Peter Morse Casting Days - April 2012

Casting Class

Date: 28/29 April 2012

DAY 1

The much anticipated casting days finally arrived and quite a number of keen Central Coast Fly Rodders plus a couple of people who are now CCFR members were poised to take part in the first ever Peter Morse Casting days for the club. The first day, Saturday the 28th was dedicated to basic casting techniques and breaking down the basics of what makes a good cast. We started about 9am and the 12 anglers were rigged up and ready to go. Peter started by explaining the 5 key elements of a cast. No matter what type of cast you do you need all 5 elements to have the best possible cast. The 5 we covered were: • Straight Line Path – Peter explained what happens if the rod tip takes other than a straight line path. • Stroke length – ensuring that the length of the stroke you make varies on how much line you have out. Many of us have very fixed stroke lengths that vary little when we cast. • Slack Line – basically a slack line = no tension which = a poor cast with no distance or tight loops. • Acceleration – Provides the tip speed you need to shoot the line – the acceleration must be smooth and not jerking just like when you accelerate in the car. • Pause – another area many of us forget. You need to pause on the back cast and the forward cast.

After the discussion on the top 5 elements and a demonstration on the right way to use them vs the wrong way by Peter, it was time for each of us to come forward and demonstrate our normal casting style (or lack of). I was first up and it was amazing to see Peter analyse a cast and come up with corrections so quickly. Like many of us I tended to over power the cast and therefore end up with tailing loops on the final cast. Peter showed me how to let the rod do the work and use those pauses in the right place to generate the power. We one by one went through this process and Peter gave constructive feedback and areas to focus on to each of us. We had a quick break for morning tea and then headed out onto the field for some practice of the points Peter had shared with us. Peter walked around to each of us to see how we were progressing and gave advice on tweaks such as wrist position, acceleration and managing the line. By the end of day 1 we were all much improved on where we started and not only that were all feeling pretty good about the fact that our effort level had dropped and we were probably casting better than we were with far less effort which in turn equates to a much more pleasant casting experience without throwing a shoulder. Lunchtime was upon us so we headed to the corner shop for a quick bite to eat and then across to Little Mooney Creek to put into practice what we had learnt that morning. We met up with Chris, Rob, Col, Jeff, Brooke and Abby and set things up for the BBQ that night and then headed to the dam to have a fish. Chris had been there for a little while casting furiously for a nil result, so I sidled up beside him and started casting my little black bead headed bugger and before long had landed a beautiful bass and all I could hear were a few expletives to my left 8^).

It was pretty quiet though for quite a while so I joined Brownie down at the Silver pond and Peter joined us shortly after. Again the fish were quiet, but Peter had changed flies to one of his secret (or not so now) flies and had managed to hook a nice little silver perch. It again went quiet and at the 4pm mark approached we all went back to the main dam in the hope that as the sun started to fall the fish would start to feed. We weren't disappointed and sure enough Col could be heard telling folk that he was on.... he landed quite a few fish on a Tom Jone and then a vampire pattern. Mal was also having some luck and landed a number of bass and a golden perch all of which are new species for him. Peter managed to get the trifecta and for the day had managed at least one of each species available. He was a happy man!

Brownie managed a nice little bass on a skull head vampire and I landed another couple on the woolly bugger before we decided to berley up for the last 30 mins before dinner. Once the berley hit the water it didn't take long for the big swirls and bloops to start as the fish came up to hammer the bread floating on the surface. It also didn't take long to see rods bending all around as people hooked up on these feeding fish.

Brooke hooked up but soon lost the fish as the fly had come off...... there were a few more hits on the surface for her but they just didn't hook up. We stopped for dinner which was beautifully prepared by our master chef Rob Harwood and consisted of snag, steak, corn, salad and bread. A great dinner and some great conversations. After dinner a few of the guys left to get home at a reasonable hour, and those that remained had a quick fish before packing up. I hooked another nice bass, but the fish of the day went to Brooke, who's persistence paid up with a very fine silver perch, a first for Brooke and she also made sure to mention that she had caught a silver before Joel.

We then went and packed up headed up to the shed for a cuppa and some carrot cake, thanks to Chris before all heading home for some sleep before day 2.

