[Cadno]

Some of you will have seen the discussion in 'Rods' (http://www.speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=23351 about casting Greenheart rods, to which I recently added a post including a video of me 'attempting' the Grant Switch Cast using a constant tapered line and a variety of old Greenhearts, as well as a 17' Clan carbon spey rod. The video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1VdxrNu9o

The video was taken as part of a discussion I have been having with Ron Holloway, AAPGAI, about resurrecting the Grant Switch cast. We've been swapping emails and telephone calls, but as he lives in the south of Scotland and I live in South Wales we haven't been able to get together to watch each other casting. We are both following the instructions (or trying to) given in the book 'Fine and Far off' by Jock Scott.

We are coming at the problem from two opposite ends - I'm attempting to replicate both the cast and the line Grant used, using Greenheart and silk. Ron is working hard with modern manufacturers to produce a carbon rod and plastic line that replicates (or outdoes!) the original.

I'm painfully aware that the video shows up a lot of faults in my attempt at the cast, and it was partly taken so that I could see those faults and also to show Ron what I was doing so that he could critique my efforts from his perspective.

In the video, the line I am using started off as being a constant taper line from 4wt at the tip to 12wt at the butt (reel) end, tapered over 125', and one of the things both of us quickly realised was that the line was too long to cast with the rods we had at hand. A re-read of the relevant chapters of the book showed that we could quite happily shorten the line, from the tip back, and I did this using the Clan 17' rod (in 9' increments) until I found the length of line that I could comfortably lift and switch in one cast - this length turned out to be 90' of tapered fly line, plus a 12' polyleader, plus 8' of 15lb mono leader and the fly, so in the video I am consistently lifting and casting 110' from the reel to the fly, with little effort.

This is done without shooting, which is the whole point of the cast. No stripping back to the head, no shoot, it's lift and cast, fish around to the dangle, step downstream, lift and cast.

Ron gave me a good critique of my casting, highlighting some of things I had already noticed from the video:

" Although spotting the line in the video is difficult may I suggest one or two observations.

When the line is on the dangle make sure the line is straight and rod tip is close to the water before you start to lift. I have found that with modern long rods I only need to lift to 10 o’clock before I pull back horizontally. Also I find that by not pausing at ten o’clock the momentum from the gentle gradual lift off is evenly accelerated, building up power in the flexing rod back to the stop at say 12 o’clock where the right hand should be level with or just above the right ear and the hand no more than 12” out from the ear and the left hand level with your chin. The right hand may stop at 12 o’clock but the rod tip will go farther back until the power comes off momentarily, before the rod takes hold of the line again and you flip forward. You appear to over do the outward curve when pulling back which is inevitably replicated in the forward cast. This is obvious in one shot where your fly kisses the water a good away away from your right shoulder, possibly two or more rod lengths away from you.

Again illustrated in the shots taken from behind you. Yes your rod tracking paths need to be straighter and more towards the upright throughout the whole action. It only needs a very slight curve when initially pulling through into the the back cast, as the line is coming back under the rod tip not above it as in a overhead. Remember the straighter and more upright the lift off the straighter the forward cast will be. The curve needs to be minimal in this case and is done just to prevent the line colliding with itself when the forward flip is made. Any forward cast will always replicate the back cast.
Lastly when the forward flip is finished and the line is travelling forward of the rod tip and gravity has taken over that drops the line on the water in a straight line follow the line down with a follow through without any power. You will find you will gain an extra yard or two distance by getting rid of the over hang if you stop the rod and hold it at a high angle where the flip forward stops."

So - back to the point of the post! A quick search of this forum reveals a lot of interest in Alexander Grant and his techniques, and I'm hoping that some of you out there who have also been experimenting with this cast will chime in and see if we can pool the knowledge needed to progress...the cast 'instructions' given in the book are very basic, and difficult to interpret in the water with the rod in hand. Hence the discussion with Ron, and now hopefully others.

I've got to go and scour the auctions in the UK to find some more Greenheart rods, preferably spliced, preferably made by Grant himself, and as long as possible. My longest is 17', but that's now snapped at the base of the top joint splice (!), other than a 19' 2 piece Castle Connell Tournament rod, which was made with a different cast in mind so has the wrong taper to execute the Grant Switch. Typically, the rod that cast best with the line is the 17' greenheart in the last clip of the video - sadly, no more trips to the river for that rod after over 100 years!

