Style - How do you deal with it?

[Paul Arden]

Necessary to avoid a high trajectory from the pickup.

[Snake Pliskin]

Style is an interesting question. One of the main reasons I joined the FFF rather than a domestic organisation was their style free ethos. It does have some interesting side effects though. I am now an almost 'style free' fascist interfere with my style at your peril. Tell me I should be standing like this, my elbow should be here and I should hold the rod like that and you are putting yourself in the firing line for some verbal abuse.

I dunno Mike. Recently I had a few style tips from way better casters and instructors then me. I tried a couple of things and got instant results.
Being able to adopt different styles is cool, and the ability to mimic another caster is a good tool too. Sometimes people don't realise that what they're doing is awkward until you show them how they're doing it and gently suggest a different style that hopefully will suit them better. I wouldn't expect any verbal abuse for that! I've been taught how to hold sticks better, how to sit, how to walk, how to run. All in the last few years and it's all on going. It's all good shit I think, if it works. If it ain't broke though...

[Frank LoPresti]

Necessary to avoid a high trajectory from the pickup.

I dunno bout that necessarily. I associate a high trajectory backcast with trout fishing. Lowering the line trajectory won't change all that much, wind is wind. I think high line speed is the larger concern here.

Frank

[Marc LaMouche]

Lowering the line trajectory won't change all that much, wind is wind. I think high line speed is the larger concern here.

i agree with the line speed thing but the low bc trajectory is equally important, not because there's less wind closer to ground or water but mainly because a slanted loop cast at an angle to the wind (as opposed to being cast directly into the wind) will present a much bigger 'surface' to the wind.

cheers,
marc

[Frank LoPresti]

That could very well be Marc. Certainly that's the party line and conventional wisdom. I just don't have a clear idea in my head as to whether or not it's actually true or not, or to what degree it actually helps or not. That's why I brought up high line speed as being the critical component. Certainly I could see the on side, side cast being useful if the wind was blowing into the caster. Then again the caster could simply flip over to the offside and the line would be blowing away from the caster not potentially into the caster, low angle and or otherwise.

Beats me.

Frank

[Paul Arden]

You need the angle to take out the "hover".

[Morsie]

Ultimately the best reason for keeping the line low and close to water on a windy day (assuming you're casting across or into it) is that it has less time to be blown off course. The sooner you can get it on the water the better and a loop unrolling a foot above the water is not going to be blown around as much as a loop 3 feet above the water or 6 feet (given that line speed is the same).

Ooops, just saw all the same information in the 'normal casting" thread on the vid.

Morsie

[Morsie]

Paul make sure you look up Jackson Marr in Exmouth, he's one of the finest distance casters in the country and will give you a good run for your money, fine young fisherman too. He works at Bluewater tackle and has just moved across there from the east. And Ben Knight is a great local fly fisherman as well, and also Craig Williams - all REALLY fine fly fishermen, they also work in Bluewater.

Congratulations on making it that far, you've done well.

Morsie

[Frank LoPresti]

You need the angle to take out the "hover".

I understand what you mean Paul, but weighted flies don't hover.

I would agree with you Morsie up to a point, that you want to get the fly in quick, but that goes to line speed. A vertical anchor cast lets the belly of the line land first and anchor the line in the water as the loop continues to unroll. That's a cool cast. But hard to do in a horizontal plane

I'l go out on a limb and say there is no clear advantage in any wind as a result of horizontal casting.

Frank

[Paul Arden]

So Frank's technique for casting into the wind is to use weighted flies?

[Morsie]

that you want to get the fly in quick, but that goes to line speed.

So if there are two casts of the same speed and one unrolls 6" above the water and the other 6 feet above you'll get the same result in a strong wind?

Morsie

[Frank LoPresti]

Okay Morsie I get it. You can cast a fly line in a horizontal plane 6 inches above the water when the wind is blowing 15 knots. Is that what your trying to convey here ? And by the way who in their right mind would present a fly under most any circumstances 6 feet above the water. Who does that ?

[Frank LoPresti]

So Frank's technique for casting into the wind is to use weighted flies?

What I'm saying is that most of the time my fly pops out a few inches above the water anyway. I don't need a side cast to make that happen or an oval cast for that matter. It's all about high line speed. Even going to an intermediate line of the same line class offers a smaller profile for casting into the wind, side cast or otherwise. I think this side cast business is malarky. The only reason I personally cast off vertical with wind, and not by all that much and use an oval stroke, is to keep the fly from dinging my rod.

[Paul Arden]

I don't need a side cast to make that happen or an oval cast for that matter. It's all about high line speed.

No it's also about trajectory.

[Frank LoPresti]

Trajectory is a given.