Casting the Whole Chicken

A couple years ago at an Eastern Flyrodders of Long Island meeting I watched world renowned fly casting expert Mark Sedotti toss a 20-inch, large bodied Slammer Fly – (the size of a full grown oven-roaster)one-hundred-twenty feet with a six weight fly rod. The audience didn’t believe what they had witnessed, so to convince them Mark did it again. This time the fly sailed the same distance and with pinpoint accuracy almost landed in the cup of a practice hole at Indian Island Country Club in Riverhead. I also witnessed Mark do the same thing at the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset NJ, only that time he knocked down the backboard as the cast’s finale! My first thought was Annie Oakley, for this just had to be a trick cast. Mark is a very gifted and athletic caster and a topnotch angler as well. I equate his casting abilities to those of a baseball pitcher. A lot of folks can throw strikes but only a handful can do so at 95 miles an hour! To do so takes an extra special genetic makeup. I mentioned that to Mark and added that only he and a handful of other casters I know could do what he does with a fly rod and big flies. After all, his casting seemed to defy the rules of physics. Mark response to that, “Anyone can do it.” OK, I’ll bite - what’s the trick? “No trick,” Mark shot back. “The secret is a ‘weight-balanced’ fly. My first thought was, I don’t care how weight-balanced a fly is, throwing a chicken on a six-weight is just not possible, even though I had seen him do it.
After the Eastern exhibition the group withdrew to the clubhouse and Mark explained his fly tying and fly casting theories. Simply put, add enough balanced weight to a fly in the form of a keel, allowing the fly to overcome air resistance and drag, and casting really big flies is a breeze. Simple? Yes! Does it work? Yes! It still takes honed casting skills to toss a fly like Mark, but his approach teaches us an even more important fly-fishing lesson - think outside the fly box and don’t always subscribe to conventional wisdom or theory. That is how the sport of fly fishing advances and how we enhance out own abilities. By the way, if the opportunity ever presents itself, take a fly-cast lesson with Mark. Even if you are an accomplished caster, his tips and techniques will make you better.