larry sommerfeld
08-22-2007, 10:34 AM
My brother-in-law, the professional fly fisherman, (who I turned on to fly fishing) sent me a VCR on salt water fly casting. The video gives 10 lessons on technique. After you complete the program, you should be able to throw an 8 wt over the horizon. I am working my way through the program and am on Lesson Three. Today I went fishing. (I know, it's early for Delta stripers, but my choice was between fishing and weeding my wife's cutting garden).
I took two 8 wt outfits - one was a full float line with a crease fly, the other rig was a full sink custom tip express with a Clouser. Throwing the full float rig, I was amazing myself. I was false casting the 40 foot head and 10 ft leader then shooting 40 or 50 feet of running line. It was great! Then, I changed over to the lead core outfit and couldn't do squat. The back cast was about the same, but on the forward cast, when I did the stop (to form a right loop), the Clouser would hit the rod or the line and foul.
After an hour of frustration, I said to hell with that, and went back to my old way of casting - two false casts to establish my overhang, then double haul and shoot. It didn't take long and I was throwing the entire line. It's not pretty, no tight loops here, but it gets the job done. Throwing lead core is a horse of a different color.
OH YEAH...8 small stripers and 2 LMB.
I took two 8 wt outfits - one was a full float line with a crease fly, the other rig was a full sink custom tip express with a Clouser. Throwing the full float rig, I was amazing myself. I was false casting the 40 foot head and 10 ft leader then shooting 40 or 50 feet of running line. It was great! Then, I changed over to the lead core outfit and couldn't do squat. The back cast was about the same, but on the forward cast, when I did the stop (to form a right loop), the Clouser would hit the rod or the line and foul.
After an hour of frustration, I said to hell with that, and went back to my old way of casting - two false casts to establish my overhang, then double haul and shoot. It didn't take long and I was throwing the entire line. It's not pretty, no tight loops here, but it gets the job done. Throwing lead core is a horse of a different color.
OH YEAH...8 small stripers and 2 LMB.