Aberdeen Casting Meet

Having the ability to place your bait at range is a useful weapon in any angler’s armoury. When the fish aren’t feeding close in or are feeding in that gulley 100 yards off the beach, that’s where your bait needs to be. Fishing 20 yards short of that will produce far less bites and ultimately fish. Most anglers can do the basic over head thump but distance with this style is limited and many try videos and magazines to improve their abilities. It is these thoughts that have many anglers looking for casting tuition. Four members of the Scotland forum were about to find out that one morning with a professional is worth more than an entire stack of videos and magazines.

The frustration of not being able to put into practice the techniques shown in the videos and magazines led WSF Scotland forum member R3k (Graeme) to put a post up asking for assistance. His post was swiftly followed by others looking for the same kind of help, myself included. We had other members suggesting we contact the Scottish Surf Casting Association (SSA) for help. Unfortunately most of their days are held in the central belt and Ayrshire. The prospect off travelling to Ayr was not possible for most of us. I put a post up appealing for help from anyone who was closer and willing to help us. Ask Wingbacker (Paul) answered this appeal and very kindly offered to come up and give us some tuition. All we had to do was cover his travelling costs, which to me seemed a very kind offer and one not to be turned down.

The date was set for the 2^nd of June on the Beach Esplanade at Aberdeen, somewhere we all knew and would be easy for Paul to find. The Esplanade is very long and the meeting point was to be the rod I had sitting on a tripod to ensure we were easy to spot. Four members were able to attend that morning R3K (Graeme), Wooky114 (Martyn), Campbellewan (Ewan), myself Bigads (Adam) and our teacher for the day Ask Wingbacker (Paul). We all took along our own rods and reels to enable Paul to show us how to get the best from it. After all there is little point using equipment you don’t own. Today would be of particular use to Ewan as he had taken along a new multiplier and this would be the first time he was shown how to properly use it.

Once we were assembled on the beach, Paul ran us through some safety essentials. Explaining that soon we would exerting tremendous forces upon our knots and end gear, probably more than we had previously been able to achieve. Shock leaders were checked for nicks and we all ensured we were using 10lb per once of lead rule. Closed clips were tied on in preference of open ones as the lead can still escape from these. With safety checks complete we were ready to start hurling lumps of lead at the sea much to the bemusement of passers by, who were no doubt wondering why we had no hooks.

We were all to start with an Off the Ground cast or OTG for short. This is one of the easier casts to teach and can certainly deliver some big distances. The OTG is used as the base for moving onto other styles. Paul laid out a series of marks in the sand to enable us to put our feet in the correct position and bring our rods back into the correct position. Paul took each of us in turn and showed us how to get into the correct position; all of us were shocked at how easy it was to achieve a good cast. Emphasizing smoothness and the steady increase of power into the cast, Paul had us all around the 100yd mark. We continued with each of us taking it in turns and Paul keeping us right with our techniques. Ewan decided it was time to try his new multiplier, under Paul’s guidance he quickly picked up the basics. He learned that a smooth cast vastly reduces your chances of a birds nest, although one of us should really have mentioned that you have to put your thumb on the spool to stop it at the end of the cast oopps!!

A couple of us were then shown the basics of an aerialised OTG cast, which as with all casts is down to technique more than power. This would be the kind of style we all wanted to learn as it’s much easier to casting a grip lead with it in the air. We had a few goes but we all struggled with the timing and returned to the OTG we had learned earlier that morning.

Paul repeated the basics to us and checked we all had the correct body positions for us to carry on practicing at home. He then promised to return to visit us in the late summer for a refresher and to move on with the aerialised OTG.

I felt it was hard for me to describe what each of us had gotten from the session so a few of the guys have written a few lines on their own experiences and what they took away with them.

Paul said ~ I was pleased with the rapid progress shown by all who attended, its was just great to see happy smiling faces as the reels sang and line levels rapidly decreased.

Martyn said ~ Well after meeting up with Adam and Paul on the North Esplanade, Aberdeen on a miserable Saturday morning, assembling the rods and making our way down onto the beach, Paul drew some lines in the sand, which were later to become self explanatory. Paul then demonstrated an off the ground cast, showing that he could chuck a lead a fair way into the headwind, which was most impressive.

After watching Paul cast I'd have been happy to be casting half the distance he was casting, even after the session and receiving Paul's instruction. Paul then walked me through the lines in the sand, explaining what they meant and watched as I did my first cast of the cast of the day. I had the mags on my reel set almost on full (didn't want to birdie on the first couple of goes), but as the session went on the mags were eased off and I've never run my SuperMag as quick as it was running at the end of the session.

Throughout the session Paul delivered some excellent tuition, my biggest fault initially being that I was hitting the cast too early, as apposed to loading the rod slowly then hitting it, but by the end of the session I was getting the hang of things off the ground.

Paul then went on to demonstrate an aerialised off the ground cast – which I struggled to get the timing right on and I still am! I've since had a couple of practice sessions and think I've got to grips with off the ground casting, but my timing's still off trying to do the arialised version, but hopefully it'll come.

All in all I found the session to be very beneficial – it's amazing how far and with so little effort you can throw a lead using the right technique.

Graeme said ~ I literally started from nowhere. I had only picked up a beach casting rod a couple of weeks before the day. I'd looked at sequences etc. - not understanding them at all - on the interweb and tried a couple of times on the beach but that was the extent of my ability.

Going to the casting day was not daunting for me at all. I knew I was going to be terrible but that was the whole point of going. Learn now rather than re-learn later was my theory.

The atmosphere was only spoiled by the weather (who's idea was Aberdeen - and why did we expect better??). Nobody was out to show off or be number one. We all just concentrated on bettering ourselves.

Paul was an excellent and patient instructor and imparted a lot of advice to me (I needed it!). He pointed out where I was going wrong and what I had to look out for in the future. I would have happily paid a lot more for what I learnt.

After three hours of tuition I knew that, apart from trying to remember it all, I just had to get out there and try and put it all together. Within two hours the following day I was casting 100+ yards consistently (my girlfriend seems to beg to differ but we've never agreed on the lengths of things...) and more importantly precisely in the direction I wanted the lead to go. Not record breaking but I'm well impressed.

I am really looking forward to doing it again later in the year.

Many thanks to Paul and Adam

Ewan said ~ I had a great day all round really, have got the hang of the multi now and my cast has improved so much its unbelievable! It was grand to meet up with a few WSF folk, will have to meet up for a proper fishing trip sometime soon.

I’ve been out a few times since to practice and I reckon I'm getting further casts each time with only a few birds nests per sesh. Its a bit different with bait etc but if i keep clipped down rigs then it still goes a fair whack.

I think the whole session was brilliant, little did I realise how little effort it takes to achieve great distances. I’d like of offer my sincere thanks to Paul for making the trip up, it was a very generous thing to do. I love the sight of line from my 6500 disappearing, thanks again Paul.