S8, Ep 76: The Truth About Rod Action: Mac Brown's Guide to Better Casting Techniques

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.We're back with another Casting Angles with the man himself, Mac Brown.Mac, how are you doing?

I'm doing great.How are you doing, Marvin?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble.And, you know, since we don't have a lot of fishing to talk about because they haven't stocked any fish, we thought that when we got together tonight, it'd be good to talk to folks about rod action.Right?

Yeah, I think that'd be a big topic.Just because there's so much of.Really over my career in this has been a lot of misconceptions, you know, from the general public.And I think they would help maybe educate some people about what's really going on with rod action.

Yeah.So faster is not always better.Right?

That's the big one there.Because it sounds bad if you say, hey, Marvin, I don't want a fast rod.Everybody wants fast rods because it sounds cool, you know.But yeah, I think that if we talk about, you know, more medium action, not just for, you know, the casting end of it, but for playing fish and line control, manipulation and mending and everything else, it's like when we look at that, there's a simple formula for all these different rods.If you just say, what's the work that you're getting out of this rod?And that'd be the force times distance.And so when we throw a more medium rod, it's going to be easier for people to learn like timing.Controlling the timing of a really fast rod, you have to have really precise, you know, timing is a very shorter window.So if you can have a longer distance to move this rod, then it's going to be easier for like a new caster or an intermediate caster.And it's kind of funny because even the people that I consider world class elite casters, they're all kind of digging the.As far as fishing tools, the medium rods, they're not throwing fast rods.Son of them.Like.Well, there's a lesson in that, isn't there?Because when you think about the really good people that have taught a whole lifetime in it, they're all on medium type actions.So then you gotta ask yourself why it's probably back to the work equals force times distance dilemma.

Yeah.But there's also the feedback you get from the rod.Right.And that's very, very helpful to kind of, you know, subconsciously kind of get you to do what you're supposed to do.

Oh, yeah, yeah.The, the neurotransmitters from the hand back to the brain.The feel aspect is, is massive.Like if you can feel what's going on when you know to your efforts like over this certain distance that you apply force and you get the feedback of, you know, when it, when you get counterflex and rebound, that's massive.And you don't get that same feeling of counterflex rebound.If something's really fast, you know, it's just boom and it's over.It's like I didn't really feel anything.But when you're trying to do tuck cast and positive cast and underpowered cast and all those things that we use in presentation, you know, fishing cast feedback is massive.And how do we develop that and get good at it?Well, we get on something that, that lets us excel at it by having the gear that lets you excel and that's always back to medium.

Yeah, it's interesting too, right?Like we're not telling people to run out and buy fiberglass rods, but one of the things that, you know, at least casting fiberglass is it will absolutely help you smooth your stroke out.

Oh yeah, yeah, it really will.And I have a bunch of those epic glass rods that Carl sent years ago and they're, they're beautiful rods.I mean they're honeycomb color and I love them.I mean there's.They're some of the funnest rods I've ever thrown.And I mean I fish with them a lot.Like dry fly.If I'm just gonna dry fly.Like it's in the fall.Like if I'm going to be up in the park and want to just throw like October caddis, that's the rod I would really enjoy fishing up there, you know.Cause it, it excels at roll casting better.It just does everything better.Your fish fighting is funner.

Why?

Cause you feel the fish, man.You know, if you get a whole bunch of other feedback things that are that put a smile on your face that it's.It's hard to describe by, you know what I'm saying on a podcast, but it's like there's really a lot of feedback that, that your body, you mean your hands putting straight back to your mind and, and it just makes you feel good.It's kind of like feel good fishing, you know.

Yeah.But I would also say too, I mean there's all the non casting stuff.Right.Like I think it's easier to mend line with a slower rod.Right.I think that, you know, you know, let's put the edge Cases out.We were talking about before we started recording.Like we're not tuna fishing or doing anything crazy like that.But you know, when you have better feel it will help you fight fish more efficiently and you're gonna lose fewer fish.

Oh, absolutely.I have a good friend that comp fished a lot for years.This is funny story.And we were up on the.We went up on the Holston years ago.This is like 15 years ago.He walked into South Holston shop, you know, there, right there above the weir rod champion's place.And he bought like two dozen of little tiny like Blake Boyd stripper midges and all this stuff.And I could hear him down below me.We're fishing a couple hundred yards below the power lines below the weir.And he lost every one of those flies, Every one of the flies.And he's a good angler, seriously.But he broke off on all these fish before 10 o' clock and he starts coming up the creek and he wasn't very happy at that point.He's wanting me to give him a bunch of flies and I'm like, no, but what I will do is get you a different rod.And he didn't make the connection.The rod that he was using was the reason he's breaking all these fish off.Because it's a super fast.I don't need to say the brand, but everybody, I mean everybody knows fast brands.But that's why he broke off.And I went back up and got an old brownie brownie rod, you know that sage made back in the 80s, light line sage went back out and he fished till dark.Never broke another one off.But so there's another good example.When you're fishing light tippet on a tailwater with small flies and you're choosing the wrong tool for the job, you're gonna lose a lot of deals with hooking up bigger fish, you know.And there's a good, good example of it.

