Response to Fly Casting Question from Reader
Filed under: How To... — admin @ 7:29 am
Here’s a response to a recent email I received:
Question:
…how far should a fisherman learn to cast? I realize that most trout & bass are caught probably 50ft or closer and that a person should only cast as far as the situation dictates. However, I am practicing my double hauls (line speed) and trying to keep a 180 degree plane resulting in tighter loops and more distance. I am a firm believer in working on the more difficult executions first…..then, the short casts will be easier.
Right now if I am in stroke I can probably cast around 70ft. How concerned should I be in casting 80 90 or 100 ft. I work on my casting skills almost everyday. I am determined to become a great caster.
I kinda live in an area where fly fishing is not real popular so I have to rely on advice from pros like yourself. Most of my fishing is in lakes and ponds near my home…and I hope to next spring do some smallmouth fishing in southern Missouri.
To achieve the 80ft+ mark does a person concentrate more on shooting the line rather than trying to false cast a lot of line? How far should a person false cast behind them….I mean, is their a certain distance in which a person should not go over? It seems like when I get to a certain distance, the end of my cast kind of tails a little bit.
Maybe I am worrying to much about distance but I am just trying to figure out what myself and my SAGE Z-axis can do.
Answer:
Here are some of the tenets I suggest you consider related to fly casting:
- Practice off season to continually hone your technique.
- Learn to minimize false casting. The best fly fisherman pick up the line and lay it right back down, with little or no false casting. You should false cast only when paying out line initially and to dry your fly if it’s soggy. Otherwise concentrate on hauling and shooting.
- Practice shooting line - employing both a single haul and then working toward a solid double haul (see short video below).
- Double hauling is the quickest way to enhance line speed and distance.
- If you struggle, try over-lining your outfit one line weight. For example: if you’re throwing a 7 wt., use an #8 wt. line. Some believe this should be automatic, I disagree. If you have good technique and a good rod, you shouldn’t have to overline.
- Learn to feel the rod loading on the backcast and watch your backcast during practice to view how it reacts and when you should start the forward stroke.
- For a tight loop on the delivery cast, make sure you abruptly stop the forward motion of the rod at the 10:00 or 11:00 position, then follow the line slowly down with the rod tip to begin manipulation.
- Open your loop (bring the rod down to around 9:00) when casting heavily weighted flies to avoid injury to your rod (and yourself).
- Experiment with various trick casts such as Curve Casting to expand your repertoire.
- To be a competent casting in a variety of conditions, work to be able to power a straight line cast, shooting line to 60 feet consistently in a variety of wind conditions. Practice with the wind coming at you from all directions.
- The biggest pitfalls in casting are generally a poor or rushed backcast and a dipping delivery cast that opens the loop and stubs the cast.
Here’s a quick video I did a few years ago demonstrating a double haul technique. In my view, it’s all in the hand work.
