My wife reminded my tonight that the our next big purchase needs to be an adapted bike or trike for our disabled daughter. As these are not cheap my upgrade will either have to wait or be done on a tight budget.
Understand your situation bigtime, how far are you wanting to cast......?
Hi Lee - totally missed your post. I have taken up Paul's kind offer of a rod. I'm just trying to get a bit more distance each time I practice. If there is such thing as a casting bug I have been well and truly bitten.
I havent posted for a while so I thought I would give a bit of an update.
I'm still practicing hard (at least 1 a week) but the dark nights don't help. I'm also still attending the Manchester Casting Club and benefiting from this.
I feel that I have given distance casting a good try and will continue to persevere with this.
My wife has bought me a DH rod for Christmas and I intend to try and get proficient casting with this. My initial focus and winter project will be to get good at anchor placement and the basic Spey casts. I will then see where I go from there.
i plan to have a third project later next year to look at improving my casting accuracy. I'm not sure how I will approach this yet.
Hopefully by the end of next year I will have had an initial foray into distance casting, anchor placement & basic Spey casts and accuracy casting.
Anyway I'm off to defrost the car before I venture out to the casting club this morning.
I'm looking for a instructional DVD on Spey casting for a Christmas present. I have been steered towards one called Spey to Z. Are there any others worth considering?
Seeing the trailer has led my to another Spey question.
I have been trying to learn some basic single Spey casts at our local casting club. After a while I was playing about with introducing a haul on a single spey cast on the back cast (more keeping the the line hand tight rather than a full haul). Then using what I would call a full haul on the forward delivery. This approach made the whole cast more dynamic and enabled me to shoot more line.
However we then had a debate about the need to use a haul on the back cast as this might be introducing unnecessary slack.
In the trailer for the above DVD there is a Turbo Spey cast and a Double Turbo Switch cast that both appear to haul, or at least keep the line hand taut, on the back cast.
So my question is - can / should you haul on on the backcast of a single Spey to achieve greater distance?
All answers welcome unless they contain a mathematical equation.
It is possible to haul into a D loop but the margin for error is very small and the chance of introducing slack is quite large. I'd concentrate on making sure there is absolute tension in the D loop.
The only time I would even contemplate hauling into a D is if moving a lot of line about.
Best advice I can give you is to get a short heavy head, something like the Barrio SLX and practice single handed Speys with that. Yes you can use any line but something with a shorter back weighted head and short back taper will accelerate the learning process.
How far are you wanting to throw a single Spey by the way?
The Barrio lines feature heavily at our casting club. Although I don't yet own the SLX there is one available at each meeting. I have to agree that SLX makes the Spey learning process much easier.
My focus at the moment is just getting all of the spey elements to come together well and to practise good form so no distance target yet.
I have also just bought a DH rod and want to try and get proficient with this next year.
It would be good if there was a DH Barrio Spey line with the same quality and good price like all the other Barrio lines.
Work on hauling the forward cast and concentrate on tension at the back, distance will take care of itself. WIth the sort of heads you are using, short stuff, there is not really any need to haul into the D.
THere will be a Barrio Spey line, probably two length available in the new year
What a great thread! And not just because of the happy progression. I have a few thoughts on casting in windy conditions.
I also like casting into the wind; good thing too, or I wouldn't have many days in the winter to cast at all, or fish either.
What never ceases to cause me childish delight is casting on an angle into a steady wind of say 25-30 mph at a target - a lonely piling in my case- and watching a narrow loop appear to curve into the wind and remain on course to the target, It doesn't really do that, of course, but the illusion is caused by the rod leg being blown in an arc out to the side giving the appearance that the loop has a brain and a dedicated purpose of reaching that piling.
The sustained wind pressure on the rod leg also seems to cause an effect like a continuous strengthening "pull back" as the loop extends out further and speeds it up, due to the increased rod leg tension from the wind blowing against its length.
Aisde from just being fun, this kind of exercise has helped me a bunch in determining my effective casting range when fishing - especially for species that are often visable at distances beyond my casting range under those conditions. Tarpon or other large fish cruising over light bottom, and blue water species that are teased to the surface are two that come to mind.
Besides having to judge the intersection of fly and fish, both need to be at roughly the same height in the water column just before that intersection happens, and looking like something tasty besides.
So in addtion to tuning casting mechanics (and having fun), I am unconsciously establishing in my mind the range at which I can consistently and comfortably deliver a fly where I want it (more or less) under those conditions. And also, how long it's going to take me to get it there.
Confidence is a huge part of fishing success and enjoyment, I think, because it directly affects judgement calls - like when to cast. The first cast in some types of fishing is often the only cast - but even if not, it is usually the best shot at getting the bite.
Chris, best of luck to you. You've got world class support behind you.
It's a good question there, Chris. A few years ago on Haysie's pond I experimented with a straight Switch Cast, using a haul on the backcast (which was my normal method) against no haul on the back cast for distance delivery shots. And my results were that I got a longer forward shot without hauling on the backcast.
I don't know why, I don't think it's slack but think it's to do with the difference in the way we use the rod (there's a definite bounce feeling without a haul which disappears with one). But that's a guess. And I don't know if it applies to everyone or only myself :p
Jim - thanks for the insight into your casting range exercise.
Paul - a few supplementary questions:
On average how much more distance did you get without the haul on the backast?
How do you position your hauling hand on the backcast if you only haul on the forward cast i.e. do you hold the line with the hauling hand and follow the rod back and then haul on the forward cast.
If you hold the line with the hauling hand and don't follow the rod back - you are at least keeping the line tight or may be even applying a small unintended haul?
Hope that makes sense.
I'm sure it will all become clear once I get one of those Spey DVDs.
By the way the TCX hybrid never turned up. I hope it wasn't lost in transit.
