On March 22nd the Atlanta Fly Fishing School held its first ever Advanced Fly Casting course, designed specifically to zero in on subtle issues plagueing the intermediate caster or beyond.  From our experience, verbal suggestion may not be adequate for all students, especially those who need some type of visual reference.

The eight hour course includes digital video from two separate angles, simultaneously, and use of the Sage Casting analyzer.  At the beginning of the class it is encouraged to throw the “Ego” out the window, because of this.  Each student is then filmed prior to any input from the intructors or recording devices to get a beginning Benchmark for reference.  From the taping station each student will be asked to perform casts at both 30 and 40 ft while being recorded by the Casting Analyzer.  During this process the split screen video recording is edited and synced.

When all of the data is compiled, students return to the classroom where each individual will have his or her cast revealed, possibly for the first time.  Interestingly, comments like, “Now I know what I am doing wrong”, is commonplace.  Students will also receive a two page print out from the Casting Analyzer, citing specific issues on which to work on.

After the lunch break time in the field is spent on the most challenging of each of the students problems, usually a violation of one or more of the Six Essentials of Casting taught there.  At conclusion of this field time the students are then run through the process of video and data recording again to compare with their initial benchmark.

When this session was complete on screen comparisons were made and incredibly all students improved one or more aspects of their respective casts.  The common denominator was that all casters accomplished the same tasks with an astonishing 15 to 20 percent less energy!

We at the Atlanta Fly Fishing School can’t stress enough the Six Essentials of Fly Casting, whereby if any are violated you could expect frustrations with your casting.  They are as follows…

FLY CASTING

SIX ESSENTIALS 

1. THE ROD TIP MUST MOVE IN A STRAIGHT LINE PATH 
2. THE SIZE OF THE CASTING ARC MUST VARY WITH THE LENGTH OF THE LINE PAST THE ROD TIP 
3. POWER MUST BE APPLIED IN THE PROPER AMOUNT AT THE PROPER TIME IN THE STROKE 
4. THERE MUST BE A PAUSE AT THE END OF EACH STROKE, WHICH VARIES IN DURATION WITH THE AMOUNT OF LINE BEYOND THE ROD TIP 
5. SLACK LINE SHOULD BE KEPT TO AN ABSOLUTE MINIMUM
6. A SOLID STOP AT THE END OF EACH STROKE IS NECESSARY TO TRANSFER ENERGY FROM THE FLY ROD TO THE FLY LINE

I can promise you that if you took the time to understand and practice these Six Essentials, you will likely eliminate a lot of your own casting problems.  For some going through the paces of a casting school such as this may be the answer and we welcome you to give it a go.  For more info on the Atlanta Fly Fishing School visit  http://atlantaflyfishingschool.com/index.htm

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No I am not referring to any of my students over the last ten years, however some have suffered from it.  Widely referred to in the Fly Casting world, “Creep”, is a condition which plagues most entry level Fly Casters, and can progress into Intermediate Level Casters if left un-diagnosed.  Simply put, “Creep” refers to angular rotation of the Fly Rod early in the Casting Stroke with little or no application of power.

A number of factors can be looked at which can cause this condition, but is easily recognized by a quick ramp up in the application of power, almost too late, and inefficient loop formation usually ending up on the water in an un-straightened heap.  Sound familiar?  I thought it might, and if you were to view it on the “Casting Analyzer” graph, you would see a shallow hump followed by a relatively long depression, and suddenly the line on the graph would rise significantly.  A sudden surge in power application.

For this writing I will suggest that one of the causes is likely the presence of slack Fly Line somewhere along the length of the Fly Rod or beyond the tip.  Consider this, that if no slack line were present and the Rod was held parallell to the casting surface, a load would be placed on the Fly Rod immediately by simply lifting it.  From this initial lift a smooth application of power could be applied to a point where the Rod should be stopped in either the forward or backcast.  On the “Casting Analyzer” the graph would appear as a fluid continuous upward curve, no rapid rise, indicating considerably less effort to accomplish in effect more work.  Sounds simple, and it really is, however as mentioned, there are a number of other factors that could be involved as well.  More on the subject to follow….  

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