The Rapidan Chapter

JUNE 4, 2014 Chapter Picnic

Hi–Lets have fun and meet at Fred Fox place(11016 saratoga ct, marshall) at 6pm Wednesday, June 4 for fly casting tuneup, picnic, & pond fishing. Please bring one of the following(large side dish, chips/snacks, dessert, beverages) and email “foxbluemont@aol.com” with what you plan to bring.

FWF Upper Jackson River May 30, 2014

Hi–Lets meet AndyH at 10am at Poor Farm Road and Jackson River bridge, west of route 220. Bring chest waders, staff, nymphs, terrestrials, streamers, dries, snacks, & water.

FredK

Casting Heavy Flies

Casting Heavy Flies can be a difficult and dangerous activity with the risk of embedding a hook in the back of your head ever looming.

The key to casting big flies, then is to slow everything down, widen your loops, and avoid sudden changes in direction. To accomplish all these, you need to learn the Belgian cast (also called the oval cast). Rather than moving the fly back and forth along a two-dimensional plane, the Belgian cast keeps the fly moving at all times through a three-dimensional pattern. This means that there are no shocking stops, extra slack, or dropping fly.

To perform the Belgian cast, you make a sidearm backcast and then a forward cast over the top, with a nice, wide loop. The name oval cast comes from the fact that, if viewed from above, your rod tip describes an oval, rather than a straight line. When you are making the Belgian cast, line speed is not important, but you must keep the line moving at all times to keep the fly from dropping.

For a complete lesson on the Belgian cast, check out Macauley Lord’s excellent article on Midcurrent.

Copied from Midcurrents Techniques.  See more at http://midcurrent.com/experts/casting-heavy-flies/.

FWF Jeremy’s Run May 15, 2014

Hi–Lets join KevinD/Host for trout fishing on Jeremys Run at 9am Thursday, May 15, in Luray at intersection of routes 211 & 340. Bring streamers, dries, & nymphs. Also bring hip waders, snacks, water, and bug spray. Email me by noon on Wednesday if you plan to attend(fredkall@aol.com).

Thanks, Fred

MAY 7, 2014 Rapidan Meeting

Hi-Lets meet at Sun Trust Bank in Warrenton at 7:30pm Wednesday, May 7. The speaker is William Heresniak, of Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing, and topic is: Smallmouth Tactics & Patterns for Shenandoah & Potomac Rivers.

Fred