Next step for me is get a better video recorder and correct my hand position and the angle of the sweep and drive. Please feel free to add to Ron's comments, and let's see if we can make progress.

Cheekily, if anyone in the UK has a redundant, very long spliced Greenheart rod that they don't want anymore, I'd quite happily take it for days out on the Wye...

Stuart
Cadno Silk Lines

 

[oldschoolskunk]

Someone give up their 21 foot Vibration. Where's Speyghillie?
Thanks for the video Stuart!

 

[fredaevans]

Great post.

To really enjoy the casting clip go to full screen on your monitor. As much of the clip is done in slow motion you can frequently see the fly line.

fae

 

[Cadno]

Gathering together some of the comments from other threads on this subject...

The cast is almost completely aerialised - there is no anchor whatsoever. The fly may touch down adjacent to you as the forward cast is started, but that doesn't happen on every cast, and this is mentioned in 'Fine and Far Off' as a possibility. In the video, there are some instances where you can see a splash just out from me and slightly upstream, this is the extent of the 'touchdown'. and it's probably down to my technique and timing. During the cast, I can't feel it as an anchor in the classic spey cast sense, it doesn't do anything towards loading the rod.

In the book, Jock Scott describes how the leader rises vertically in the air at the end of the forward cast and turns over, splashing the fly down into the water. This is exactly what happens - it's very weird to see, looks like the leader is a piece of stiff wire!

The D loop formed is massive - given that in the video I'm switching 110' of line, the D loop upstream must be at least 45' long. However, this doesn't seem to matter, as the cast starts off on the dangle straight downstream, and the lift and sweep backcast sends the loop straight back upstream...the change of direction to cast across the river comes in the moment of starting the forward cast. As the fly and all the line is upstream of the rod (and in the air) a change of direction of up to 40 odd degrees is possible without getting a crossed loop on the forward cast.With 110' of line out, though, it would have to be a huge river to need to cast at that angle - the book works through the fishing method with the cast and it's mostly casting a long way downstream and across, rather than square, so the angular change of direction is much smaller.

All rods are different - and react to the line in different ways. We have found that the line has to be 'tuned' to the rod, in terms of the maximum length line that each rod can cast. Hence me standing in the river cutting bits off the front of the line, to find out how long a line my Clan 17' would comfortably cast. This too is covered in 'the book', with the discussion of loop-to-loop tip sections for adding or subtracting line (and length) for different lengths of rods, and Jock Scott discusses a table of maximum cast distances for differing rod lengths, giving as a rule of thumb 3 yards extra (or less) for each foot of rod length. I assume that the lengths given in the table are for an accomplished, well practiced caster - as I'm about 20' short of what he says I should be casting with a 17' rod. However, I don't have a 17' Grant Vibration, and having cast a few greenhearts with the line, it would appear that Grant was spot on where he intimates that the rod and line are designed as one - I would think that with a 'new' 17' greenheart, not one 100 years old - I could add quite a lot of distance to the cast without much more effort.

It's also strange how much the greenheart rods 'help' in the cast - a difficult statement to explain if you have never cast one, but I'll have a go. I find that the 'weight' of the wood in the rod feels like it's doing a lot of the cast for me. I only have to move the butt a small distance, and the tip moves a long way, and keeps going - I can feel the rod load a long way down to the butt (Grant insisted on no cork on the handles of the rods he made, so that the angler had that 'feel' under the hands) and then it unloads itself, with quite a thump. The slo-mo phases in the video give some indication of this - if you see where the 'stop' is on the forward cast, I try to make it a hard stop, and the video shows how much the rod bends forward after the stop. In those passages in the video where you can see the line, the majority of the flight of the line in the forward cast is made after the stop - which is why I am standing there with the rod in the high port position for so long - I'm waiting for the line to stop extending so that I can lower it to the water in front of me. For those of you who fish cane (even in trout lengths) you'll know the feeling of 'the rod is doing the casting'. This is even more pronounced with greenheart.

I'm quite happy to answer any questions you have about the experience and the cast - I can't say I'm an expert, but in the absence of any other video of the cast I'm trying to go by the written instructions and share my findings as I go. I wish Grant or Jock Scott or anybody else familiar with the cast was still around!

