
  2. The net Force concept means we need to have a small target and to aim all our casting movement at that target. This gives us a clear and narrow intended direction which is what we self organise our movements to achieve. 
  3. The limited mass we are propelling makes subtractions from F surprisingly costly. 

The net Force we apply in the intended direction of the cast puts kinetic energy into the fly line. Call it “line speed” if you like but I don’t like going down that track.

The second important equation is that Work equals Force times distance. W=Fd. The Work we do is what puts kinetic energy into the fly line. We get better control from applying a given Force over a greater distance – meaning we can cast using less effort in a longer stroke. For a given distance, more effort in a shorter stroke is more likely to end in the tears of greater subtractions from the F applied in our intended direction. We’ll get another look at this problem when we get to sensory motor control and Mr Fitts.

One last thing from the mechanics department. The fly rod is a flexible lever which amplifies the movements of our rod hand. In simple terms the rod is an extension of our casting arm. That’s both good and bad news because it amplifies both correct and incorrect movements.

Biomechanics

In general terms, fly casting is a throwing action. Humans are uniquely able to throw things accurately. 

We use our body parts in a proximal to distal sequence (closer to the core and further away from it) with activation overlap between the parts involved in the sequence.

Casting  is a specialised throwing action similar to other throwing actions but also different from them in crucial aspects. The mass being propelled is relatively small and, as above, the cost of subtracting from the Force applied in the intended direction is high. Consider the difference between throwing a golf ball and a ping pong ball.

Sensory Motor Learning and Control

What is known as Fitts Law states that there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy. My version of the tradeoff is between effort and accuracy. The performance of a movement faster requires that we exert more effort, something we can subjectively experience and recall.

Practiced, repeated movements become progressively less conscious  and more automatic, ie unconscious. Movement driven and controlled by the central nervous system (CNS) operating  less cognitively and more reflexively is using the fast track of the CNS. That’s the one I want most of my casting movements to be running on most of the time.

Proprioception is the grab all term for how we draw together sensory data from, and signals to, the body parts recruited to perform a movement, together with our other “five” senses. Input from vision is of primary importance but clearly, not to the exclusion of our other senses.

When we move in ways that work well we are left with a memory map of the event, of how it “felt” when we “nailed it”, “hooked it up” etc. It can be compared and contrasted with the feel of things which didn’t work well or well enough. We can keep and use these internal “feels” to help us achieve the external goals of our movements.

Movement

Generally we learn basic movement through trial and error and playful exploration to find what works and what doesn’t work.

We self organise movement to achieve external objectives.

However, more complex technical movements like fly casting won’t be learned just by mucking around with a fly rod and a line. We need help from others with the basics through teaching and/or demonstration.

Movement variability is natural. Evolution bequeathed us a CNS that wants movements to vary so we can maintain control and deal with uncertainty – changing external conditions for example.

Play, exploration, variation and thus self discovery are the drivers of movement skills. It’s more fun, more interesting and very practical to be a bit playful, to try things out and to mix things up. Robotic block casting practice has it’s uses but definitely not to the exclusion of mixing things up. What things? Whatever you fancy. It’s easier to stay mindful and engaged with practice that is interesting.

After and above all that we need to work towards making the movements our own through practice to refine the skills and ultimately for self expression. We can watch half a dozen beautiful, easy casters doing their thing and none of them is making exactly the same movements in exactly the same way.

Practice

I’ve written quite a bit about practice. It is, of course, where technique is sustainably learned and refined. The core ideas for me are first, to be purposeful and mindful.  Secondly, as a broad principle it should be structured to spend 80% of the time on the 20% of things that really matter.

The richest learning zone is where the casting can be slow because it is easy – where we are deeply familiar with the movements so we have space to think about changing a few things because most of the movement we can do without really thinking about it. 

I deliberately practice variation of my movements, keep exploring, trying new things, improvising how and how far. Practice is playful as well as purposeful.

Fly Casting Objectives

Casting for Fishing

I’m still trying to cast better so I can fish better. My original objective was to increase the zone within which I could present confidently and reliably from 60’ to 80’. That was where I wanted to cast most efficiently. I started at about 65’ and gradually improved and extended. Having reached that objective I’m now closing in on 90’+ using a 5wt rod and a 5wt DTF line. Switching back  to a 5wt WFF adds another 10’.

When I aim at a target I’m looking to land the clear majority of casts within  2-3’ of that target.  Absolute distance is not of much interest though very occasionally I yield to temptation and let one rip. 