DAY 2

Day 2 saw us arrive at about 8am for an 8:30 start. It was a cool morning with a light breeze, but that was going to change!! The object of today was to learn some advanced casting techniques, taking the basics that we learnt the day before and then adding to them. We covered, roll casts, Oval Casts which everyone found extremely useful, casting into the wind or with the wind coming across your shoulder. We then took on mends of varying types. Again many of these ends will have a great bearing on our fishing and I am sure will get used a lot especially in flowing water or tidal creeks. The morning was littered with sharp showers of rain and a strong southerly breeze. Luckily we had a good spot that wasn't overly affected by the wind and we had Brownie who happens to have an RV Shade on his Patrol, so we had both things covered. Everyone that attended either or both days went away extremely happy with what they had learnt. It was great to see so much improvement in everyone's casting and some valuable new techniques to apply to running water, avoiding casting over fish, fishing in the wind and also shooting heads. My thanks to everyone that attended – Mal Holden, Rob Harwood, Roy Browne, Dave De Luca, Ivan Malby, Garry Kent, Ian Keuning, Mac Lyell, Aaron Fielder, Barry Bradfield, Scott Chaney, Joel Norman and Mick Dillon. A special thanks of course to Peter Morse for travelling up to run these sessions and doing a masterful job despite having a good dose of the flu. If you get the chance to do one of these tuition sessions with Peter I strongly recommend you take it. Peter is more than happy to come again next year for a refresher.

Lake Liddell Family Weekend - April 2012

Trip Reports

Lake Liddell by Chris Bannerman

Date: 15 April 2012

With the trip being a family weekend we tried to get away on the Saturday and join Dave, Joel & Brooke, Col, Paul, Len and Trent up at Liddell but life got in the way and we had to settle for an early departure on Sunday morning. So at 5.15am the Bannerman family headed up the freeway to Singleton. It looked like it was going to be a great day with a pink morning sky but clear to the northwest where we were heading.

Arriving at the golden arches just before seven we were soon joined by Bob and Dave De Luca and Murray and his son Josh who had camped at Lake St Clair the night before. Over breakfast Murray related Josh's fishing adventures the previous evening with a big bass lost being the main feature. With no one else arriving we all set off up the New England Highway turning off to Liddell about 20 minutes later. Pulling up at one of the picnic tables we found Sticker had arrived a little earlier (forgoing MacDonalds - he's watching his figure these days) and was rigging up along with Col who was still cooking brekky. Brooke and Joel were also there with their little one, Abby. The rest were already out on the water chasing the carp from their boats. Bob and Dave D, and Col soon joined them while Sticker headed around to the bay near the road.

Catherine was keen to get started so I rigged her rod with a corn fly and armed with a tin of corn we headed off to the boat ramp where it was easy to fish. We were soon joined by Murray and Josh as well as Brooke, Abby and Joel. I threw a few handfuls of corn out while Catherine practised her casting then helped her cast a bit further out where we'd seen a fish swirl. No sooner had I turned my back than I heard a "Dad, I think I have a fish" and sure enough she was on, rod bent over. Her first fish hooked on a fly (on anything in fact). Luckily it wasn't a monster and we soon had it beached on the boat ramp. Needless to say I was a pretty proud dad at that moment.

We continued there for a little while but nothing seemed to be around so we headed over in Sticker's direction to my favourite haunts - the small bay near the road and beyond. Sticker was busily casting to fish he had sighted in the shallows at the head of the bay while we fished half way down, Catherine with her corn fly and me with the traditional egg-sucking leech. It was blind casting as the water was quite murky and grey clouds prevented decent sight fishing. Luckily for me though I hooked a reasonable fish before we again chose to move on.

Crossing the fence and heading around to the next couple of bays we soon spotted fish in the shallows. I fired out a quick cast near them and was met with a tight line on the second strip. Bow waves went everywhere as the fish panicked and spooked others but I eventually landed it after much slipping around in the mud. Soon we spotted a school of fish 50m further on. They seemed to be chasing shrimp as we could see something jumping out of the water ahead of them. We quickly moved to casting distance (which involved wading out knee deep in water - knew I should have brought waders) and put in a cast to see if we could hook one. No sooner had I started stripping than I was on and another solid carp was landed. Next it was Catherine's turn. We changed flies to a red and yellow chenille woolly bugger and helping her to cast she also hooked up on a solid fish and backed out of the water to land it a few minutes later. She was pretty pleased with herself as this was a decent sized fish.

Sticker soon joined us and we were both casting to schooling fish with many swimming around us before being spooked by our movements. The fish were eager to take the fly and we enjoyed a good session there with two more each taken by Catherine, Sticker and myself before heading back to set up for lunch. On our way back the Bunneys arrived and headed out for a quick fish before returning for our BBQ lunch with everyone else. All reports were that just about everyone caught fish including the kids. We departed about 3pm leaving Col, the Bunneys and Stickerman to continue on while we took a leisurely drive back through the Hunter wineries.

As usual with this trip, a fantastic day with plenty of fish and fun. I look forward to next time.