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GF Flycast Design

gf flycast design

GF Backhand Power Haul | Magic Switch | GF Vertical Bow Cast | The Dunker | Snap-T | Snap-Z sh | Snap-Z dh 


I have been fishing since my early childhood and if you would ask me what I like more, fishing or fly casting, you will immediately get the answer: "Fishing, of course!" I am a fisherman and the fish I could not get were the motivation for my longlasting trainings on the lawn and in the gym to improve my flycasting technique. During these year long exercises I was developping several new casts and technical variations which I spread among the fly fishers around the world in dozens of shows and special fly fishing events and of course in my courses and especially the instructor training courses. In those courses I have taught some of the best instructors of present times which helped to spread these new casts into all corners of the fly fishing world within a relatively short time.

I want to explain you several casts/technical improvements now, which I have developed in the last decades and which show great advantage in special situations. They have meanwhile been published in several books and videos. The GF Upstream Pick Up (meanwhile aka Snap-T/Snap-Z/Snap Cast) are some of my oldest casts but only became popular after teaching them in the States in 2000 to some enthusiastic instructors from Calgary.
Some of the others I developed in the early nineties. I showed them first officially in summer 1995 at the FFF-Conclave in Livingston/Montana(USA) while casting with Lefty Kreh. After that I demonstrated them in Swalmen (NL, in 1995) at the Chatsworth Angling Fair (GB, 1996), at the Danish Fly Festival in Kolding(DK, 1997) and at Fly Fair (NL, 1998) and within the last decade at dozens of shows in Europe, the USA and even in Russia.
In the last years I have optimized and fine tuned some casts and made them more effective. It was always my aim to control the energy by optimizing the technique instead of being or becoming as slave of it. At present time there are movements within the fly fishing scene which put the use of maximum power in the centre. For me fly fishing is anything else but using maximum power and touching the ground with line and fly during the false casts several times just to cast some meters more. This belongs to tournament distance casting but should not become some sort of a mainstream in fly fishing. It is to decide well what can be used at the water and what not and the things should not be mixed up. At least what I am concerned, fly fishing and the casts I use at the water will always be performed in an elegant way with a harmonic, obviously powerless but nevertheless very effective technique and I will only forward useful fly fishing techniques to my international clientele and the fans of energy control. 

GF Backhand (off shoulder) Power Haul - Perfect Double Hauling
aka Arrow Haul / High Hauling

My revolutionary backhand hauling technique (based on my more efficient double haul technique for the basic cast) allows better loading of the rod, smaller loops and much longer casting distances. Well known instructors all around the world have confirmed the enormous efficiency of this cast and many of them use it now and have dramatically improved their off shoulder casting. The rod loads much better and the harmony between rod hand and line hand is optimized. This makes your flyline fly and fly and fly...

>> video
 

GF Vertical Bow Cast

A vertical Air Mend/Bow Cast for nymph fishers. A trick cast only for specialists which makes the nymph sink much faster and easier!
 

The "Dunker"

This is my improved high speed Tuck Cast which makes the nymph sink very fast. It outcompetes all other variations of tuck casts becauses the rod tip movement is optimized to get the highest speed of the nymph when it snaps through the water surface.

>> video

 

The "Magic Switch"(Minimal Switch)

The most elegant and efficient way of Switch Casting. To be seen on the DVD of the special edition 20 of Fisch & Fang " So wirft man die Fliege" on chapter 5 "How professionals cast". First published in Sedge and Mayfly in 2005 and latest publication was in Russia's leading fly fishing magazine in 2008.

>> video

 

The GF Pickup Cast (Snap-T)

A trick cast for the nymph fisher, which I have created in the eighties, that allows a long distance presentation in situations where there is not much space for common casting techniques. Since I have demonstrated this technique in the States one of my students gave it the name Snap-T. This cast is meanwhile used world-wide for fishing with two handed rods. 

>> video

 

The Snap-Z
A switch cast for special situations which allows to carry more line in the air (larger D-loop) and get a deeper loading of the rod.

>> Snap-Z video(single hand rod)    >> Snap-Z video(double hand rod)

Two handed fly casting(videos)