New Flies

When I was a little kid, a lot of my time was spent scooping aquatic insects from a farm pond with one of my mother's discarded kitchen strainers.  My small body of water was no ordinary agricultural pond. It was away from the farm animals in a wooded glen and was fed by both rain and spring water.  It teamed with all kinds of crawling and swimming invertebrate life.  Years before we had moved to the farm, a giant tamarack tree had fallen across one end of the pond and had disintegrated into a limbless, half rotten, flattened trunk. It made the perfect platform for me to lay on my belly and watch the pond-bottom at close range. Eventually I wanted to get even closer to the action, so my mother, who was always supportive of my scientific curiosity, gave me the strainer as a collecting tool.

One shelf in my bedroom often contained three wide-mouth, one gallon mayonnaise jars that became miniture aquariums.  My school age friends no doubt thought that my collection was somewhat bizarre, but it didn't deter me.  I am still fascinated by the workings of the natural world and have continue to collect aquatic insects throughout my adult life.  Reading many of the books written by the great fly fishing entomologists such as Ernest Schwiebert, Doug Swisher, Carl Richards and Rick Hafele strengthened my belief that understanding the behavior of the organisms that trout feed on increases an anglers productivity while trying to match any hatch. One winter while fishing the Deschutes, a tiny Baetis nymph came to the surface and swam into a tiny pool trapped in the palm of my hand.  There it emerged from the nymphal shuck and turned into a dun  under my close observation.  It didn't look anything like the descriptions in the books I had read, or the experts I had talked to. The world is full of surprises.  I won't go into the details, because time won't permit.  If you want to see these new flies, come to the Round Table, February 11.

“ THE PRACTICE ROUTINE”

 By: Stan Steele

   What kind of practice routine should I adopt? If you haven’t thought about it very much, you might want to give it some consideration. I believe there are many of you that don’t have any particular practice plan. In other words, when you practice, there aren’t any specific objectives. You just get out onto some water or grass and start casting away. Some of you may have some problems with your casting and aren’t sure how to go about solving them. I offer the following possibilities.

   First of all, you have to identify the trouble areas; tailing loops, wide loops, line piling up at the end of the cast, and so on. Once you’ve identified them and decided which problem you want to tackle first, you’ll then need to adopt some sort of practice strategy. For example, in the case of wide loops, you may want to shorten your casting arc, gather in some line. You may look at other possible causes. There are a lot of subtle things that need to happen in the casting stroke to make everything work correctly. They are the fundamentals (essentials) and bear repeating: #1) there must be a pause at the end of each casting stroke and it should increase as the line past the rod tip increases; #2) slack must be kept to a minimum; #3) power must be applied at the proper time in the casting stroke; #4) the casting arc must increase as the line past the rod tip increases; #5) the rod tip must follow a straight path. I believe the way to work through all of this is to remember the fundamentals and adopt a specific, well-defined practice regimen.

   If you are relatively new to the sport (beginner or intermediate) or haven’t been casting that much, you might want to consider this. Until you’re able to cast well formed loops in both directions, with 30 feet of line (That’s about 37 to 40’ to the fly.), without the assist of the line hand, you won’t be able to improve very much. (Be sure to measure the fly line from the rod hand to the end of the line.) The result of the cast, itself, is seen in the shape of the loop. Good, well-formed, narrow loops where the top and bottom strands are parallel are essential to FLY CASTING. They aren’t a luxury they are a NECESSITY! As soon as the energy stored in the rod is transferred to the line gravity takes over. You must have sufficient line speed to help offset the effect of gravity to keep the line above the water or ground.   

    Whatever casting problem or problems you may have, they can be solved. Don’t be afraid to get back to the basics. Somewhere along the way you may have picked up some bad habits and starting from the beginning just might be the best approach. The amount of time required to fix a problem will depend on your experience and skill level. Since we are all different, what might work for one, might not work for another. As a rule of thumb, it takes a couple of weeks to develop muscle memory. You don’t have to cast till you drop; about 10 to 15 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week should do the trick.

    So, decide on a practice routine and stick with it until you’ve worked through the problem. Don’t give up and start doing something different like distance casting and the like. If you can’t cast 30 feet with good loops you won’t be able to get much distance anyway. If you apply yourself and stay the course, you will reap the rewards. There is nothing better than finding the solution on your own. Other than the casting lesson or lessons you might have taken, you’ll spend most of the time teaching yourself. Remember the fundamentals, those “Fab-Five” that make the cast work. Tight well-formed loops, front and back, are what it’s all about.

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