Casting for Casting

I have come to enjoy casting movement for its own sake and because I can do it self expressively. Efficient casting is made without superfluous effort. Aesthetically that means it looks graceful because it is performed with economy of effort. I like it because the casting feels nice and looks nice. I don’t see my casting as an athletic activity. It’s closer to dance.

My motivation is personal excellence which is quite different from competitive superiority. 

For me fly casting is about efficiency, not power. It’s about how well rather than how far. Grace is the meeting point between art and science. It is what happens to our movements when superfluous effort is discarded. It takes a lot of disciplined work to get to this place but I don’t begrudge a minute of it. 

The above is a pretty ruthless summary of what I’ve learned on my casting journey. It’s all there in site menu.  Going further, I can reduce it all to two organising ideas. First, understanding the full meaning and implications of Newton’s Second Law of Motion – F=ma. Second, movement which  optimises the mechanics of casting is efficient and graceful because it is made without superfluous effort.

July 3, 2023

Fly Casting Efficiency: Another Haul Tune Up

As i wrote in the previous post, a recent vid I shot showed that my hauling, though fit for purpose, was a bit lazy. What I meant is that my hauling worked adequately for the distances being cast but I wasn’t hauling at peak efficiency. There are basically three elements to optimising haul efficiency – how you move, how far you move and when you move – in co-ordination with the body bits devoted to the fly rod. This post is mostly about timing and co-ordination. The how part is about moving in a straight(ish) line away from your rod hand and mostly by extending your lower arm – the forearm pivots around the elbow joint. How far you move varies with how much effort you want to put into the haul which varies with both the distance to be cast and  the intended contribution of the haul. It might be very short and wristy, as long as possible and everywhere in between. Explore, play, experiment and vary.

Back when I wrote about Biomechanics in part 4 I mentioned findings from work in a Swedish lab which lead to this summation.

“Among elite casters, single-handed fly casting with double haul is coordinated in an order of events whereby the peak speed occurs first for the translation of the rod, then for the rotation of the rod and finally for the line haul.”

My comment was that: 

“The succession of peak speeds speaks to each building on the Work of the previous stage, progressively accelerating the fly line. It implicitly confirms the mechanical effects of the proximal to distal sequence for both rod and line hands. Less obviously, it affirms the flow and integration of the body movements, including the overlaps between activation of the body parts.”

A lot of folks, including me when I’m not trying for maximum distance, might think “Oh yeah, fine, but I’m making fishing casts rather than competition casts so near enough is good enough.” But, and there is always a but, another part of me likes fly casting as well as I can, meaning as efficiently as possible. In movement terms that means without superfluous effort. What the mechanics and biomechanics are saying is that effort can be minimised by applying it at the right time and in the right way. It’s tempting to dive into the detail at this point but resisting temptation here is a simple practical exercise which makes the relevant point(s).

When I clean my lines I only apply the cleaning, lubing and buffing cloths in one direction – from the back to the front of the fly line (helps remove twist). That means I have to repeatedly shift all the line from one bucket to another in preparation for the next cloth application.  To do that I pass the line over the top edge of my “rod hand” and lift it up away from the donating bucket while my “line hand” pulls down to deposit the line in the receiving bucket. It’s a bit boring but using it to test for the optimal combination of movements, effort and timing (coordination) tones down the sense of redundancy.  In fact these movements in a vertical plane are very similar to a back cast haul made in a horizontal plane with a fly rod in my rod hand. The mechanics of “opposing” line movements using a pivot point are the same in both cases. Forward and back in casting becomes up and down line cleaning prep. 

Have a play. You don’t even need two buckets as two piles of slack line on the ground which is transferred between piles as described will do the job. Just remember that like casting with a rod and making double hauls it’s not about applying the most force possible but applying the right amount of force at the right time using both hands. What I’ve found is that the line movement gets the most zippy when the rod hand leads the movement and the haul hand follows. I’m guessing this sequence produces pretty much the same effect as the results reported after studying 3D motions analysis of elite casters – a succession of peak speeds.

To switch examples slightly think of driving a car with a manual gearbox. Compare a series of upshifts while accelerating. Example one. The car takes off in first gear and then it’s shifted into third gear. The rate of acceleration is compromised. Example two. The gear shifts happen at the same rev count, first to second to third. The rate of acceleration is maintained if not enhanced.

In near enough terms, casting efficiency is improved when we rotate after we translate the rod – late rotation. If we use hauls then we should haul late as well. Ideally translation leads rotation which leads hauling so rotate late and haul even later. This is a desirable outcome.

