Been out casting today

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:02 pm

Took the shakespeare rod out today and practiced a bit of casting in the local rec field

Firstly OMG suprise

I never realised the amount of power packed behind a simple 4oz lead, let alone a 6oz suprise

Every time I cast it, I could not reel the lead back in, I had to walk out to it, winding in the line and literally dig it out of the semi firm soil. In some cases the weight was 4 - 5 inches underground .

The lesson here is , be bloody sure that if you pratice in a field, there is absolutly no-one within 400 yards around, you *could* seriously injure if not kill someone sad

So the setup was a Shakespeare 13ft Excide Sea fishing rod, Okuma IM80 Fixed spool reel , 15lb Suffix Tritanium Red with 80lb Shock leader tied on with a Albright Knot (first time I have used this knot, usually use a half blood and grinner)

I also had some printouts on the proper techniques used for Off the Ground (OTG) and The Pendulm suprise

Minimal wind from behind (about 5 mph if that)

At first I had problems getting beyond 50 yards confused

, this was with a simple over arm "lob" as I have been doing for orford etc.

After some practice OTG's I made 10 casts using this technique using 4oz

Average was 75 yards, best 82 yards

Tried the pendulum, and though I did get better distance by a bit, knew I was not doing it right, so for safety sake stopped as I kepp going off at an angle to the right (releasing too early)

I then swapped for a 6oz lead (rod rated to 8oz), OMG it is sooo different , the movement is slower, but the distances were reletively the same, with an average of 77yard, best @ 92 yards, but gave up as the kept disappearing into the turf of the cricket pitch laughing

Overall , quite pleased, I seriously knew my casting was shite, but at least I now have a base line to work from to improve. I want to get a consistant 100 yards +

Some of you may laugh at that, being consistant 100 or 200 yard + casters, but hey ho, we all started somewhere cool

VR

Guest

Very good, keep practicing and you'll soon get good distances.

I too have been casting today.........................

I cast 4 flower stepping stones, half a circle, a 21 inch pier cap, some copings and some 450x225 slabs and then I went home laughing

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:46 pm

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:03 pm

Viffy, What I learned after a chat with Neil Mackellow is a bit of an open secret but not always understood when you start. I now do well over 100 yds with OTG compared with my best around a year ago of about 60yds having learned the "secret". Actually Neil does mention "it" on his web site and describes it as the final punch. I describe it as the final flick. Assuming you are using a drop of 4 to 6 ft to start with, the initial swing round with your body (arms held high at shoulder level) is just the initial acceleration and swing out of the sinker. No "power" is put in at this stage and the rod should be compressing (bending backward) if you have got it right and the rod is not too stiff. Ian actually said that in his view some modern rods are too stiff to achieve this effect satisfactorily - hope yours ain't like this. Only when the rod tip is between 6 and 8 ft up in the air and roughly parallel with the water, do you put some real shove into it or as I say "flick" it up towards the sky at high speed so that the rod straightens out and literally fires the sinker upwards and outwards. Do not look down towards the sea or the sinker will not go high enough, look up into the sky instead at 40 to 45 degrees and point the rod that way. Actually, when I started practicing OTG, I did it with an empty rod in the back garden and did it quite a few times until I was happy that I had got the action right. Totally amazed my fishing buddy first time on the beach (he was used to seeing my pathetic overhead thumps) by chucking a 4 oz lead around 100 yds using a 9.5 ft uptider. Swapped over to my Shakespeare Salt Beach after a few minutes and chucked it around 140 yds at first attempt.

Guest

What he's trying to say in a roundabout way is pull with your left hand and push with the right as you are coming up to the release!!

Guest

if the lead is burying itself, then stuff it into an old tennis ball.

I'm now going to read Eccles last post using a mirror.

confused

Regular Joined: Jun 30, 2007 Posts: 250

good casts should look effortless! not like my casting! big grin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZHMo-3XOk

Occasional Joined: Apr 20, 2007 Posts: 188 Location: Kent

lol you think you are bad you should see me sad

Guest

Nemesis_SLR wrote:

good casts should look effortless! not like my casting! big grin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZHMo-3XOk

good casting - but what's with the puff of smoke ?

confused

Guest

I saw that- must be the line burning his thumb- oooouchhhhhhhhhhhh

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:26 pm

He didn't get it quite right -the sinker touched the dust as it came round. With me on Hayling Beaches, it's usually a shower of shingle - I am now using John Holden's version of the OTG style. For the uninformed this involves swinging the sinker back round the circle until it is about 4 ft off the ground and in the 3 o'clock position before starting your turn towards the sea. It solves the problem of clipped down rigs becoming unclipped while resting on the beach but you have to be accurate or the sinker hits the deck as you swing round (still practicing but getting better!).

