Robert Gillespie casting session

Myself, John and Petsie travelled over to Mayo on Saturday for a group session of casting tuition from Robert Gillespie. It was my third time meeting up with Robert and the lads first session with him. We all took out weapons of choice, John had an Echo TR 13' 6 #8 with an Airflow SH. Petsie had his Sage Z-Axis 13'4 #8 with a Rio AFS head and I took down my Guideline Le Cie 14'8 #9/10.
   It started off with Robert going through the basics of underhand casting and describing the processes involved, then John rigged up his Shooting head with an intermediate polyleader, leader and some wool and the tuition began.

Getting to grips with the underhand style

 

Robert casting using the traditional underhand style shown to him by Goran Andersson.

 

 

A left bank, downstream wind snake roll.

 

 

Robert going through the fulcrum process which is crucial to effective underhand casting.

 

The result!!

Robert shooting some loops, nice easy stroke for the top photo and a V-loop from the Antti Guttorm style of casting. Its an incredible cast and the most fun you can have with a double hander!

I used Robert's Guideline 13'7 #9/10 Exceed which he raves about and I can see why. For the money it is a beautiful rod, really responsive and great feel to it. Petsie picked it up and got on like a house on fire with it! The cork quality is really good too, I read a review of the Exceed which put me off the rod slightly but once I got it in the hand I was blown away by how user friendly it was and easy to get on with. It is just an outright shooting head rod and suits the job perfectly. I highly recommend it for its performance and price tag. I never even used my Le Cie in the end!

As always I highly recommend Robert as a casting instructor and also for a bit of craic. I think the lads took a lot from the session even though they were both accomplished casters. You just have to see the master at work!