Fly-casting
is a lot like driving a car. We spend so much time focused on speed and power,
we sometimes forget the importance of a good stop.
An old mentor of mine, the late Mel Krieger, would routinely start a
class by having the students unstring their rods, then wave those rods
in the air.
But Mel wasn't looking for just any kind of waving. He was explicit that
the motion should be smooth and continuous, like swinging a rope over
your head. He would ask the class to think about how the rod felt: A
smooth motion with no particular sensation.
Then Mel would change the exercise, saying he wanted everybody to use a
sharp swing, rapidly accelerating the rod and stopping hard. He even had
a word for this.
"Whump the rod," Mel would say. And he insisted that the class join him in saying "Whump!" with each swing.
"Do you feel the difference?" he would ask.
The difference was pronounced. Instead of a smooth motion, you would
sense the rod bending and straightening with a distinctive rebound. You
would feel a Whump! You would feel the difference between a good cast
and a bad cast. You would feel what it means to "load" the rod.
At its core, fly-casting is nothing more than loading the rod, or making
it bend, by accelerating it through the stroke. The more we load the
rod, the deeper it bends. Think of this bend as energy waiting to be
released.
How do you release it?
You stop the rod, allowing it to unload and throw your line. The sharper the stop, the better the cast.
Give Mel's exercise a try. Give your rod a Whump!
