Mika Lappalainen | Friday, 28 June 2019
I had busy last week and I missed two important things. First my FP on Friday and more important miss was ephemera vulgata hatch. Begin of week I was gathering and herding reindeer for marking and on Wednesday we were able to gather all and got them in fence, so we were able to mark calves which were born this summer. On Thursday I was guiding (originally plan was on Wednesday but luckily it was client behind years so he understood importancy of marking). During guiding we saw first signs of hatching to come but it was not time yet. On Friday I was rafting and hatching started. I saw some good rises and boat was full of ephemera vulgata and their skins. We went fishing on Saturday but hatching was gone, we had nice outdoor meal by the fire with family and it was more like piknik day. Hatches are short and furious in here. Sometimes just one or two days depending about river.
Yesterday I was guiding and giving casting lesson for first timer. There was some hatching again and I think that beginning of next hatch also. I saw some mayflies which have not been yet this summer. I’m looking forward to weekend and maybe great dryfly fishing.
But let’s go to headline, common mistakes. Yesterday when teaching casting, I noticed same mistakes that all (you should say "most" but basically it looks like "all") beginners do when starting casting with flyrod. It is probably because of history around spinning rod and how people start their fishing young (as even 4 years old) and they need to use more power and wider movements to cast. Well there is not really reasonable reason why you should make wider casts with spinning rod but it is like habit going from father to son or daughter.
So here is some notes from yesterday.
- Too wide move in rod, not 9 to 3, you are not showing you working time with your rod. That just make ….. well you are not casting, you are splashing and in problems with line. Go 10 to 1 max
- too active wrist, this seems to be especially problem to women but also some man, you are basicly casting with your wrist and not using your elbow at all. You know there is joint (and I don’t mean one you can smoke) in your elbow and it can move. you can make some casting just with your wrist but believe me, you are not drinking beer with that wrist in the evening. My wife uses wrist support when fishing to keep more firm wrist but she has also over bending joints so it is helping for that also.
- Indecision, you start casting but don’t know if you are want to roll cast or overhead cast. Result is mess or whip or lost of fly or fly on you. When you start casting make it either roll or overhead and act like that. Learn first either one of them and then start another one. Movements are pretty much same so learning overhead cast is helping with all other ones also.
- Not following the line. Follow the line when learning casting. If you are roll casting you need to anchor you line or you make it whip (that might be your bedroom thing, it doesn’t belong to fishing). If you are doing overhead cast following the line will help you about casting a lot and making your caster faster. You get timing right and understanding about casting.
- Horizontal rod. Everything is harder and you need to have more power. Also you make lot of noise with water. Keep your rod vertically and turn it just little bit to keep line out of rod.
So these are mistakes I see most when teaching beginners. In here it is not so many people who want to have just casting teaching, most of people want to fish so I do my best to fix their mistakes while they are fishing. Man are most difficult to fix, they say yes but nothing happens. Woman…. well you might need to go close contact to teach them.
Have a nice weekend