I employ this term, technical presentation, regularly to refer to the type of fishing described by Trout Champ. Floating imitations presented to well educated, larger trout feeding in the clear, smooth surfaced but complex currents of big spring creeks or tail waters with similar habitat. We used to use this term frequently on the Henry's Fork and, more often today, on the Upper Delaware and Missouri. My understanding and use of this term refers to the prerequisite of manipulating a fly and its attached leader/tippet in mid air and again, upon the water to present the fly with no drag and no tippet below it, so the trout sees the fly first as if unattached, with maximum precision in complex, difficult feeding lies. To accomplish this an array of techniques may be utilized by the angler in response to the unique circumstance presented by the individual fish. Droplets of water can be sprayed off your line and leader during false casting so often it is ill advised to lengthen line in air towards a rising fish, cast parallel but away from your Henry's Fork bank feeder. There are often submerged chunks of basalt creasing the currents and weed beds too twist the flow of water unpredictably so straight line presentations will quickly set up drag. Putting a reach in you cast by generating a high line speed, tight loop and reaching the rod tip aside while feeding slack from your line hand into the reach, puts the line down with an up steam "L" shape. While executing the reach you can also shape some "S" curves into the line and leader by controlled oscillations in the rod tip during delivery while the line is still airealized. This combination allows the fly to have current cushioning patterns of controlled line upon the water as it is floating toward the fish poking its snout out from beneath an elodea mat lodged tight to a bank protrusion. A funnel of current feeds flies to this dominant fish's lie and by controlling the attitude of your fly by having it downstream and across from your casting position, you can align it with the current funnel and strive for good timing. I prefer to ere on the outside of the fish to get a feeling for what the currents will do as my fly approaches so I can modify my casting position, fly placement...usually a few feet above the fish, or the shapes of in air and on water mends required.
A never ending evolution of learned and developed skills can be added to this repertoire to enhance your "technical" capabilities and they are not all about rod/line/leader design and casting. I recall a morning on the Nature Conservancy water on Silver Creek, one of the most technically demanding pieces of public water I have ever fished. PMD's were emerging and there were some small spinners mixed in too. A straight section of dense overhanging grass bank gave way to a recess, a small cove indenting some four feet, forming a back eddy. There was a good pod of fish slurping along the the backward current but right below the point where the bank gave way was a particularly interesting trout feeding. The stream is deep between where I could wade and where this fish feed so I had to get well upstream and, with a reach and mend, alight my fly along the grass of the straight piece of bank to allow the swirl of current to float it into the beginning of the recess. Because of the position I could wade to it was a moderately long cast of about 45 to 55 feet and then a drift of about 6 feet was required. I changed my position a few times as well as the configuration of my presentation and, after a while, I was getting my fly to this fish pretty well. But it was a bright, hot Idaho morning and the Sun was getting higher and the hatch was declining. The fewer the number of insects on the water, the more intermittent the fish's rise activity became and then there was the not entirely natural artificial fly with he reflective string attached to it. Clearly the more I persisted in casting, the more likely I was going to put this fish down. I wanted to hook it badly...so I stopped fishing, carefully backed out and went on my way. But I triangulated my wading position relative to the trouts lie and bank side focal points carefully. That evening I returned, entered the stream well above this fish so I could observe its activity and, as the sky colored and the spinners fell, I approached my pre-determined casting position. In the gloaming light my casting and tippet were less evident and I knew just how to get a complex dead drift and...she ate on the 2nd or 3rd presentation. A thick slab of a female rainbow, she ultimately came to net in time for my partner to come downstream and meet me. She was a clean, unmarked 23" specimen and an image of me with the sunset behind releasing this great trout is hidden somewhere amongst thousand of 35mm slides in a cabinet here in my office.
That, my forum friends, is technical technique and tactics.
(Need to be a fan of South Park to get that one) There was a ton of hype and I am sure the sales were pretty hot and fast for a while. Now if you look around you can pick one up on ebay or elsewhere for half the cost, most saying like new or barely used. Even shops are trying to dump them. When the hype no longer works, they will discontinue it and come out with The Two, or some other marketing driven thing.
