Out-of-hand cast, or “Read the classics”!

The numerous books on flyfishing technique do not pay attention to one rather important issue – how to prepare yourself to the first cast.  Most often you can read something like “...pull some line off the reel and spread it in front of you on the bank or water.”   At the real fishing even the first cast should not scare the fish.  There is not always enough room behind you for the backcast.  The people often start with several (longer & longer) roll casts, but these create lots of squelching noise.  Imagine yourself standing among the bushes at the undercut bank, or on slippery logs of the log jam..  How will you start the fishing?

Long ago I have invented a simple & elegant beginning:

1/  Pull 4,5-6 meters (15-20’) of line off the reel, and shake it out through the guides.  The rod is held vertically, so the line hangs down.   

2/  Take the fly with the thumb & index finger for the hook bend, so the point will not touch your skin when releasing the fly into the flight. 

3/  The cast itself is similar to the roll cast – move the rod outward and backwards and stop, so the D-loop will be formed.  The left hand holding the fly should follow the swing of the line loop.  During the pause the fly in your left hand should be beneath your right elbow. 

4/   Now you can make the forward stroke with the rod – the same as by the roll cast.  When the rod will be loaded, release the fly.  You will be surprised how straight & far it will travel.    

This cast is the best method to put the tackle back to work after changing the fly.  After many years of using this technique I was reading the lectures of Vasily Litvintsev, the first   serious Russian flyfisherman who did write on the "trade".  This fisherman was living ein the end of 19th century and in the beginning of 20th.  On one of the pages I have found a description of this “out-of-hand” cast and a picture which I want to show here. 

 

I think that namely V.Litvintsev had invented this cast about 100 years ago.  At least I was not able to find anything similar in English fishing literature.
 

After this I had a conclusion that it is a good idea to read and reread the classics.  In the old books it is possible to find the gold nuggets of the ideas which were undeservedly forgotten by the descendants of the Beginners… After reading old books the fisherman also realizes that his fishing success in many respects depends on new materials with which the modern physics & chemistry have greatly improved our tackle.