"Mr. Opus McDopus" wrote in message
.. .

"daytripper" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 18:16:19 -0400, "Mr. Opus McDopus"

wrote:


I'm thinking the kind of flyfishing one does makes a difference.

And I would be inclined to agree. Most of my fishing is done with a 3 or
4 weight rod. However, I do make a great many fairly long casts--over 50
feet--and I like the feel and accuracy I get by using my index finger.

Op

/daytripper (And every trout is a nail. Take that, Tim ;-)



In the book, The Essence of Fly-Casting by Mel Krieger, which I have found
the most complete book on learning how to cast, he describes the grip. The
grip starts out with the thumb on top of the rod-handle, and the index
finger completely opposite of the thumb, not higher or lower. For shortcast
this grip works ok, as his descriptions and pictures indicate. For medium
distance cast, you rotate the forearm slightly (for right-handers it's
rotating the forearm counterclockwise) to form the "V" of the thumb and
index finger facing upright, which gives the caster a slight palm-out
delivery (this grip he says he uses the most). For even greater distance,
rotate the forearm even more to give you even more of the palm-out. You
should also never hold the rod-handle with a death type grip.

I met Mel Krieger early this year giving free casting lessons in San
Francisco. I've seen some pretty good casters in my fly-fishing days, Lefty
Kreh, Steve Rajeff to name a few, but I'll have to say, Mel's casting stroke
is the best. His cast are picture perfect. Mel taught he his grip and
casting stroke that day and I've been using it ever since.
http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Mels_Day_009.jpg



http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Mel_Krieger_2B.JPG

fwiw,
-tom