I caught my first steelhead with a young Charles Gehr on the Deschutes River many years ago. I shall never forget that fish or Charles. He is a tremendously gifted if understated guide.
It felt so great when I finally got it! I use a little switch rod and a short skagit head. I feels like I can lift anything! For me, I also found it helps if I remember to separate the planes, starting the reel horizontal for the first circle and vertical for the second. Great vid! thx
Very well made video. Short, simple and straight to the point. For the guys who are complaining about the video if you've spent some time already on the water with these lines you will understand where the adjustments need to be made in your technique just by watching this video alone. Cheers.
Awesome information Charles!!!! I’m struggling with my OPST 8wt rod and Grove intermediate head plus tip. This information has given me something constructive to work with. Like others have mentioned, I have watched a ton of videos, none have illustrated casting heavy tips/fly very well as this is real casting for fishing, not casting tiny flies with floating lines and tips for RU-vid video ego. Finally someone made a video that actually uses and explains real world casting issues. Thank you very much.
Good explanation on the subtle differences. And as one other person mentioned Scott Howell I believe stayed true to Skagit casting on his video. So is it fair to say that with heavy sink tips and big heavy flies the loops on the fwd cast isn't as tight
I found some suggestion for single hand Commando head,said don't stop at all when starting a sweep,and make the forward stroke.Is that the "continuous" cast? Lower the rod tip to compress the D loop,avoid to blow the ancbor ,but I don't understand the continuous stroke.
When a rod states 250-275 grain skagit line is that only talking about the shooting head grain weight? Or is it shooting head grain weight + tip grain weight need to equal between 250-275?
So, while there are good aspects to this video, I'd consider re-doing it. As a former professor I've got some pedagogic comments: One, based on the background colors, rod and line colors, I'd consider adding some fluorescent tape to the end of the rod tip if possible to make it more visible. Or use a fluorescent orange line. Two, I'd reduce the amount of casting to the essential. Three, I'd reduce the amount of talking to the essential, only commenting about the specific cast you are presently, about to, or just finished doing. Four, I'd consider some slow motion or some frozen frames with annotations---there are free and or cheap video programs that allow you to do this. Five, you skip over some things, like the set-up and the anchor---you show them, but you don't comment on them as much as on , for instance, forming the D loop. Six, I wish you had done a series of alternate casts, showing the 2 different types of casts you were teaching us---first the one, then the other, then again the one, and again the other, to clearly contrast how they differ. Tweaked, this could be a terrific video on the different ways to approach water and conditions with these different ways of 2 handed casting. Best to you, Tex Andrews (Carter Andrews'--yeah, that guy--older half brother).
Thanks for the feedback. This is simply just a recording of Charles' presentation from our 2018 Rogue On The Fly event, not meant to be a high quality edited instructional spey casting video. Cheers.
Re Two : I really enjoyed watching every cast; repetition being key to my understanding. Re Three: I found his dialogue was inseparable from the demonstration and just right. I agree with your other points.
I liked everything about this video, the repetition was great as repetition teaches. I think anyone can nit pick any video, it’s like looking at the glass half full. Take the information from this if your able to or make a video yourself, I’d love to watch a new constructive casting video friend.
Seems like you are actually comparing spey casting techniques with scandi vs skagit lines. The skagit style of spey casting is always sustained anchor even the snap t that you are using to demonstrate should have continuous motion because the load is coming from the sweep not from the d loop. In any case scandi lines can do the same casts they just can’t throw the heavy tips and flies
I had your mindset as well friend. My love for casting a long belly with my Bruce and Walker 15’ Powerlite is near and dear to my casting pleasure but I found that it’s not a bad thing to have the ability to use different skills/tools. Making this skagit thing look pretty is cool and isn’t a simple as I thought, I don’t expect to change your mind but I think if you really give it an honest try you wouldn’t be disappointed, plus you would have a tool to use in complicated casting areas. Give it a try and report back, if you totally hate it after giving it an honest effort, I’d be interested in your journey.
He says fly casting is a "slow acceleration to a stop". Shades of Lefty Kreh's baloney! It's impossible to accelerate to a stop. Somewhere there has to be a deceleration.
