fly casting

     i was reminded the other day of the difference between fresh and salt water fly casting.

we were sitting on john's porch having a late afternoon drink when a boat pulled up and anchored above one of the myriad springholes in john's lake, not thirty yards from us.  the sharply dressed nimrod stripped 30 or 40 feet of line from his reel and began to false cast...again and again and again.  at last, just before i was going to yell, "drop the fly, you dumbass," he did.  no strike, so he began the routine all over again.  i can understand a couple of false casts if one is fishing a dry fly, but four or five, no - he stretched it to seven or eight a couple of times.  and no extension of line...the same length each time.  maybe he thought his casting was particularly elegant or something.  [it wasn't and, no, he didn't catch a fish.]

     now let's go to the salt.

simply and briefly:  everything moves in the salt - the boat, the current, the tide, the wind, and, usually the fish.  false cast more than twice after picking up your fly and chances are your chances at a particular fish are markedly reduced.

stuff that in your creel trout fishermen.  [just the observations of a cranky old man.]