Just returned from a quick trip out to Oregon for the NW Expo. Left out of Bryson the morning of the 8th about 3:00 AM. Drove one of the curviest highways in the country called the tail of the dragon on US 129 to the Knoxville airport. Never passed a car until the town of Maryville, TN. Many large groups of whitetail on the hwy and one cougar leaped across the road in Stecoah Valley on Hwy. 28. The drive was full of wildlife at 3:30 in the morning along Fontana Lake with the band “New Grass Revival” turned up on the high fidelity waves and a thermos of java for the road! May not work for everyone but that wakes me quick.
After a long flight to Portland, OR, it all went by way too fast! Seems like that is what always transpires when you get around a bunch of other great casting folks that love to fish! Right after we touched down, my friend Al Buhr picked me up at PDX. We went up to see Tim Rajeff across the river and check out Rajeff Sports. He quickly grabbed a bunch of rods and put them up on a machine so we could check out the strain of where they broke. Picked up a Echo Gheko rod for my 5 year old Connor. Also Tim had an extender for the MPR (mini practice rods) that turns it into a 2 handed rod which will be fun to play with for me in the winter months indoors. Also grabbed a new instructor rod that is bright white in color which I plan to use for camera work. Tim will be out here for the SE Conclave in Helen, GA toward the end of April which will be great!
Teaching the Mulson Roll in the horse arena.
The tying tables were loaded with Salmon and Chrome tyers with super flashy flies. Many varieties of Intruders for the winter steelhead runs. The tube fly revolution is big in the area. Many of the great tiers from around the NW were there and it was great to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones too! I have only used a handful of tubes around here but they do offer many advantages overall. I like the idea of not having to waste loads of extra hooks and tungsten on patterns. I think this summer I shall redo many of my favorite patterns on tubes.
I also met Dave Dozer at the show who makes some wonderful bamboo rods. Had fun trying many of the various actions on the casting pond with Mary Ann Dozer. I will try to get up a few pics of the classes in the coming days too! Thanks to Dwight Klemmin and Al Buhr for making it all happen over the weekend. It was great seeing so many familiar faces at the expo!
The CE class was lots of fun Sunday but went by far too fast (which they always do). You can cover many topics when you get that many great casters together. I got a very nice intro into Spey casting the two handed rod after the class out on the pond from Whitney Gould. It was just great overall to learn how awkward my bottom hand was for making casts! It will take loads of work for this to become a natural and consistent flow for me! I learned where these ideal positions should be for the overall stroke from Whitney -even though I found it difficult to make them all come together at once! While the dynamics are identical overall with single and double handed casting, I found the two handed stroke to be a great lesson in humility! It made me feel like a beginner all over again since in no way could the body be in the correct positions during the casting stroke since it was new. The bottom hand plays a large role in setting it all up overall because it has to flow into the correct position. Just like the tracking issues with single hand casting-the double handed rod has to be engrained with the motor skills throughout the stroke. I am looking forward to the practice sessions in the coming months! I have had many mini sessions on the water upon returning home and it has been fun switching the hands around (either hand becomes my bottom hand). I can see big payoffs doing this on the water down the road depending on severity of wind and obstacles.
The CE class covered one of the secrets of fly casting which I entitled “Understanding the invisible pulley”. In casting we direct energy for either a cast or a setup for the placement of line. The pulley concept is one I use to explain where we accent the force for either one. Most casters when they are new to fly casting spend all of their time throwing line (similar to how we throw a ball) to direct this energy to the fly line loop. The circles and figure eight motions used in fly casting can take advantage of either rod out of power followed by rod in power (use your imagination of the invisible pulley-like a snap cast) or rod in power followed by rod out of power ( I learned this language from Al Buhr a few winters ago and I use it often). This is no doubt language for the poets because many of the engineers are baffled how the rod can be in motion and be out of power-simple answer is that it is all about intent. We accent varying amounts of force when making casts (actually various throttle positions for accelerating the rod). This simple concept opens up a myriad of opportunities for fly casting. It also places your rod position during the pauses to be in the correct setup for the following cast. I will use the same outline that we presented in OR for the SE conclave in Helen, GA for the CE program toward the end of April.
This is Matthew Gandy from Vancouver who was kind enough to provide me with some pics from the weekend. He has been bitten by fly fishing and came out to fish with me last year during the middle of summer.
Bryson City Time
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