Of course, the actual process isn’t quite as simple as that because we need to coordinate a whole series of movements of a whole bunch of body parts and we need to do it smoothly to optimise the straight line path and minimise the chances of throwing tailing loops. However, if we have managed to self organise our movement to achieve nifty narrow loops on demand then tweaking the efficiency of haul timing and haul movements isn’t quite so difficult. The timing was explained with the line buckets example. The haul movements will be more efficient to the extent that they take (mechanical) advantage of the pivot point phenomenon. As an added incentive a late haul helps keep the rod bent which helps keep loops tight, a sign of an extended SLP. It also seems to mitigate the risk of throwing tails.

I found that making the timing adjustment was aided by doing it without a rod in hand, slowing down the opposing movements of the rod and line hands until the former started to lead the movement of the latter. When casting I tended to lapse back into the unconscious co-ordination and timing in which the both hands reached peak speed almost at the same time. The little added lag in timing by the hauling hand has a significant advantage.  I’ll need a couple more sessions to get it nailed down but significant progress has already been made.

June 19, 2023

Fly Casting Practice: Clarity of Purpose

Back in the distant past I used to advise organisations in a spot of bother.  Over time I decided that getting three fundamentals straight usually made them more effective. In logical sequence those three things were, clarity of purpose, people and structure.  Applying a similar line of thought to my casting I realised that purpose needed a bit of clarification. (People and structure are simple. There’s only me, my fishing and my casting practice to be organised!)

So, looking back over the last six years, including the 4.5 year life of this blog, I can see change and evolution in why I want to improve my casting. At first it was essentially practical – cast better to fish better, extend the range at which I could cover fish reliably and therefore confidently.  Then I began to enjoy casting and casting practice in their own right.  They aren’t easy and the challenge to improve provides a perfect opportunity for me to pursue excellence. (I am “driven” to excel. It’s not just about the pursuit of achievement. It’s equally or more about the delight of the journey, adversity included and, for the record, it has nothing to do with beating, or being better than, other people.) More recently I began enjoying it as a means of self expression through graceful movement performed without superfluous effort. 

Ok, so what’s the problem with purpose?  Well, this week I had two practice sessions.  The first was sheer delight. Essentially still conditions allowed play, variability, and long casts with long carries. It allowed me to cast with the only relevant limitation being the quality of my technique. Great opportunity to test, explore, learn and refine. A couple of days later I decided to go out in very different conditions – swirly shitty wind conditions not conducive to graceful, easy casting.  Rather, they demanded adaption.  Back casts weren’t easy to fully extend and forward casts were often subject to gusty interruptions and disturbances of the force. To my initial frustration I couldn’t cast like I did in the still conditions.  I knew the job was dangerous when I took it and that’s why I took it – thinking it would be a good test of  technique and composure. I had to give up trying to cast in exactly the same way, testing the same techniques under different conditions.  Instead I had to meet the conditions and adapt, much as you do when out on the water.  You know, fish don’t always disclose themselves obligingly downwind of your casting position.

To be more specific, the trickier conditions demanded changes in trajectory, carry length, combinations of carry and shoot, a bit more punch in the finish on either or both of the back and forward cast together with snappier hauls.  Both aspects of accuracy, range and bearing, were constantly challenged.  At first I didn’t like it one bit and then….I changed my attitude, expectations and technique to suit – a whole new ball game to the previous session.  Refinement in “pure” technique is assisted by still conditions but adaptation to less obliging conditions is not.  Horses for courses.

The short of it is that I’ve decided to enlarge and clarify the purpose of my casting to include, practicality, aesthetic pleasure through self expression and now, adaptability to all reasonable conditions. There won’t be masochistic sessions in the rain or after strong wind warnings but I will be less choosy about when I go out for a practice and more realistic about what I’m trying to achieve when the conditions get a bit dicey.

To be clear, I wouldn’t advise my students to harden up and head out for a soul destroying session in strongly adverse conditions. For my situation it’s a bit different because I’ve cobbled together a good enough technique to do all the fishing I’m likely to do in a general sense. Deliberately practicing to improve my adaptability expands both the learning and the fishing opportunities. 

As a post script, I went out for another practice in unhelpful wind conditions. It was easier than last time (maybe me and/or the conditions improving) and it was possible to combine and change techniques for crappy wind and no wind sessions. Key words. Purpose, adaptability, variation = more control. It was a practical application of the movement stuff I wrote about in the previous three posts.

As a btw I also decided to do a bit more work on my hauls, especially timing, having watched a vid I shot a few weeks back. It showed fit for purpose hauling but it was a bit lazy.