YAP Coach Tries To Learn A New Skill
Finding himself only a few miles away from the home of Level 3 coaches and course tutors for the recent Level 1 coaching course Jo and Phil Hyde. New coach and YAP trustee Kevin Timney gave them a ring and arranged a visit.
Jo and Phil live at Paignton in Devon and are experienced sea anglers. Jo coaches the England Youth Sea Angling Team and Phil is an experienced custom rod builder.
A fascinating hour or so was spent looking at rod building, discussing rings, blanks, ring spacing and carbon fibre. Phil also has a collection of hundreds of rods many built by himself and beautifully finished. As well as modern carbon fibre he has some fine examples of glass fibre and split cane rods.
After a quick cup of tea it was down to the beach to have a go at casting. Despite a very strong crosswind Phil made it look very easy using an off the ground casting method and sending the 5oz lead sailing to the horizon as straight as a die. He was of course using a rod made by himself and a modern multiplier reel. His technique was smooth and non hurried and showed that a properly balanced setup can achieve large distances with little effort.
Kevin had never cast with a multiplier before so Phil gave him a shorter rod and a ‘foolproof’ reel with a sophisticated system designed to prevent overruns. After a few successful 10 yard casts to get the feel of the set up it was time for the real thing. First cast not too bad but needed to cast higher in the air and use a ‘throwing javelin’ action rather than ‘bowling a cricket ball’ action. Second cast no real improvement. Third attempt , well lets just say that this ‘foolproof’ reel had not met this particular pupil. Luckily the overrun was not too bad and soon sorted out by Phil. Definitely room for improvement and a need for practice, but there is no doubt that in the right hands a modern multiplier will outcast a fixed spool reel and with the benefit of no line twist.
With the northerly wind picking up, it was time to pack up and go back for another cup of tea.
Many thanks to Phil for the time and hospitality he gave to give a novice sea angler a very enjoyable and educational few hours at the seaside.
