Author: Bill Nash
Publisher: Bill Nash, Jul 2007
Binding: Spiral-Softcover
ISBN: 0-BN-10
Synopsis
Complete instructions & illus on how to assemble a line system: the why & where of knots, loops, line selection, etc. The intent is to provide enough info so that a 100% strong system can be assembled for any fishing situation - knots best for Fluorocarbon are identified. Illus; 8.5x11 inches,
More Information
Fly Casting Systems Book Description
The "book" is a Fly Casting Systems Manual, with instructions and illustrations on how to assemble a line system: the why and where of knots, loops, line selection, etc.
The intent is to provide enough information so that a 100% strong system can be assembled for any fishing situation - knots best for Fluorocarbon are identified.
The Knot and Rigging Story
All through my early fishing years there was one element that caused me great frustration and frequent disappointment and that was having the line/leader break, at a knot, at what seemed to be well below the rated line strength.
I used the knots recommended by sport shop personal, friends and articles in fishing periodicals, thinking that almost any tangle that didnt immediately pull apart would provide a good connection. As a result, I lost many flies to snags, many fish and flies to break offs (one time losing seven out of twelve fish hooked) and some fly lines.
Eventually I learned of a knot for connecting a fly to a leader the Orvis Knot - that seemed to provide nearly 100% strength. I demonstrated it to some members of my fly fishing club, using a contest to determine whom used/tied the best knot. This entails tying a knot on one end of a piece of leader, then challenging a knot on the other end by pulling them apart until one or the other breaks. As it turned out, the Orvis Knot was best of all that were tried. During the contest one of the club members suggested that I lead a seminar on knot tying and I agreed to do that.
Well, agreeing to present a seminar on knots and doing it are quite different. As a teacher knew that I would have to make a selection of knots for the various connections used in a fly-casting system, produce a Syllabus of knot instructions and prepare visual aids for demonstrations. It, also, occurred to me that I should know what the break strengths of the various knots would be and how variations in tying them would affect the strengths.
While I was an Instructor at San Jose City College I had obtained a cast off Line Testing Machine from the Physics Lab that was just what I needed for this task. Well, surprise, surprise, what a rude awakening this became. Most of the knots recommended and used by fishermen were not nearly 100% strong, most were in the 60% to 85% range, no wonder we lost fish, flies and lines, I was shocked.
I tested materials, to determine the initial strengths, and many knots tying each knot in all the ways that it might be configured and, as a result, I learned the best way to tie each knot, which knots to use and where to use them to produce a line system that provided nearly 100% strength from Reel Arbor to fly.
As I presented additional seminars on knots and received requests for copies of the Syllabus, the simple Syllabus that I prepared for that first Seminar eventually evolved into this Manual: Fly-Casting Systems.
The study of knots and strengths has added great quality and joy to my fishing experiences: Instead of losing flies to snags, most often I get the fly back sometimes with the snag as well. Seldom do I break off a fish, they almost all come to hand, unless the hook pulls free or some abrading structure cuts the line. When I do over-stress the line system during a contest with a big fish the break is in the leader, not a knot.
I now fish with a great confidence in my tackle assembly and the comfortable feeling that this knowledge provides.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bill Nash
Born July 17, 1926 in San Jose California:
At that time San Jose was known as The Garden City, located in Santa Clara Valley, The Valley of Hearts Delight, an agricultural region with vast orchards of Prunes, Apricots and Cherries, fifty miles south of San Francisco, that delighted tourists with aw inspiring spring blossoming.
There are many streams and small rivers running through Santa Clara Valley, draining into either San Francisco Bay or Monterey Bay. As a result, the rainbow trout in these streams were the anadromous type known as steelhead.
Bills father was an avid trout fisherman and almost never missed going fishing on the opening day of trout season (May 1st). He, Wilmer, and his wife, Marcella, would go to a favorite stream on opening day taking baby Bill with them. While being held in his mothers lap, at the age of 18 months, Bill caught his first trout - a steelhead smolt and became a fisherman for life.
He served, during World War II, in the US Navy as a Petty Officer (1st Class Electronics Technicians Mate).
He worked for electronics firms for several years after his discharge, eventually, started his own Radio/TV business and later returned to Collage to earn a teaching certificate
In 1955, he started teaching as an Instructor of electronics at San Jose City College and was employed as a Consultant in Silicon Valley Research and Development Companies during the summers.
He retired in 1989, after 34 years of teaching, and is still residing in San Jose.
San Jose has gown from a small town of twenty five thousand, when Bill was born, to an urban community of nearly one million people. Santa Clara Valley now known as Silicon Valley has grown from a half million to seventeen million people where the streams and rivers no longer support bountiful runs of steelhead or salmon.
