Glasgow Casting Club

[scotty9]

I remember reading on sexyloops that an XP is good to about 120' Craig! I won't swap you but I'll give you a play of my #6 tcx tomorrow night if you want?

Dave - don't know if it helps as a judge for other line weights since we'll be casting #5, #7, #9 and the shooting heads at BFCC... I cast a #10 tcx with #9 barrio line in the Aussie shootout 129'. It wasn't a massive increase over my five weight distance, although on the day it was 25' further than my #5 cast.

I'm going to start practising with the 7 weight as well I think.

[davefromtheattic]

I'm just going to go and enjoy the day, have a few casts with you guys. I'll spend from now till next season getting in shape and give it a crack next year. Interested in getting a longer head line. what about DT? I read somewhere to practise with one.

[scotty9]

Alan - I think you'll like this as a very well reasoned page - http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/cgi-bin/theboard_07/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=16;t=12029;st=10

It address what the relevance of distance casting and casting practise is, it address the "ah, but I can catch fish" issue very well  :lol:

[Malcolm]

Anyone of the regulars happen to have a long headed 7 weight that I can try on my seatrout rod?

Alan, I'll bring an 8 weight.

[scotty9]

I don't at the moment Malcolm but may well do by next week.

I'll be there tonight, might be a bit late as usual  :lol:

[scotty9]

Don't know if anyone else is interested in this but i was thinking it would be good to get a someone in to do a demo on double or single handed casting, i know there has been a few in the past but i don't think there has been any this year. I think it would be good to do this either once a month or every other month, what do you think?

Craig

I agree.... but we don't need anyone yet. You're doing the demo on thursday, better get planning! 

[scotty9]

I could ask Paul really nicely  :lol: but to be honest he's too expensive for our wee club. Paul is pretty serious cash for demos/instruction days.

He'll be in Hungary soon then in a couple months will be back in NZ. I know this as I was meant to be there but alas can't make it  :x Such is life!  :lol:

[Malcolm]

I've been thinking for some time now that we are far into the realms of diminishing returns as far as fishing casts are concerned and if GCC is to be a casting club with a fishing focus then we need to think a bit out of the box.

Most of us can overhead cast 90 ft+, Jump roll cast 70ft+, Throw curves and snakes etc etc.  It's now in the region of casting as a sport in it's own right. For some it's like throwing the javelin and for others casting may be seen as a form of ribbon gymnastics. So apart from some beginner coaching it seems to me that for many if not most of the single handed casters it has left the realm of fishing.

That's fine for the people who see casting as a worthwhile endeavour for it's own sake. Don't get me wrong I like sports and I recognise that is what the club is becoming and don't mind that at all - I simply recognise that.

Some of the casting I see - including things I've tried myself are useless on the water. The bouncing bomb cast is about as useless a fishing cast as it is possible to get. It also seems to me that casting in wide open spaces has the potential to develop really bad habits: even in short casts the backcast is dropping so low that it would be a real liability. With a team of hooks on the end instead of a piece of wool the hungry heather would be having a field day!

In fishing terms we are just about as far as we are going to get with the facilities:

What we can't try are all the things that happen on rivers and lochs for example:

• Long leader multiple fly setups
  Heavy flies cast under bushes
  Casting with obstructions all round

In other words the sort of casts that really make a difference.

As far as instructors go I've now seen some good technical casters but I don't think I would find any practical benefit in having someone like Paul Arden. However if we are taliikng about sport casting then I am sure he would be great.

[scotty9]

Yeah bang on Alan it all depends on how good you want to become, I'm not happy with my casting at all, the way I see it is no matter how good you are you can always learn something new just by watching someone else. Having someone like Andrew Toft or Paul Arden at the casting club would benefit everyone, that I would put my house on, as long as you want to learn. I think the distance thing has only been happening because the bfcc are coming up soon, and the guys going want to get a bit of practice for it. But hey its great fun,

Malcolm you would need to be crazy to try a bouncing bomb on a river, and if someone tries it they deserve to loose more than a few flies. 

I agree. For me it's about line control in every aspect. I'm not happy being able to cast well in one fishing situation, I want to have a casting level that you can put me anywhere in the world after any fish species and I don't have an issue with casting.

Does an estuary count Craig? One of the few times I've got that bloody cast to work was on an estuary with a 10 weight tcx bombing a heavy shrimp thing miles out! Caught one of these guys:

[scotty9]

cool, well if it works it works. You can show me it tmrw, I haven't actually seen it done in the flesh.

I haven't been able to get it to work since! It's driving me mad, I can't delay the rotation enough and get my haul late enough to get the bounce effect.