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8/31/09

fly fishing no cal and bonefishing hawaii:

more golden gate casting club ponds and aloha friday deano.

 

went back to s.f. to get another few hours in of two handed casting practice.  the golden gate casting ponds are like a mecca of fly fishing to those who love the cast and being so near to it for the first time, once was just not enough for me.  i started casting and this dude mike rolled up on his bike.  we  began talking and soon casting my beulah switches (that’s how it happens down there… very cool scene).  mike, like so many who frequent the park, knew his way around a spey rod.  he introduced me to his buddy bert.  bert was all about long rods and full spey lines.  he was nice enough to take some time to give a newbie some valuable spey lessons.  we casted both a temple fork deercreek rod as well as a pro series rod.

 

bert had learned to spey cast from many of the top guns in the spey community, but kept it all very simple and put the whole spey thing in perspective with easy to understand analogies.  the few hours i spent with him made me a lot better.  more importantly, it gave me a solid foundation and direction that i was desperately seeking.  this solid start, that i can now really begin to build on, is so critical to fly casting either single or double hand.

 

tip for beginners, if you start out any kind of fly casting with bad habits and make them a part of your cast, it will be harder in the long run to get rid of those bad habits to get really good.  this is especially evident in the fly casters i encounter on the water in hawaii.  it’s just like a golf swing.  you can get okay with a bad swing but you’ll never be able to take it to the next level with a swing riddled with “bad habits” (right mitchell?).  because there aren’t a lot of really good casters here (well “there” for me right now), i see many self taught casters that get to a “fishable” cast in our waters and conditions that don’t possess or even understand a proper basic fly cast.  so if you’re starting out be sure to focus on your cast more than how to catch fish in the beginning.  getting a proper start is key to becoming a great caster and ultimately catch more fish in more situations and more places.  i wish we had a casting pool somewhere on the island… well one can dream can’t he?

 

on another note, deano checked in with some pics from friday.  deano is one of the few guys that started fly fishing in hawaii that, over the years, has really focused on his fly casting and it is quite evident when you watch him cast.  anyway, in classic deano fashion, he forgot his fishing shirt and wore his work aloha shirt out at hickam.  he fished his trusty twelve foot bamboo rod and managed to conk three bones.  (deano, the guys up here think you’re crazy fishing that thing in the salt for bones… i had to explain to them that we’re pretty limited out there in hawaii and have to do what ever we can to keep it new and fresh.)  i wish i was there for “casual friday”  is that going to be a tradition now?  if it is, i’m totally down.

 

 

 

fly casters mecca.

 

thanks for casting and hanging with me mike, very impressive.  also thanks for introducing me to bert.  get out to hawaii bro and i’ll hook you up for sure.

 

bert is one of the “big fish” that can be found at this small pond.  thanks bert for taking the time to give me a good foundation and direction… i think i’m going to owe my entire spey career to you my man.

 

meanwhile back in the hi , deano holds down the fort in style until i get back.  well that’s all the what’s what.  from ca and soon in the or...good times.

 

clay.


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