Guest

eccles wrote:

He didn't get it quite right -the sinker touched the dust as it came round. With me on Hayling Beaches, it's usually a shower of shingle - I am now using John Holden's version of the OTG style. For the uninformed this involves swinging the sinker back round the circle until it is about 4 ft off the ground and in the 3 o'clock position before starting your turn towards the sea. It solves the problem of clipped down rigs becoming unclipped while resting on the beach but you have to be accurate or the sinker hits the deck as you swing round (still practicing but getting better!).

why not try a DVice eccles?

anyway, I never bothered clipping down when OTG - too much faffing around.

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:01 pm

You would if you knew there was a cod waiting about 120 yds offshore - we had two last week on blow lug.

Guest

eccles wrote:

Viffy, What I learned after a chat with Neil Mackellow is a bit of an open secret but not always understood when you start. I now do well over 100 yds with OTG compared with my best around a year ago of about 60yds having learned the "secret". Actually Neil does mention "it" on his web site and describes it as the final punch. I describe it as the final flick. Assuming you are using a drop of 4 to 6 ft to start with, the initial swing round with your body (arms held high at shoulder level) is just the initial acceleration and swing out of the sinker. No "power" is put in at this stage and the rod should be compressing (bending backward) if you have got it right and the rod is not too stiff. Ian actually said that in his view some modern rods are too stiff to achieve this effect satisfactorily - hope yours ain't like this. Only when the rod tip is between 6 and 8 ft up in the air and roughly parallel with the water, do you put some real shove into it or as I say "flick" it up towards the sky at high speed so that the rod straightens out and literally fires the sinker upwards and outwards. Do not look down towards the sea or the sinker will not go high enough, look up into the sky instead at 40 to 45 degrees and point the rod that way. Actually, when I started practicing OTG, I did it with an empty rod in the back garden and did it quite a few times until I was happy that I had got the action right. Totally amazed my fishing buddy first time on the beach (he was used to seeing my pathetic overhead thumps) by chucking a 4 oz lead around 100 yds using a 9.5 ft uptider. Swapped over to my Shakespeare Salt Beach after a few minutes and chucked it around 140 yds at first attempt.

It's actually Roger Mortimore- not Baltimore tin the YT title- but I think he's demonstrating exactly what Eccles is describing

Guest

eccles wrote:

Viffy, What I learned after a chat with Neil Mackellow is a bit of an open secret but not always understood when you start. I now do well over 100 yds with OTG compared with my best around a year ago of about 60yds having learned the "secret". Actually Neil does mention "it" on his web site and describes it as the final punch. I describe it as the final flick. Assuming you are using a drop of 4 to 6 ft to start with, the initial swing round with your body (arms held high at shoulder level) is just the initial acceleration and swing out of the sinker. No "power" is put in at this stage and the rod should be compressing (bending backward) if you have got it right and the rod is not too stiff. Ian actually said that in his view some modern rods are too stiff to achieve this effect satisfactorily - hope yours ain't like this. Only when the rod tip is between 6 and 8 ft up in the air and roughly parallel with the water, do you put some real shove into it or as I say "flick" it up towards the sky at high speed so that the rod straightens out and literally fires the sinker upwards and outwards. Do not look down towards the sea or the sinker will not go high enough, look up into the sky instead at 40 to 45 degrees and point the rod that way. Actually, when I started practicing OTG, I did it with an empty rod in the back garden and did it quite a few times until I was happy that I had got the action right. Totally amazed my fishing buddy first time on the beach (he was used to seeing my pathetic overhead thumps) by chucking a 4 oz lead around 100 yds using a 9.5 ft uptider. Swapped over to my Shakespeare Salt Beach after a few minutes and chucked it around 140 yds at first attempt.

It's actually Roger Mortimore- not Baltimore tin the YT title- but I think he's demonstrating exactly what Eccles is describing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrpbOjNnXY