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Show BjTtJKatmg Ritual has its place, but not in fishing according to John Al-den Al-den Knight, who is one of the countries best known angling authorities. He writes that the traditional upstream cast will orten spoil your chances at a big trout, and he has some interesting in-teresting things to say about drag. The upstream cast is particu-larly particu-larly hazardous if the txoul should happen to touch the hard resilient leader as he takes your fly. The resultant frightened splash will put down every feeding feed-ing fish in the area. Try casting downstream, with your fly coming at the trout first and the leader and line out of sight upstream; you won't have to use anything finer than 3-x leader points. Inevitably in downstream fishing fish-ing there comes a point where drag sets in. Knight discovered, more or less accidentally, that it is quite practical to utilize drag. "When fishing big water, I would cast across and up and allow my fly to drift down opposite op-posite me before picking up to recast Now and then, in the hope of picking up a fish which had refused my offering, I would allow the fly to drift down past me. Then when drag set in. I would skip the fly in short jumps across the current In a semicircle util my line was directly di-rectly downstream. To my sur- it iMimiiMMHMiiiniiimieiMiMiiiiiMmmiMiiiiMlMi prise, I found that I caught fish that way." For a while he contented himself him-self with "bump casting" with skater or skitter flies. This high, ly unorthodox procedure consists of ca rting in rough water with a fairly short line. The forward cast is aimed so that it terminates termin-ates at least two or three feet above the water. Then, as the fly drops, the rod tip is raised sharply, causing the fly to strike the water at an angle and to bounce. Bump casting is effective effec-tive only in rough, broken water. Smooth water requires; longer line. The next step in this unethical series was the use of a well-greased well-greased line and leader, and skittering big skater flies across perfectly flat water. This method seems to have unusual appeal to large trout. Since then, Knight has elaborated elab-orated on the skittering method, combining it quite successfully with the downstream technique. Believe it or not, it really works. |