Holding the line when casting

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Date: December 21, 2002 at 23:49:46
From: ken, [pool-64-223-39-246.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Holding the line when casting

The old way that still works is simple. Take a look at any old pictures that you may have access to of old salmon and steelhead fishermen. You will see that they often have the line held in loops. One in their lips and three in their hand. It is a skill and it is learned through the doing of it. A basket helps when you are fishing on the rocks and fishing long because the line can get ruined by the rocks. It also helps in pond fishing for trout with sinking lines because the line doesn't get wrapped around your feet. It is a valuable tool for some situations but it is not the answer to all situations. It helps in casting and there are other ways that also work. Line does get tangled in stripping baskets and it also doesn't get tangled - sometimes. It does both so it is not the perfect answer although it is -an imperfect answer. Holding the line in your hand and lips is also an answer and it is also not a perfect answer. The hand twist is also a really good answer at times and a combination of the hand twist and strips and loops and lips and perhaps even a hired gillie to hold the loops for you could also be a solution. Line handling in casting is a skill and it can be done. It won't be learned by thinking about it, only by developing the physical skill to do it and it will always be imperfect. That is one reason that spinning and conventional fishing is simpler. The reel holds the line and it is out of the way. We are all familiar with that and would like to have the ease that it offers available to us when we fly fish. I would too but I do use my lips and hands and I hand twist and use stripping baskets and I try to fish where the line will be out of my way and sometimes it works great and sometimes I have trouble. I have noticed that when I am "On," in my fishing that the line is forgotten and doesn't give me any trouble. I have seen many people try to design the perfect stripping basket. I have even tried it myself and whenever I see a fellow with the "worlds biggest," stripping basket attached to him,
made out of a plastic mesh bird net or a small otter trawl or the biggest washtub ever strapped to a waist or a thin cone or a wide cone or any and all thing-a -ma-jigs I smile and say "Wow, that sure is a stripping basket." They come and they go and I just keep using the appendages I was born with and will until someone comes up with a waterproof invisable robot that follows you around and works without maintainance. Of course you can restrict your fishig to cast and retrieve with sinking lines and use a stripping basket exclusivly for that one method. It is the easist solution and as long as you know how to use your armpit you don't even have to hold the rod.

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