Joined
·
11 Posts
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
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