Stuart

 

[speyghillie]

Grant Switch cast

Hi Stuart,
I am just back from fishing in British Columbia so possibly a little late to join in the detail of the Highland Switch cast, still got a little jet lag as I arrived home late last night.
I have been working on the Highland Switch cast for a few years now and a book on Alexander Grant I hope to finish by the Spring, I really like the work you are doing on the Cast and would like to help when I get a chance, one think I can help with is to say that all the details of the cast are not in Fine and Far off, Alexander made *Jock Scott* keep a secret about the cast, off the top of my head I think if you look at page 117 you will see *Jock scott* keep his promise to Alexander who died in 1942 before the book was published, i have all the letters of correspondence between Jock Scott and Alexander Grant as well as all the rod taper designs and notes made by Alexander i also have the Original 18ft Rod used by Alexander while he was a Ghillie at Dochfour, the rod he made for himself.
Will post some detail this evening.
Thanks Gordon.
DTX Pro Staff.

 

[tspeyall]

Switch cast...

Is it possible a line made for this cast will emerge from all this work???
Sounds like spot-on technique is the key...

Keep going,
Tom

 

[Cadno]

Gordon,

I'm looking forward to your input (post jet lag) - I think everyone else on here is as well! You can put me on the list for a copy of the Alexander Grant book - that's going to be some good reading. I've also found a description of the cast in Jock Scott's book 'Sea Trout Fishing', which is described in a slightly less roundabout way -

Fly Casting
The first principle of all casting with a fly rod is to make the rod do the work. As a commencement,' put your rod together, with reel in position, but do not thread the line through the rings. Now try to bend the rod by waving it backwards and forwards over your shoulder, watching the rod as you do so. You will very soon find the amount of force needed to bend the rod. The rod is made to be bent; it is not a stiff pole, or a whip-handle. If you try to treat it as such you will never throw a line. The next lesson is that brute force will get you nowhere. Let us suppose that you are casting against an' adverse wind, and nothing will go right for you. That is the time when one is inclined to lose control and cast harder and harder with worse results than ever. An old angler once said to me, "Violence is a confession of incompetence". I have never forgotten this dictum and now, when I find myself using force, I pull myself up, muttering "incompetence" as I do so. So far as I am concerned it always cures me! Next, never be in a hurry, because haste robs you of full control both of your hand and of the line: You have all
the time in the world; the best casters use a slow, lazy swing and the line goes just where they wish.

So we now have three basic rules: (a) bend the rod, (b) eschew brute force, and (c) never hurry. If things go wrong, relax; move more and more slowly and gently and you will regain control again. It is exactly like golf; immediately you begin to press you lose control, both of yourself and of the club. The great essential for successful fishing is self control you must be in complete charge of the situation and never, never let your natural instincts take charge. Casting is an excellent exercise in self-discipline. Before you begin to cast make perfectly certain that you know exactly what you are to do. If you do not, your state is that of a pilot who gels into the air and does not know which way he is going.

The Switch Cast
This is a grand exercise for the beginner because it inculcates all the virtues and show's up all the vices of fly casting. As the beginner acquires skill, he will also lay a wonderful foundation for his overhead work. The switch I am about to describe is very similar to the Spey Cast, and is endlessly useful to the sea trout man fishing a rough river with trees, high banks and rocks behind him. The overhead cannot be used because the fly would hit the obstructions behind as the back cast is made. He cannot throw his line back over his head, so he must throw it upstream parallel with the bank, and thence across and down. The sketch shows the position of the angler, whose line is downstream ready to be lifted and thrown. In order to make the cast the line must first be propelled upstream past the angler's right shoulder and then thrown forward. The angler's body forms the centre of gravity from which the whole cast works. Before a flexible load such as a dressed fly line can be thrown it must be laid out straight, and in this case the stream is holding the line out for him. The load is on. The rod is raised so as to lift as much line as possible above the water: and he is ready to cast. A pause is made here in any case, and the opportunity can be taken to explain the next step, i.e. throwing the line upstream. The line is to come back under the rod point, instead of above it, as in the overhead cast. In nautical terms he is throwing a bight of line upstream and, when the backcast is completed, the angler and his line form a capital D the angler representing the upright and the line the curved part. We left our fisherman ready to cast, with rod raised to an angle of forty-five degrees to the water. Now comes the tricky part. The beginner must realize that the line will exactly follow the rod tip. It therefore follows that the rod must come backwards in an ellipse, which will bring the line upstream in a bight underneath the rod-point.
The rod being already raised to an angle of forty-five degrees, the caster turns his wrist slightly outwards so inclining the rod towards the centre of the stream, and pulls the rod back to the vertical, bringing it upright as he does so by turning the wrist inwards again. The rod point therefore makes an ellipse in the air, and the line follows on, forming a large bight upstream of the caster, and parallel with the bank. This sounds very easy; actually it is not. Everything depends on the speed and force put into the cast. If the beginner makes a jerky, snatchy effort, the result will be a bad cast; a sort of hybrid, which will end in a most untidy delivery. In order to make a successful stroke with a fly rod, tennis racket, golf club or cricket bat, the beginner must remember to begin the stroke slowly and smoothly to build up speed and power. In the case of a golf swing, the greatest speed of the club-head is at the moment of impact with the ball. So also with the fly rod. The hand should accelerate until it reaches the end of the stroke. It is fatal to make the effort at the beginning of the cast; this merely results in a snatch at at the line. If the line comes back in a smooth, straight line, it will go forward equally well; but if it goes back in waves, it will come forward in the same way. Errors in the back cast are faithfully reproduced in the delivery. From this there is no escape.

