04-06-2007, 03:23 PM
[cool][#333333]Joan Wulff's Tips and Tricks of Fly Casting
A screen door handle, half-moon sponge, and a mini-rod with thick yarn line are all a part of the props which world champion fly-caster Joan Wulff uses to illustrate the movements necessary for good fly-casting.
Author: C. Scott Sampson
![[Image: gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23348;]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23348;)
Joan runs perhaps the most prestigious fly-fishing school in the East, at her home in Lew Beach, just minutes from the Catskill Fly-Fishing Center and Museum and she was giving a casting clinic to the hundreds who attended the annual Summerfest. The Wulff School of Fly-Fishing was founded in 1979 on the banks of the Beaverkill by Joan and her husband Lee. He died in 1991 at age 86, of a heart attack, while at the controls of his Piper Cub plane. While Lee may have been the most famous fly-angler in modern time, Joan was certainly the most proficient caster, collecting 17 national championships and casting a fly an incredible distance of 161 feet.
"It's not a matter of brawn but a mater of timing and allowing the rod to do its job," she told those in attendance. Trained as a dancer, Joan noted that a simple shift of weight can add yards to a cast. It is also a matter of matching equipment to the person.
"I waited all my life for women to come into the sport," said Joan. "Everything was built for a man. Women need smaller (rod) grips, lighter rods and waders that fit."
"You have to choose your own rod and not take a hand-me-down," said Wulff to the women. She suggests a rod that will handle a five or six-weight line and no heavier than 3 ounces. She used 8-foot rods with five-weight lines for her demonstrations, which included casting with two rods in the same, and then in two different directions.
A half moon shaped sponge was used to provide a visual of her grip. It is relaxed as she starts the pickup of the cast and compresses as she applies the power to the back cast.
Pick up a sponge, soften it with water. Instead of holding the rod, simply grip the sponge as if it was the handle of the fly rod. As your hand is in front of you, it is relaxed with the thumb facing up and facing the water. Your elbow is close to your side. The sponge should retain its full shape at this time. As you raise the hand and arm, bringing your thumb to the height of your eyes, the pressure is applied in a movement which begins as the line departs the water and is completed with the full compression of the sponge and with a sudden stop when your thumb is at eye level.
![[Image: gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23349;]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23349;)
A push-button, screen-door handle attached to a rod handle best explains the exact force necessary to lay the line back on the water. Using your thumb pad on the back of the rod handle, it is the same thumb pressure and pulling back of the fingers used to open a door that will lay your line out in a straight line and turn over the leader and fly. You might think of a door handle that is just a little sticky to best understand the amount of force used to best drive your forward cast.
"The thumb should be pushed directly toward the location you want the fly to land," she noted. It is this simple eye-thumb coordination that provides the accuracy Joan is famous for and most fly-anglers seek. "If you are false casting, then your thumb movement is aimed at a point 6 feet over the water."
Wulff advises that, in practice, you should be using only a short length of line and leader plus a piece of yarn or practice fly.
Twenty-five feet, in total, seems about perfect for most beginners, said Joan. Don't worry about distance as much as accuracy. An exercise that she recommends is to place two targets on the ground, with equal distance to the front and to the back of your position. Turn your stance to an open position so you can easily see both targets. Lower your casting arm, but do not change your grip. You can now cast with the rod nearly parallel to the ground.
Cast, using the same power strokes learned with the sponge and the door handle, while relaxing the hand between each stroke. That relaxation (timing) allows the line to fully straighten before the next stroke or cast begins. It is also necessary to prevent exhaustion of the casting hand. To hit those targets, the movement of the hand must travel in a straight line or plane.
The exercise provides you a visual look at what your upright casts are doing. It also will be found useful in fishing, when you have to place a fly under the branches of an overhanging tree.
![[Image: gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23350;]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23350;)
Joan most often uses a weight forward fly line and marks her lines with waterproof pens at distances of 30 and the 40 feet. One band at 30 feet helps her judge fishing distances. Two bands at 40 feet marks the beginning of the shooting line.
"Don't false cast with the running or shooting line," she instructed. " That would be like casting with a wet noodle." Instead, she shoots the weight-forward portion for further distance.
Shooting a line will often involve the use of a haul. That requires bringing the line hand into play. At the point of the power snap, compression of the sponge on the backcast or pushing the door button on the forward cast, the line hand pulls the line back through the guides of the rod by rapidly moving the non-rod hand down and to the side. Then immediately the line hand is brought back to the starting point as the relaxed portion of the cast begins.
This is the beginning of increasing distance. Her stance has now opened up and with the grace of a ballet dancer, Joan shifts her weight from the forward foot to the back foot on the back cast and shifts it again to the front foot on the forward cast.
In shooting line, you must have large coils of line in the off-hand and after the haul on the forward cast, your off-hand opens allowing the line to be pulled off your fingers. The off-hand should be forward in position to help guide the line through the stripping guide and out the tip top of the rod.
