Using High-Tech Video to Learn That Your Cast… Still Sucks

It’s not enough that “tailing loop” is your fly fishing nickname, or that your friends snicker every time you uncase a fly rod, or even that you once nearly garroted yourself with your own fly line.

Somebody who knows how to cast. We let him fish with us anyway.

No, you need to have your cast recorded on high-speed video, and then overlaid atop the casting stroke of someone who actually knows what he’s doing.

Using a technology called Dartfish, you can do exactly that. Gosh, I can’t wait:

If you’ve seen NBC broadcasts of figure skaters jumping, and then their move is broken down into a series of overlapping frames showing the jump in detail, then you’ve been introduced to the wonders of Dartfish.

On Friday and continuing today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., fly anglers can have their casts compared to those of master casting instructor Matt Wilhelm of the Federation of Fly Fishers in Livingston.

“A lot of times when I instruct I use a video camera,” Wilhelm said. “When students can see what they’re doing, it’s a very helpful tool.”

Schmitt and Paula Pasek, an occupational therapist with Billings Clinic, videotaped Wilhelm’s casts so anglers could compare theirs to the master. For a donation, the video is then burned to a compact disc so anglers can refer to the recording again and again.

“There aren’t many people who have had the opportunity to be videotaped and be overlaid with an instructor,” Pasek said. “It’s a great learning tool.”

Sure, it’s a great learning tool in the sense that you’ll never be a good caster, but it’s possible I say that simply because I’m a bitter fly caster.

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