Antietam Fly Anglers Casting Club featuring
FFF Certified Casting Instructor Robert Stouffer
February and March Calendar of Meetings and Events
River Bottom Park in Williamsport, Maryland. There are two entrances. We will park near the boat ramp just South of the US Route 11 bridge. Get off of Route 81 and head towards Williamsport. Turn Left at the third traffic light and then Right onto West Salisbury Street. Bring your favorite all-purpose rod with 7 ½ foot 1X leader with yarn fly. We will have breakfast at the Hagerstown City Market at 7:45 AM prior to the meeting. Please join us.
Additional Equipment: Put your waders, wading boots and staff in your car. You may wish to take advantage of the water for practice.
Saturday, 6 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, shooting line and caster's progress
Saturday, 20 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Fishing in Wind (Part 1 - cancelled in January)
Saturday, 27 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Fishing in Wind (Part 2 - cancelled in January)
Saturday, 13 March - 9:00 AM.
National Capital TU, Bethesda, MD
The Antietam Fly Anglers and BACC is hosting a booth Please help to man the booth and participate in the show Check-out the show on-line. Jack Dennis is the headliner.
Saturday, 20 March - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Targeting, Individual Problems
Saturday, 27 March - 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM
Fly Caster's Rendezvous, River Bottom Park, Williamsport The BACC is hosting the event. Casting instruction, teaching and games.
Advance Notice of Fly-Casting Event
Fly-Caster's Rendezvous - Instruction for all levels - Instructor's Rod-in- hand Roundtable - Casting Games - Distance Casting Events (non- sanctioned) - Emergency Casting Clinic
27 March 2010, 9:00 AM
River Bottom Park, Williamsport, Maryland
First-time beginners, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced casters - CCI and MCI encouraged.
Fun, Discovery and give-and-take education
More information will be provided here at the end of February
River Bottom Park in Williamsport, Maryland. There are two entrances. We will park near the boat ramp just South of the US Route 11 bridge. Get off of Route 81 and head towards Williamsport. Turn Left at the third traffic light and then Right onto West Salisbury Street. Bring your favorite all-purpose rod with 7 ½ foot 1X leader with yarn fly. We will have breakfast at the Hagerstown City Market at 7:45 AM prior to the meeting. Please join us.
Additional Equipment: Put your waders, wading boots and staff in your car. You may wish to take advantage of the water for practice.
Saturday, 6 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, shooting line and caster's progress
Saturday, 20 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Fishing in Wind (Part 1 - cancelled in January)
Saturday, 27 February - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Fishing in Wind (Part 2 - cancelled in January)
Saturday, 13 March - 9:00 AM.
National Capital TU, Bethesda, MD
The Antietam Fly Anglers and BACC is hosting a booth Please help to man the booth and participate in the show Check-out the show on-line. Jack Dennis is the headliner.
Saturday, 20 March - 9:00 AM.
Warm-up, Targeting, Individual Problems
Saturday, 27 March - 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM
Fly Caster's Rendezvous, River Bottom Park, Williamsport The BACC is hosting the event. Casting instruction, teaching and games.
Advance Notice of Fly-Casting Event
Fly-Caster's Rendezvous - Instruction for all levels - Instructor's Rod-in- hand Roundtable - Casting Games - Distance Casting Events (non- sanctioned) - Emergency Casting Clinic
27 March 2010, 9:00 AM
River Bottom Park, Williamsport, Maryland
First-time beginners, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced casters - CCI and MCI encouraged.
Fun, Discovery and give-and-take education
More information will be provided here at the end of February
February 2010 Training Tip
Education for Progress
I try not to recommend the spending of money to our club members. I am not good at marketing and, when making such recommendations to your friends it is hazardous. You may have to ride with them in a car for a long trip. There are, however, some expenditures that can yield benefits.
I recommend a library of at least two books about casting or casting mechanics. I do not care which books you choose - just understand that the reading of the books do have the potential to help you improve your casting and understand casting mechanics. I recommend that you purchase one book from two different authors so that you can understand that each author has a point of view which includes differences. It is good for your casting education. My personal library includes books by George Roberts, Jr., Lefty Kreh, Jason Borger, Joan Wulff, the late Mel Kreiger, Jawarowski and others. There is a pamphlet that you should purchase from the FFF called Essentials of Fly Casting by Bill Gammel. This pamphlet belongs in your casting club kit that you carry to each meeting.
