With the Tour de France starting tomorrow (live report), I thought I’d do a little post relating cycling to fly casting. When I was road racing (i.e. when I was younger and faster), I paid a lot of attention to the more “advanced” aspects of things like pedal/cleat interface, body position, gearing, and of course, [...]

This is a piece I wrote (with additional information/text from my friend and FCI colleague, Dr. Tim McCue) last year for the American Casting Association’s newsletter. While it has somewhat of a competition focus, it also has real-world “fishing casting” applicability. Hope that at least a few FF&W readers find it to be useful. ———- [...]

So for those on the E-List who got the latest mailing (Jan/Feb 2010), read the section on the Parachute Mend, and then said, “Nice, and thanks for not including a picture!” this post is for you. For those not on the E-List, this post is also for you (I like to be all-inclusive around here). [...]

For those following the Speed of Haul discussion on the Sexyloops Bulletin Board, here’s that post I promised. For those not following the discussion (or not wanting to read through those pages of casting-tech pontification), what follows is a quick taste of double-hauling (short cast) as shown on the 200-frame-per-second motion-capture system used by the [...]

Wrote this years ago, but I still use the idea in my demos and clinics. It’s definitely more dynamic when presented live with props, but I think you can get the idea without watching me tear a rotator cuff… – – – – – – – – – - Why is it that “beginners” always [...]

Recently got an e-mail asking: “What do you feel is the end-all, be-all in casting? Super distance or super accuracy or some other skill that defines ‘best’? What’s your opinion?” My answer is “Being able to make the needed cast—and if necessary, the needed mend—in any situation.” In other words, the end-all, be-all is being [...]

While there is still plenty of fishing to be had for some of the FF&W readership, others may be finding themselves staring at hard water and closed seasons. Well, it may not be fishing season for all of you, but it’s definitely MPR season! As many FF&W readers know, I am a fan of Echo’s [...]

As promised: Spey goodies. This is Juergen Friesenhahn’s contribution of German efficiency to the Spey world (especially the shooting-head side of things). I like the way the cast flows so smoothly and quickly, using a variation of skills that many Spey casters already possess (Can you make a Snap-T or Snap-V? If your answer is [...]

Sorry if this post is more like a tweet… I’ve been chatting and trading pix with German caster, Juergen Friesenhahn, about his Snap-Slip Spey—a slick and efficient cast. There will be a post coming for all you Spey-fanatics!

This is a bit of straight-up post laziness, I admit, but it also is useful from an educational standpoint, especially if you are into/curious about the CCS system for measuring rod properties. As many of you know, I am putting in a bit of time up at Gary Loomis’ new North Fork Composites. Part of [...]

Yep, a pure lazy well-timed re-post. True, there is a perma-linked page over in the sidebar, but my web stats say the pages often get missed, so here it is again. This is an almost-verbatim snip from my Nature of Fly Casting book about one potential aid in grass-casting. And yes, you’ll probably see it show up again [...]

I’ve been putting in some time up at Gary Loomis’ new North Fork Composites (NFC) rod-blank project (blog is here). When the company was getting underway, there was a discussion about using Dr. Bill Hanneman’s Common Cents System (CCS) for providing additional (and “objective”) blank data, and NFC decided to run with it. The CCS [...]