The old saw "How do you get to Carnegie Hall - Practice, Practice, Practice" applies to casting as well, especially if you expect to drop your fly into a teacup-sized target. Indoor practice is possible with the Wulff Fly-O, a three-foot rod with a yarn line (available from Royal Wulff Products, Livingston Manor 12758). The air resistance of the yarn requires about equal pressure to cast five feet of yarn as it would to cast 20 feet of conventional fly line with your fishing rod. But you can even practice the motions of casting when holding a pencil or a table knife, suggests Joan.
When practicing outside, pick your target with each cast. A blade of grass or a leaf on a bush may be readily available. If you can hit these time and again, then you can work on distance.
[/#333333]
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A screen door handle, half-moon sponge, and a mini-rod with thick yarn line are all a part of the props which world champion fly-caster Joan Wulff uses to illustrate the movements necessary for good fly-casting.
Author: C. Scott Sampson
"It's not a matter of brawn but a mater of timing and allowing the rod to do its job," she told those in attendance. Trained as a dancer, Joan noted that a simple shift of weight can add yards to a cast. It is also a matter of matching equipment to the person.
"I waited all my life for women to come into the sport," said Joan. "Everything was built for a man. Women need smaller (rod) grips, lighter rods and waders that fit."
"You have to choose your own rod and not take a hand-me-down," said Wulff to the women. She suggests a rod that will handle a five or six-weight line and no heavier than 3 ounces. She used 8-foot rods with five-weight lines for her demonstrations, which included casting with two rods in the same, and then in two different directions.
A half moon shaped sponge was used to provide a visual of her grip. It is relaxed as she starts the pickup of the cast and compresses as she applies the power to the back cast.
Pick up a sponge, soften it with water. Instead of holding the rod, simply grip the sponge as if it was the handle of the fly rod. As your hand is in front of you, it is relaxed with the thumb facing up and facing the water. Your elbow is close to your side. The sponge should retain its full shape at this time. As you raise the hand and arm, bringing your thumb to the height of your eyes, the pressure is applied in a movement which begins as the line departs the water and is completed with the full compression of the sponge and with a sudden stop when your thumb is at eye level.
"The thumb should be pushed directly toward the location you want the fly to land," she noted. It is this simple eye-thumb coordination that provides the accuracy Joan is famous for and most fly-anglers seek. "If you are false casting, then your thumb movement is aimed at a point 6 feet over the water."
Wulff advises that, in practice, you should be using only a short length of line and leader plus a piece of yarn or practice fly.
Twenty-five feet, in total, seems about perfect for most beginners, said Joan. Don't worry about distance as much as accuracy. An exercise that she recommends is to place two targets on the ground, with equal distance to the front and to the back of your position. Turn your stance to an open position so you can easily see both targets. Lower your casting arm, but do not change your grip. You can now cast with the rod nearly parallel to the ground.
Cast, using the same power strokes learned with the sponge and the door handle, while relaxing the hand between each stroke. That relaxation (timing) allows the line to fully straighten before the next stroke or cast begins. It is also necessary to prevent exhaustion of the casting hand. To hit those targets, the movement of the hand must travel in a straight line or plane.
The exercise provides you a visual look at what your upright casts are doing. It also will be found useful in fishing, when you have to place a fly under the branches of an overhanging tree.
"Don't false cast with the running or shooting line," she instructed. " That would be like casting with a wet noodle." Instead, she shoots the weight-forward portion for further distance.
Shooting a line will often involve the use of a haul. That requires bringing the line hand into play. At the point of the power snap, compression of the sponge on the backcast or pushing the door button on the forward cast, the line hand pulls the line back through the guides of the rod by rapidly moving the non-rod hand down and to the side. Then immediately the line hand is brought back to the starting point as the relaxed portion of the cast begins.
This is the beginning of increasing distance. Her stance has now opened up and with the grace of a ballet dancer, Joan shifts her weight from the forward foot to the back foot on the back cast and shifts it again to the front foot on the forward cast.
In shooting line, you must have large coils of line in the off-hand and after the haul on the forward cast, your off-hand opens allowing the line to be pulled off your fingers. The off-hand should be forward in position to help guide the line through the stripping guide and out the tip top of the rod.
The old saw "How do you get to Carnegie Hall - Practice, Practice, Practice" applies to casting as well, especially if you expect to drop your fly into a teacup-sized target. Indoor practice is possible with the Wulff Fly-O, a three-foot rod with a yarn line (available from Royal Wulff Products, Livingston Manor 12758). The air resistance of the yarn requires about equal pressure to cast five feet of yarn as it would to cast 20 feet of conventional fly line with your fishing rod. But you can even practice the motions of casting when holding a pencil or a table knife, suggests Joan.
When practicing outside, pick your target with each cast. A blade of grass or a leaf on a bush may be readily available. If you can hit these time and again, then you can work on distance.
[/#333333]
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