The second recommendation is that you pay for a few hours class from a nationally respected FFF Master Casting Instructor. These hours are not expensive. Begin this education by attending a fly fishing show and pre-enrolling in a casting clinic offered by a known guru. These clinics usually cost about $70. No other sport offers this type of education for practitioners for this small amount of money. Remember - this person may be in the top 10 or 20 casting instructors in the world. Each year the FFF has a Conclave, generally held in the Western US, which lasts for nearly a week. I have attended two of these events and have received instruction from several of the best. Several other Antietam Fly Anglers have attended Conclave. You can take classes of all types and mix-in fishing or on-stream instruction. It is highly recommended.
For our part, the club has just printed the first several copies of "Caster's Progress", a Bob Abraham Casting Club publication to help you set and meet goals. This booklet will help you to chart your casting education whether at our club or attending classes elsewhere. More copies will be available in February.
Bob Stouffer, FFF CCI
Education for Progress
I try not to recommend the spending of money to our club members. I am not good at marketing and, when making such recommendations to your friends it is hazardous. You may have to ride with them in a car for a long trip. There are, however, some expenditures that can yield benefits.
I recommend a library of at least two books about casting or casting mechanics. I do not care which books you choose - just understand that the reading of the books do have the potential to help you improve your casting and understand casting mechanics. I recommend that you purchase one book from two different authors so that you can understand that each author has a point of view which includes differences. It is good for your casting education. My personal library includes books by George Roberts, Jr., Lefty Kreh, Jason Borger, Joan Wulff, the late Mel Kreiger, Jawarowski and others. There is a pamphlet that you should purchase from the FFF called Essentials of Fly Casting by Bill Gammel. This pamphlet belongs in your casting club kit that you carry to each meeting.
The second recommendation is that you pay for a few hours class from a nationally respected FFF Master Casting Instructor. These hours are not expensive. Begin this education by attending a fly fishing show and pre-enrolling in a casting clinic offered by a known guru. These clinics usually cost about $70. No other sport offers this type of education for practitioners for this small amount of money. Remember - this person may be in the top 10 or 20 casting instructors in the world. Each year the FFF has a Conclave, generally held in the Western US, which lasts for nearly a week. I have attended two of these events and have received instruction from several of the best. Several other Antietam Fly Anglers have attended Conclave. You can take classes of all types and mix-in fishing or on-stream instruction. It is highly recommended.
For our part, the club has just printed the first several copies of "Caster's Progress", a Bob Abraham Casting Club publication to help you set and meet goals. This booklet will help you to chart your casting education whether at our club or attending classes elsewhere. More copies will be available in February.
Bob Stouffer, FFF CCI
The AFA Casting Club helps participants to improve their casting skills. It is an outdoor activity for practice, education and development. Currently, there is an FFF Certified Casting Instructor and other members who share the duties of presenting a skill and give encouragement and tips to the members. It is intended that the members who attend regularly will gain mastery of casting fundamentals and the ability to teach others.
Each session begins with some aspect of the Fundamental Casting Stroke. We then move to the skill for the day. The sessions usually last an hour and a half.
You will need a basic training rod, reel, floating line and 7 1/2 foot 2x leader. If you do not own fly casting equipment, email Bob Stouffer and he will scrounge one up to use on a temporary basis.
December 2009 Training Tip
Roll Casting
A few years ago, I had significant problems executing a good roll cast. This past summer, on the Clark Fork just upstream from its confluence with the Bitteroot River, I was able to reach a seam in the water that I could only have dreamed about two years before with a long, high roll cast. Left-bank fishing a third of the way across the river, flat water in the center of the stream, and a bubble-line right up against a grassy cut-bank where the occasional fish rose to mayflies. A high bank behind me with a very irritatingly placed streamside tree denied any back-cast greater than forty feet. A good cast to the bubble-line yields several feet of drag-free drift before the line bows downstream and rips the fly away from the run. I have stood in that spot and cast until my arm got floppy, never reaching the fish. This past year, with the exact same rod-line-leader combination, I was able to drift the fly over the trout for the last hour of the evening. This was accomplished by anchoring the fly upstream of the target line, making a dynamic D loop and slowly casting and hauling to a high stop. It is a wonderful place and I hope to go there again soon.
