Experienced
fly fishermen do many things in connection with rod handling without giving it
a second thought. I been asked asked
during clinics why I was throwing the line in a particular way. With
experience, you learn to manipulate the fly rod in a number of ways during the
cast to meet a variety of fishing demands. You learn to start or stop the
casting stroke at different places, use more or less power, bend the whole rod
or just the tip, tilt the casting plane forward, backward, or down to a side,
or even move the rod off to one side during the cast. Over time, such rod-handling adjustments have
been given names such as tuck, serpentine, sidearm, pile, reach, and bounce
casts.
Many years ago
I learned a valuable lesson from a great fishermen. He told me to make every adjustment you can
during the cast rather than trying to mend line on the water. The mends on the water should be minimal
adjustments to improve the presentation.
Second he
pointed out that keeping your rod pointed towards the fly and parallel to the
water is the preferred position.
The low tip
permits this line to follow the straightest path from the water up through the
rod to your hands. This straight path of fly line serves you in several ways.
Whenever you retrieve a bit of line , its movement is transmitted to the fly
with the least possible delay, which enables you to move it quickly and precisely.
This precision is important in setting the hook quickly and efficiently
whenever a trout picks up your fly. These advantages of a straight line
are lost if you hold the rod tip higher. Line drops vertically from a high rod
tip before bending to follow the horizontal layout on the water; this change of
direction constitutes slack that can detract from your success. Holding
the rod low works toward hooking efficiency in another way. The low tip leaves
you the greatest upward distance in which to raise the rod when you are tightening
the line to set the hook.
So who
was this expert that got me started on the straight and narrow. He was my Grandfather who fished just about
every day during the trout season in Michigan.
