So this summer I taught casting to a cross-section of the general population, from 10 year olds to much older people, with or without previous experience, with a desire to fish or just to try, etc. I had to adapt my language to different levels of social interpretation, ranging from the young boy to saying “the rod half” as I felt he was not talking to me.
I had to adapt my language to different levels of social interpretation, going for the young boy to say “half the rod” as I felt that 45° or even 10 hours didn’t seem to speak to him.
But in the end, even with the most zealous, there are still two unsolvable problems: the “noon” position aka the vertical cane and especially the energy and acceleration between 10 and noon. No one seems to be able to find the energy to throw the line over the rod. No matter how much I shout at the water’s edge, encourage them with “pump”, “tick” and “splash”, nothing helps, it goes from slow and sluggish rise to very slow and slimy rise. I’m kidding, but it’s still the truth. Not only can they not stop, they can’t speed up. My latest student, suddenly improved his casting when the trout started showing their snouts. All of a sudden, with the help of adrenaline, his arm started to accelerate, then stopped almost at the right place and even if it was not for the right reasons since he finally understood that if he lowered the rod too much, he would get caught in the branches on the ground behind him, his cast suddenly improved by 100%. To fall back immediately when the trout were silent. Despite everything, I am confident that he will quickly regain this state of grace.
All this to say that I shout, I yell, I encourage, I demonstrate, I punctuate, but nothing makes it, they are all obliged to compensate by whipping forward. Of course always too quickly, which makes the fly land on the end of the silk, “unplayable” and inoperative.
As I tell them, I am not a stickler for means, all I care about is having a fly at the end of the leader in a position to attract the fish. My own joy of catching a salmon only at the end of a perfect cast is far too demanding for this to be anyone’s goal.
I remember my friend Jacques trying out rods in the alley behind the store and showing the customer how good the rod was when he could make exactly the same cast with any rod and it was even said that he could have made the same demonstration with a broom handle.
Still, I had some very good experiences this year. In particular, wives who wanted to accompany their fisherman and have fun on their side were really able to understand and assimilate the technique to improve it in one session. This other angler I mentioned in another text who finally understood the idea of taking the line out of the water to improve his casting by 100%. No one, among the most advanced, has really understood the idea that you have to limit the vertical movement of the tip to reduce the loop, nor the idea that you have to load the rod by pushing it horizontally, as if you were punching it.
I understood that my initial explanation that all the energy is concentrated between 10 am and noon is a view of the mind, but also that it is a necessary simplification to try to limit, without succeeding however, the parasitic movements.
I don’t know if I’ll do this kind of intensive season again, because when it’s over, I have the impression that my interest has been dulled by repeating the same things every day with the feeling that nobody understands it. That’s why I’m writing to try to put my own thoughts into shape.