At the risk of appearing tedious I must again repeat that the whole art of switching depends on how the line is lifted and dispatched upstream. The beginner must concentrate on this. The forward cast is easy by comparison. The angler makes his ellipse with the rod point, starting slowly and gradually increasing force and speed until the rod is upright, close to his shoulder. He can of course feel the weight of the line as he pulls it back, but at the end of the back stroke as the rod top flies back, he will momentarily lose touch with the line and feel nothing. Then he will feel the line beginning to pull at the rod top from upstream. All that is needed now is a short, sharp push forward from the wrist, and away goes the line.

Let us recapitulate: raise the rod to lift the line as much as possible; make the ellipse with gradually increasing force and speed, and finally, make a short forward stroke with the wrist only and not with the arm. It is essential to avoid a "thrash-down" delivery, i.e. bringing the rod down to the horizontal and rolling the line along the water. This is both untidy and likely to alarm such a wary fish as the sea trout.
To return to the pick-up, the really vital part of fly casting, the principle requires further consideration. The gradually increasing back stroke ensures that the power and spring of the rod is properly applied. The line must be thrown well upstream of the angler in order that the load may fully be on the top-rod when the forward shot is made. If there is not enough line behind the rod, there will not be sufficient weight of line for the rod to pull at, and the result will be a weak throw. Again, if the line does not form a regular curve when thrown upstream, but is wavy or slack, the forward cast will also be wavy and/or slack.

The beginner will now realize why I insist on smoothness and absence of jerks. Think again of our capital D. We need a nice curve of line with the fly just tipping the water before it is cast forward. There are two or three traps into which the beginner usually falls. The first is making a jerky back stroke, which we already have discussed; the second is not keeping hold of the line once it begins to come back. The rod should be pulled back to the shoulder without any hesitation; having got hold of the load, the rod should be
brought back and round at ever-increasing speed until it is as far as it is going, i.e. with the butt vertical and close to the shoulder. The third trap is allowing the rod to pass the vertical and lean over backwards, which
results in the line being dragged down and hitting the water. Forget everything you may have heard about the old Spey Cast depositing line on the water; we are trying to keep our line in the air, and the only part of the tackle to touch the water is the fly and a foot or so of gut.

The final trap is the forward shot. To produce results we require a short, sharp wrist flip which extends the line in the air. The old-fashioned style consisted of cutting downwards at the water which resulted in the line unrolling along the surface. This method gave a straight delivery but was apt to cause a disturbance j sometimes a very serious splashing, which
frightened fish. The short forward stroke should allow the line fully to extend in the air before dropping on to the water. To achieve this result, imagine that you are throwing your thumb at a point in the air above the target; that is the best tip I know.​

I've got a .pdf copy including the diagrams if anyone wants one. Having tried and tried the cast, I'm not surprised you think Jock Scott left something out of the description in F&FO, I'd like to know why, though! I wonder if Grant wasn't getting royalties on the 'Vibration' rod patent by then (from Playfair) and so didn't care if the book resulted in more rods sold?

Northspey, I certainly hope a line will come out of this. One of the things that is immediately obvious is that one line won't do for all rods. It seems to be pointing towards a "15' line", a "16' line", a "17' line" etc., and they may have to be tapered according to the make of the rod/action as well. All the rods I've been casting with the lines so far have been slow/through action rods which I would normally cast with an 8 or 9wt line, I haven't got any longer faster rods in my collection, and don't know anyone locally who would be willing to lend me some high-spec long expensive rods for me to overload...next trip out I will be trying a 16' B&W Norway Spey rod (11wt?), but I think that may be too stiff - I'll report back.

