Ask The Guru

GURU
" An acknowledged expert, a teacher"
In this issue we begin a new column for readers to ask the questions they
were always too afraid to ask. Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News has
assembled the best fishing brains in the business to answer your questions.

To start off we have put together a few sample questions, to give readers an
idea of what is involved.

Dear Guru, I seem to have problems all the time with wind knots in my fly
casting, as well as the fly catching the fly line on the delivery cast. How can
I get rid of this? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Billy Bunter.

Peter Hayes, of Tasmania's Premier Fly Fishing Guides, and 9 times
Australian Fly Casting Champion answers as follows.
Billy, this is a very common problem, which can be solved in the following
way. Quite often casters who have this problem do exactly the same thing,
which is to drift or spring the rod forward at the end of the back cast, and
then punch the forward cast. The forward cast needs to be one fluid
movement, without the double movement.
The way to fix it as follows. Stand slightly on one side and throw a back cast
- watch the rod tip as it stops. It must come to a dead stop or it should only
be allowed to drift slightly further back, but never forward. Finally push the
rod forward smoothly using a long steady knuckle stroke.
Good Luck Billy,
Peter Hayes, Tasmania's Premier Fly Fishing Guides.

Dear Guru, I only seem to be able to catch small Australian salmon when
spinning, although others are catching much bigger ones. What should I do
to get into the larger fish? There must be a simple reason.
Marty Mongoose

Andrew Large of "Got One" in Hobart answers Marty's question.
Marty, often the larger salmon are deeper in the school than the smaller ones
you seem to be catching. Perhaps the simplest way is to let the lure sink a
little more before you commence the retrieve. You can either let it sink
more, or use a bigger and heavier lure. This doesn't always fix the problem,
because if the salmon are locked into a particular size of baitfish, then the
bigger lure might not get you any fish. So, let it sink a bit more, maybe count
down to 20 and then start the retrieve. Good Luck.
Andrew Large "Got One Fishing Connection', Hobart.