Casting Bamboo Versus Graphite

Transcript:

Hi my name is Bill Oyster and today we're going to talk about the differences between casting graphite when you try to transition into casting a bamboo fly rod but first things first let's put this guy back in the water and then we'll do the most important thing which is get off the water and on to dry land

[Music] now that we're off the water we can actually think about casting without the interruptions that fish can provide for us make sure when you're setting up to do your practicing that you've got a good eye on what's Happening behind you as well as what's happening in front of you countless times I've seen people have the perfect Forward cast or as perfect as it could be but they still were getting the line to do what they wanted to do and the reason for that is what's happening behind them that's causing all their problems they keep making adjustments in the front adjust adjust adjust meanwhile they never can't quite dial it in because the adjustment they really need to make is on their back cast each year I introduce hundreds of people to the joys of casting a bamboo fly rod and we see the same struggles in making that adjustment over and over again the first thing people will notice when they pick up a bamboo rod for the first time and they try to apply their usual casting stroke to it that they're used to with their graphite Rod is when they get to the end of the stroke they can feel that they've not loaded enough energy into the rod and for this reason they will tend to continue their motion further than they should have and make a longer pendulum Arc like this

the problem with that is it's going to open up your Loop and when your Loop is unrolling in a great big circle back and forth all the energy is going around in a circle and we want the energy to go forward and backwards all right so they're correct in their assumption that the rod is not fully loaded and the reason for that is the action is designed to be a little more full flexing now it is not that we cannot make a tip Flex bamboo rod we could make a bamboo Rod that doesn't Bend at all anywhere the only reason it bends at all is because we tell it to by tapering the bamboo away all right but we can actually get more energy out of a less powerful material by allowing it to load through a longer distance gather up more energy and you can actually reach full efficiency in a different way than with the graphite Rod so when you get to the back of this stroke you can tell it's not fully loaded what what you do is don't make a longer Arc down towards the grass you make a longer push backwards and a longer push forward all you're doing to make a fly rod cast is loading energy into this Big Spring and the way we do that is by accelerating the rod against the momentum of the line in the air okay a graphite Rod being very stiff in the butt in the midsection these days anyway and and in the tip it's a very short stroke to get it fully loaded and it's so stiff it's a sharp fast stroke and it's it's a whack in the back and a whack in the front and you can see if I use a short sharp motion the rod is not getting fully loaded things are going haywire the line wants to invert turn inside out and tail form what's called a tailing Loop where things are flipping inside out because I'm rushing it it's not fully loaded and then it starts to unload before I get to the end of my stroke everything goes Haywire on me so what you have to do with the bamboo Rod is make a longer smoother acceleration okay the short sharp is not going to do it it works wonderful on a graphite Rod to get that stiff Rod tip flex rod loaded quickly on a bamboo Rod we're going to need a longer stroke okay longer and smoother and keep that thing thing from turning inside out you don't want to shock it at the end and cause it to tail like that the key is not to make a longer Arc like this which is going to open up your Loop and kill it the key is to make a longer stroke back and forward keeping everything moving in the direction we want it to go and you can still throw a very tight efficient loop with the bamboo Rod all of a sudden that energy is coming back that you expected to be there but you have to do it differently if you don't cast a bamboo Rod the way a bamboo Rod needs to be cast you'll notice a lot less energy coming out of the rod and it's because you're putting a lot less energy into it if you lengthen that stroke make a long smooth acceleration and then keep your Loop tight so it's moving back and forward you'll be amazed the power you can get out of a bamboo Rod the nice thing about a bamboo rod even though it may feel awkward at first if you're used to your graphite rod and you've been fishing those types of rods for years is you get a lot of feedback all right the bamboo Rod being that it is heavier and it's also more Supple you get a lot of feel you can feel when things load up right you can feel when things don't load up right and it will teach you if you're listening everything you need to know in short anytime you're learning a new Rod of any kind you you want to make sure you're casting the rod don't try to cast your cast because it's not a one-size fits-all cast the rod smooth load feel what the rod needs get out in the yard and practice and I think you'll find a lot better results when you get on the water hope that helps