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Casting Stroke

Started by Wildfisher, November 06, 2009, 06:10:49 PM

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Wildfisher

I?m a real fan of Oli Edwards? DVDs ? great to watch  on a cold winter evening. I have often wondered about his casting stroke.

Watch this clip.

How would you describe it?


http://www.wild-fishing-scotland.co.uk/movies/oli.swf

Wildfisher

Quote from: col on November 06, 2009, 06:15:28 PM
simple and direct and not over powered!

it's his back cast that gets me....................

River Chatter

I often do that on rivers... it's a lazy stroke. His rod looks like it's got a softish action rod and a line that looks a bit on the heavy side for the rod too.

Inchlaggan

Having spent a morning watching the great man (some years ago), I would suggest that the clip does not show his "natural" action.
The camera does lie, and the requirements of the cameraman (get it all in the frame) and the director (represent what you intend to demonstrate) frequently give a false impression.
For the cameraman-
In the vertical dimension we have, say, a six foot angler, with a 10 foot rod, plus sufficient foreground to establish the scene.
In the horizontal, we want to see at least 60 feet of line cast forward and land. That gives a view of (approx.) 2x9. He will want to change that to the broadcast standard.
The director will have timing issues- how long can each shot last? and continuity problems- there is a "Go Fishing" episode where the fish is hooked and played in one boat but landed in another.
This can change your natural cast.
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

Inchlaggan

Quote from: River Chatter on November 06, 2009, 06:37:33 PM
I often do that on rivers... it's a lazy stroke. His rod looks like it's got a softish action rod and a line that looks a bit on the heavy side for the rod too.
Thanks RC, that made me think, further to my post.
The requirements of the director/ cameraman would also include - seeing both the line, and the bend in the rod- heavy line/ soft rod.
Add- depth of field issues, which would restrict where the line could pass.
Always better to watch it live.
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

Wildfisher

Ken,

That intro clip is just one example of many. I think that may be  his natural stroke. This is  not a criticism, I have spoken with  someone who fished with him and he is very successful, the guy put much  of that down to  him being a very accurate caster with outstanding line control. I cannot imagine a professional would use an incorrect stroke in an instructional  movie, that makes no sense to me.

So, if you booked a casting lesson and cast like that would the instructor attempt  to cure  your "bad tracking"?

Malcolm

I wonder if he's using a heavy fly. The cast looks like a Belgian cast (see Alan I am getting the names now) to open up the loop. The cast moves in two planes - low on the back cast and higher on the forward cast. It's very useful when fishing big heavy flies and gives you a lot of margin for error on the backcast. 
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

haresear

He is casting in two planes. Out to the side on the back cast and over the top on the forward cast. Useful for casting heavily weighted flies and I do that often when using heavy nymphs on rivers. It is known as the Belgian cast and lefty Kreh casts pretty much like that too.

Instructors would say there is nothing "wrong" with using any cast as long as you are trying to do it :) If that was Ollie's only casting style, which I doubt, then yes an instructor would consider that to be an undesirable element in the cast and would point out that his tracking was suffering on the back cast.

Just read Malcolm's post. Gold star for you Malcolm :)

Alex

Protect the edge.

Wildfisher

Quote from: Malcolm on November 06, 2009, 07:01:52 PM
I wonder if he's using a heavy fly.

A good question. Alex showed me a cast like that - even more of a sweep - to use when casting heavy flies. In this case I don't believe it is as  he is seen to use that same stroke  when fishing dry fly.

Wildfisher

Here's another clip of Oli, this time fishing a Klink - not exactly heavyweight.  As Alex said Lefty Kreh  casts in a similar way. Why would they be doing this? If it works for you is there such a thing as a wrong way to cast?

IMO Oli's technique has much grace and beauty.

http://www.wild-fishing-scotland.co.uk/movies/oli2.swf


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