Stuart

 

[tspeyall]

Switch cast...

Stuart,

I agree; it does seem like you'd need a couple of sizes of lines to fit various modern rods. Not enough Greenheart floating around out there for the rest of us to indulge in. The cast looks like a cross between a single spey and a "Belgian" cast, with the aerialized loop under the tip. Looks fun and functional with a long rod. Very curious to see where this goes. Could this cast be accomplished with a modern WF floating taper of 55' or longer...?
Thanks for the effort,
Tom

 

[middlecalf]

Stuart - wow, I keep learning every time I read something about this. I'd love to see the .pdf, I'll pm you my email (you might still have it from the previous silk line discussions).

Will this cast work with a Kingfisher DT on 12'6" greenheart? I'll try it?

Question: on the forward cast ("wrist flip"), does the angle change come from simple pointing the thumb up and out to the angle desired? Thanks, Paul

 

[Cadno]

Paul, email sent with attachment.

Direction change is, as you guessed - point the rod in the direction you want the line to end up at the start of the forward cast. A little upper body rotation takes care of that...The upper grip is fingers and thumb loosely around the rod until the stop, which I do as a 'squeeze' of the hand to lock the movement of wrist and forearm, so no thumb pointing here...

Only way to find out if your rod and line will do it - is to do it! With a 12' 6" rod you're probably going to restricted to about 50-60' of line out, and I don't know what the effect of doing the cast without the constant taper will be - your turn to get the video camera out again and post it!

Stuart

 

[Greenhart Caste]

Greenhart casting

Dear Sir,
I have just read your posting and watched your video with your green hearts. I have a 14 foot six greenheart on the way from the UK. I can hardly wait to receive it. It has drop ring guides. So I am very anxious to try casting it. hoping we become good friends in our endeavors to master the Grant cast. "Fine and far-off" is a great read.😃
I will keep in touch. You, please do the same.
Dan Gillen

 

[tspeyall]

continuous taper...

Stuart,
After looking at your site it is evident you have been working on this for a while...
yes, lines that ended in a 9/10 US wt would probably fit the 14',15' (and longer rods) many of us fish here.
I guess the question is - can this line be done as a bespoke design with lighter tip, butt, and length? Is that what you are working towards here?
It's pretty clear from what Harry J. is saying that a modern WF taper cannot propel this cast ...
Fascinating,

Tom

 

[speyghillie]

Hi Stuart,
Just looking through a few of the letters between JS and AG to make sure I give an accurate detail of some parts of the cast but before I do that I should explain why only JS knew all the details of the cast and rod and line design.
In 1900 Alexander sold the patent to Charles Playfair as he couldn't cope with the demand for his rods and lines, receiving a payment and a small commission for 10yrs, this was four years after his demonstration on the river Thames in London.
Selling the rod patent allowed Alexander to carry on his work on his musical instruments his real passion, he was head of the highland reel society playing his own fiddle at concerts around Scotland, he was probably better known for his fiddle playing in Scotland.
To cut a long story short, JS heard of Alexander while working on a book about the big fish caught around the UK and the methods used to capture this fish, he decided to write asking if it was possible to meet, this was the start of a great friendship that lasted until Alexander died in 1942.
When they met in the 1930's Alexander has not lifted a fly rod for more than 30yrs and was in his late 70's, but that day on the river Ness was enough to convince him he should write Fine and Far off, he was completely mesmerised by how even in his 70's Alexander could cast right across the river Ness with such ease.
Now between the date Alexander had invented the Grant Vibration rods and when JS met him there was of course the first world war with many Highlanders heading to fight in the trenches, just one reason why so much was lost.
Because they became great friends they both knew that they should not publish the full details of the cast but people would have to take a lesson from JS to get all the detail, JS was soon busy with classes and was writing very little as an author even though he was in great demand.
Payfair sold over 6,000 Grant vibration rods even though they never made one like Alexander did, something he would later write a letter to Playfair to tell them what a mess they had made of his rods, but shows he could never have coped with the demand as he made every rod based on acoustic vibration, playfair never did.
JS was desperate to get Alexander to start making the real vibration rods again, he could not believe the difference between the real Vibration rod and the Playfair rod and with the right line he wrote to Alexander.
Today I took the 3 piece 14ft rod out and lined it with the line you sent me to try, I tried a few casts in the garden I made a good ellipse and drive and away it went, fully 40yrs and right over the ******* garage roof, man you should see this line drive through the wind, what a combination, I must have one of these lines even if I have to commit murder for it.
Could you please cut a stick for the correct taper as I must have it made, I am willing to pay the maker right away.
Alexander would design a fly line with the correct taper on a long match stick. :Eyecrazy: to send to the manufacturer .
Stuart
The cast is made up of so many parts, this is his thoughts on hand position while casting different lengths of line in a letter to JS, only a little detail but I hope it gives you something to try next time you are out casting, it took JS months to get the cast down, and that was with Alexander teaching him,
With regard to the paragraph where you write of the constructional features
of the rod and its action when in use the ball of each thumb should not lie on
the back of the handle. The ball of the upper hand thumb certainly must but
the lower hand grip is made similar to a ball socket joint, with the rubber
button placed in the palm of the hand, and with the thumb and one or two of
the fingers circling easily round upper part of the button and butt-end
ferrule. Placing both thumb balls on the back of the handle hinders the
application and evenness throughout. Re its power while casting the rod has
not only one grip but several, Viz:- In a double-handed rod the upper hand
grip is used in the manner of a moveable fulcrum for more or less power to
adjust the leverage, balance and manipulation in proportion to the length of
line.
Thanks Gordon.
DTXPro Staff.

