Whilst in theory there are a few ways of casting with a centrepin , and each has its own veriations and no two people cast them quite the same way,i much prefer
to think of them as styles that we learn and make our
own.whilst doing research for these articles it's has
become apparent that the descriptions and history of
some of the cast's had become comfused , this is due in no small part to the rise of using open faced reels
over a generation or two.and with the gradual return
of people using centre pins again someware in between
things had gotten a bit mixed up,for instance what is
or isn't a nottingham cast and is the wallis cast or the side cast the nottingham cast or is it the loop
cast,not being a hundred years old myself , i asked a
few old timers who still only use centre-pins and read
all the articles i could find on centre-pin fishing i
have formed my own opinions on how the casts developed
from the simple side cast and how everything hinged on
where the line left the reel it seems the people from
around nottingham liked the line to exit from off the bottom of the drum and people from around sheffield
prefered the line to come off the top of the spool and
this diference is what seperates the same cast into 2
diferent styles the Sheffield style (off the top) and
the Nottingham style (off the bottom)
The two styles both relied on the angler to pull line off the drum between the reel and the first rod ring
and were then developed further to enable the anglers of the day to cast out further ,The Sheffield anglers
developed their style by drawing more loops from between the first few rod rings and then casting out
while the Nottingham anglers improved their style buy
imparting motion to their cast to gain extra distance.
I carn't substantiate any of this , its just a bit of
wild speculation on my part perhaps it happened this
way or maybe not , but one thing is curtain we ended
up with two great casting styles both of which i was
taught as a lad growing up living near Nottingham .
like so many my centre-pin casting skills were pushed
aside and neglected in faviour of my fixed spool reels
and has suffered greatly for it . i try to remedy this
by using my old " Rolls Royce " centre pin when i go chub chasing or grayling grabbing on the( derbyshire )
derwent or the trent.
Copyright © 2006 Steven Devereux. All Rights Reserved.
CASTING TECHNIQUES
LASSO STYLE SIDE CAST
THE LOOP CAST
THE SIDE CAST
THE WALLIS CAST
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