The movements of your shoulder, arm, hand and body in the roll-cast are the same as the movements in a front-cast of a false cast or pick-up-and-lay-down. Roll casting is a fundamental skill taught either as the first skill (before the back-cast) or the second skill (after the back-cast). The cast is taught as a simple movement, but it has enough depth and nuance to sustain practice and improvement over a lifetime of casting. It is a cast that bridges casting styles and rod types. It can be practiced on grass as well as water. You can haul on the roll cast and you should learn to do so. You do not need a special rod for roll casting. You can use a very long two-handed rod, a switch rod, or a full-flex, progressive-flex or tip-flex single-handed rod. Indeed, you must be able to roll cast with all of your equipment because roll-casting is a necessity in all fishing situations. For a mental exercise, try to think of a fishing situation where you would not require, at some time or another, the roll cast. A fat book with umpteen visuals could be prepared about this one aspect of casting. A short list of suggestions follow. You only have to pay attention to the VERY IMPORTANT parts of this training tip.
Pace of the cast: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - Begin VERY SLOWLY. Make yourself practice casting too slowly for the first two-thirds of the stroke. Encourage your students or friends to try to cast so slowly that the cast will fail. You may find that beginning "too slowly" may result in a long roll-cast. Do not use hand-speed to get the line moving, just cast the rod in a way that you can feel the rod tip slowly pulling on the line. Start slowly with a long stroke and with a constant acceleration. "Good. Now this time begin more slowly."
Straight Line Casting Stroke: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - from a thumbnail position beginning at the same height of your temple, move your thumbnail in a straight line path. Try the horizontal path.
Length of the Casting Stroke: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - make a very long casting stroke.
Stop angle: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - stop the rod firmly after wrist rotation at a high rod angle and maintain the high rod angle.
Wrist rotation: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT and, perhaps, the MOST IMPORTANT - begin the forward casting stroke in the Wrist Straight position and hold that wrist position until the very end of the casting stroke. When you get to the very last inch of the stroke, rotate the butt of the rod like you were trying to break it off just above the grip. Try the reach-cast from your high angle stop.
Bob' Training Tip for October 2009
Guest Writer (Instructor) Francois P. Levage (APAGI) used without his permission. Unedited except for obvious misspellings or usage (sic).
Learn to cast S l o w l y
Mr. Robert.
Thank you for the time you spent with me at the Federation Conclave in the State of Colorado this year. I hope that you benefited from my instruction. I read with great interest your tome on slow casting presented in the Antietam Fly Angler's posting, and noticed with equivocation the clenched teeth statement regarding Alastair Gowans, and also his accent. I certainly hope that this generalization is not used in the conduct your program. Nevertheless, let me continue our session with a word regarding apparel. I noticed that anglers in the United States, in general, dress for sport in an entirely different manner from their normal pursuits. Not one cravatte in the bung (sic). Not one American Cowboy chapeau in the bung (sic). Certainly there must be one American Cowboy in Colorado! Mostly the little casquette de baseball with prominent advertisement. These little casquettes offer very little protection against sunsburn or rain. Short pantalon and short shirt sleeves lengths, and the colorful gator shoes with holes and without bonneterie granted the entire week a comical window-dressing.
On the Continent, we attend to our head and face with sunsburn sceening and a hat with a small curtain on the back which covers the neck and ears. Also, it is important to note, that suns spectacles are very common here and offer great protection from harmful suns UV focalize. These three things are important to health and their use must be advanced by everyone involved in the sport. The chapeau de solier is most important. Also, please implore them the use suns screening tonique on the tops of the hands. Also, encourage the wearing of the long sleeve length chemise and suns screening tonique, even under the chemise. Mon Dieu, please consider the condition of your students and friends after a weekend in the suns. I understand that it is against the military law of your army to suffer en flammes de solier. Certainly you would not dare to send a client back to the family in such a state while still collecting your fees. Such education. If there is one thing from France that I can send you without spoiling in the mail, this is yours to enjoy.
Please practice for next time.
Fondly
Francois P. Levage
I hope that there is something in here from Francois that you can use. It was an interesting letter, even if I did not understand all of it.
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