 

[Greenhart Caste]

Alexander Grant history

Dear Gordon,
How have you come by all of this historic information? As a 71-year-old citizen of the great USA, I am now, today, questioning everything that is said. "fine and far off" is all I have to go by. Please, advise as I love reading the old history.
Tellumnothing!

 

[Bwana Bill]

This discussion is getting better with every post. Thank you all, gentlemen!

-Bill

 

[speyghillie]

Grant Switch cast

Hi Greenhart Caste,
This all started a long time ago while chatting to my good friend Harry Jamieson at Clan Rods, Harry is a master rod builder and one of the most knowledgeable guys I have ever met, his workshop is THE Aladdin's cave of rod building and its history, if you ever get the chance to visit, its a must for anybody interested in fly fishing.
Harry introduced me to Fine and Far off as well as many other fishing books, from reading Fine and Far off and chatting to Harry I started doing some research .... that was around 12yrs ago, and started my obsession with reading and researching old fly fishing history books mostly concerning Scotland and the river Spey, if i'm honest it has become a real obsession for far to long.

I meet Alexander Grants Grandson regularly and he has kindly provided me with all Alexander's personal letters to everybody concerned with his rods lines and everything fishing, including his thoughts on the thread of Vibration in everything, letters to and from *Jock Scott* ect.
I have also over the years been invited to demonstrate his casting, and talk about Alexander Grant at fishing shows including Inverness Angling Club membership where Alexander fished on the river Ness.
Gathering all the relative information has taken a long time for different reasons, when Alexander writes a letter like this.

I have pursued my own theories on the laws or gravitation and nature with the result that nearly twenty years ago I discovered (what I could not find in the Euclidean third dimension) a fourth dimension- Relativity, but to explain this would require a new vocabulary briefly, i find that the measurements of the third dimension spacing will not agree anywhere with acoustical spacing. The fourth does, in dealing with variations in a material the relationship of the acoustics of the different parts supersedes all else.

From this letter the detail of the rods gets more complicated.:Eyecrazy: knowing the detail of the rods and having all the drawings, it would be difficult to make a real Vibration rod with modern materials, it would not look like anything we use today and require a change in casting style to make it work the way it should.
Thanks Gordon.
DTX Pro Staff.

 

[Singlespey]

Hi Gordon,
Thanks for all the information you provide about these interesting subjects from time to time; btw when will your book about AG be finished and available to all Grant´s fans?
It is time to let the audience to know about all your research and work.
All the best

 

[Cadno]

Ah - after reading the instructions in FAQ's I've managed (I hope) to make the Jock Scott extract from 'Sea Trout Fishing' an attachment -

View attachment Grant cast.pdf

This has an explanation of the mechanics of the cast and some cartoon diagrams. Given what Gordon said above about JS not putting all the details of the cast on paper, we may still be missing something, but it's a good starting point.

Stuart

 

[Greenhart Caste]

Speyghillie

Thank U Gordon for your reply concerning the history of Alexander Grant and his casting. I will keep in touch with you through Spey pages.
Tellumnothing 😁