Yeah, And I would say too, like, it's a little bit harder now, like.Cause they're fewer and fewer.Kind of what I would call full fly shops.But.But a great way to experiment with this is kind of like back in the day when I was buying rods more frequently, you know, if I wanted to buy a 9 foot 5 weight, I would go pick 6 off the rack and go cast every single one of them and I'd put them in order.Right.But that's a good way, you know, people to like, you know, you don't have to go buy the rod, just go cast them and Just say, you know, hey, I want to go cast a fast, a medium fast and a medium action rod and, you know, more full service fly shops.You're going to have that array of rods and go out there and cast them and you can, you'll feel the difference.

Oh, you'll feel it and you also can visually see it.And here's another good tip for folks looking for medium.It's just have somebody like with a line on it just, or tied off to a tree or whatever and stand back and just bend the rod and look at the curvature of the rod.Does it bend back towards the middle?Does it bend just at the upper, you know, upper third of the rod at the tip?Does it bend all the way to the cork?And right there's your answer.So if you have like knowing you're going to be on a tailwater and you're going to be throwing, you know, small flies and you see it just bending at the tip, that's probably not the rod for that job, you know, as far as the feedback and everything else we've been discussing.But it's real easy to visually see without even casting it by, by just the profile of the bend of it.Does that kind of make sense to, to, to think about just looking at the curve?

Yeah, absolutely.And I would say, you know, folks, if you can't get to a fly shop, I mean, we're kind of heading into fall and it'll be holidays, but show season will be here before you know it.Fly fishing shows great time, right, to go try these different rides out.Because all the manufacturers for the most part will be at the fly fishing shows.They'll string them up, you can go test them out on the pond and you can actually feel the difference.That's really kind of a good way to understand that what Mac and I are talking about is actually a real thing, is the easiest way to say it.Right?

Yeah, it is a real thing.And it's definitely the.I think one of the big aspects is there's a guy I talked to quite a bit over in Ireland that he's been big on this for a while.And I mean, when he first contacted me a few years ago, you know, I thought, yeah, that is a big, big part that's been missing about, you know, talking about the aspect of feel and what we do when we actually fish.And I think that the rods that offer that for people, I've just seen it as an instructor for a long time.The people that get the right tool in their hands tend to Progress a whole lot faster than if they had something that was limiting, like, like something that's too fast, it's limiting them.It might put em a year or two down the road further before they get simple stuff down, you know.

Yeah, absolutely.And you know, you know, as we talked about last time, you know, delayed harvest in North Carolina is delayed.You know, we did get some rain from this hurricane, rain that passed through.But you know, really I think we're gonna have kind of a slow fall fishing season unless we get a lot more water pretty soon.But you know, that kind of dovetails pretty well into, you know, the main thing.You're focused on Mac or your schools, you know, what do you have left and where should people go to find them?

Yeah, we've got a spot, one spot in November left.We've got one starting this week and I'm looking forward to getting that started on, on Thursday.And I get to hear about Michael's journey.He'll be helping us there over the weekend.Michael Bradley, who won the world championship out in Idaho.So I'm excited to hear kind of what transpired, you know, with that from his perspective.And yeah, then the November, of course, it's starting to turn.I walked up in the park tonight and it's starting to definitely get, get scenic.You know, it's starting to be a lot of colors along the creek and so I'm looking forward to that.And they can find that on the date menu up on macbrownflyfish.com.It'll have the other things coming up.I put the 27 schedule up so it's all done early because people start texting me in October, November, wanting it to know next year, you know.So I did that a couple weeks ago, which is a lot of, that's a lot of sitting at the calendar and looking at putting all this stuff up.But I'm glad that's all behind me now.Marvin.

Well, there you go.And of course, you know, if you can't make it to a school, you know, why don't you let folks know where they can find you on the road during show season in 2027.

Yeah, there's a date menu with that as well for the fly fishing show.It's on the, you'll see that underneath the date menu and it lists all the cities.Starting off in Athens, Georgia and then going to be teaching an all day class there with Glenda Powell from Ireland.And then we'll teach again up in Marlborough the next week and then be back down in Edison and all the shows are on there and Edison will be with Gary.Gary Borger.I think Gary and I are doing three, three of the six shows and basically by the time show season winds up we'll be in Lancaster by the end of March.

Yeah, well, there you go.And then we're off to Argentina.Right.

So, you know, I'm looking forward to that.I wish it was March already.

Yeah, absolutely.I've.I've have an acute fishing deficit.It's been kind of a tough year from a water perspective kind of in my neck of the woods but you know folks, if you can get out and fish, definitely do it.You know, get to a school if you can.Great time of year to drink beer and tie flies too if you can't get out and fish.But as I always say, yo, it's yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines everybody.Tight lines, Mac.

Tight lines.Marvin.