I Had A Cast With The Long Wand

[Jaso]

Ok, so i got a fly rod ages ago but have not been game to give it a go (even to practice). Its got an intermediate line on it (weight 8 I think).

I really wanted to try for salmon this season.. so I took it out last weekend, went down to Crosslands reserve, and tried to give it a go.

So I hadnt practiced it before cause I was pretty sure I would be crap. However, when I gave it a go, I was worse than crap!

I reckon 25ft would have been the max I could cast it.. but most of the time it was backlashing and I was in all sorts of strife.

The hardest thing is not knowing much about the gear or what to expect from my own ability with that gear.. but I pictured trying to do this from my boat and I reckon I would spend half the time extracting hooks from all sorts of places on the boat, and probably myself also.

Anyway thats the story.. so a couple of questions:

1) For repeated casts with intermediate line, do you need to retrieve the line.. Am I right in saying that because the line sinks its probably harder to pick the line out of the water and cast it again?

2) Are you supposed to have the line in a coil at your feet, and cast out from there? When I tried this, it had a lot of trouble getting thru the guides on the rod.

Cheers

[Ken A]

Welcome to fly fishing Jaso

How much line you need to retreive before picking it up & starting the back cast depends on the rod / line weight & your wrist. I found with a 10 weight intermediate I could lift about 20 -25 feet & that was it. A floating line is a different story altogether & you can pick up long lengths no worries.

If your having trouble with line tangling try stretching it before using it. Pulling it off the reel against some decent drag will do that & make it less likely to tangle. Good quality lines lay nicely & limp & don't tangle but cheaper ones can cause a lot of problems in this area.

I'm a fly thrasher not a fly caster so I won't give you any of my tips except try to hook up with an experienced caster for some practice. It's much easier than trying to teach yourself.

If you intend to fish fly from a boat I highly recommend getting on the water & getting used to fly casting in actual fishing conditions as soon as you have mastered the basics of casting on dry land.

You don't need to throw long casts to catch fish. Distance comes with practice. If you can throw a consistant 60 foot cast you'll be right for salmon & the like.

I'll leave it there & let the more experienced fly guys have a say.

[Warpig]

Howdy Jaso.

I guess I'm about 3 weeks ahead of you in the silly stick stakes. The first time I went out it was just ridiculous, not to mention kind of depressing given the cost of my new flyrod...

Anyway, what I did was to read a lot of articles on the www. This one, for example, isn't too bad:

http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/contents.shtml

But this really short series by Lefty is the best:

http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/lkcastingbasic/

Learning a physical activity by reading written instructions is CLEARLY not for everyone, but Lefty's article really worked for me. I went straight out and more-or-less cast OK straight away after reading it and thinking about what Lefty is trying to say. I got up to 70+ feet with the #8 after about 3 h practice, but have subsequently stuffed the whole thing by developing tailing loops. I've tied 3 proper flies on, but have lost them all by whip-cracking on the backcast...

We'll get there!

[Narralakes]

Thats the best way Jaso, get out there with someone who can cast. You can read all the books in the world on flycasting, but with someone giving you pointers you can get immediate feedback. If your'e ever on the northern beaches give me a PM and we can go for a cast down Narrabeen and maybe a fish. With the backcast though, you are probably not letting it unroll before you make the forward cast, thats why it is whipping and snapping off the flies, you might want to make sure your elbow and hand arent dropping too low as well. Make sure you can cast satisfactorily on land b4 venturing on a boat, you have limited space, choppy seas and people in close vicinity to deal with as well when on a boat. It wont take you too long, just a little practice.

[Guest bluecod]

Jaso,

Take Pedro with you mate - he knows how to remove barbed hooks from flesh without too much drama

Edited June 29, 2005 by bluecod

[Narralakes]

That reminds me, I better learn that hook removing trick. Any diagrams or instructions Peter? We should have taken some photos of you know who when you performed that trick.

[Guest bluecod]

That's right Ken - bloody amazing it was, one minute the hook was buried deep, the next second it was gone and not a drop of blood spilt. Didn't stop the feeling though!

When the weather and water warms up, we should probably repeat that day as there seems to be a lot of new interest in swoffing - and I'm still waiting for my first duck on fly.

[Jaso]

Thanks very much guys - all good info.. I definately need to get out with someone who can cast.. that much is true..

Ken - 60ft - I can't imagine throwing a cast 60ft

Wacko - will send u a PM.. many thanks for the offer. That would be awesome and I will probably take u up on that.

Swoffa - post the info on Sydney Fly Charters - I'm always interested in good charters. Many thanks.

Edited June 29, 2005 by Jaso

[Bashir]

I was thinking of doing some 1 on 1 with him myself.

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[Ken A]

Ken - 60ft - I can't imagine throwing a cast 60ft

With a little help you will be throwing that before you know it

[Narralakes]

Thanks Peter,

Iv'e printed it out and saved it to my files, hopefully will never have to use it, but just in case,

Ken

Edited June 30, 2005 by Narralakes

[fishauhj2]

Jasco:

If I may suggest one thing you can do when you are starting out fly casting is to minimize false casting. For example, let's say you have some line laying on the water (floater's the best) in front of you. Do a back cast off this line; when the line straigtens out do the forward cast and let the line back on the water. During the backhand cast make sure you don't break your wrist (otherwise the line will drop); and the make sure line straightens out by watching your back cast. You can progressively lengthen the line.

One important thing during these simple steps is try to feel the rod load and get springing sensation of the rod. If you don't feel this it's hard to get distance and you will tend to compensate by swinging the rod too fast. A problem is if you have a real stiff rod it's hard to feel the rod load because you have to be very precise in your timing; really speed up the cast to load the rod; or get lot of line out.

As others pointed out false casting depends on the line used; I think the floaters the best for learning to cast at a relaxed pace. With sinking lines you need lot of line speed to aerialize the line (because they are denser and thinner), and it's more difficult to get the timing right.

Once you can feel the rod load and get the timing fly casting becomes lot of fun.

have fun!

Ted

[bluefin]

You need to learn to Duck sometimes when fly fishing!

DON'T use your wrist, hold the rod as if you are giving the thumbs up, press down with your thumb and wrist so you can't use your wrist! use your forearm to cast!

Otherwise you will loose strength and controle!

Howard

Edited July 2, 2005 by bluefin

[Jaso]

Thanks guys.

I met Wacko down at ATB on Saturday and he gave me a great demo and instruction on casting. He was throwing out 50-60ft casts pretty easily which was a joy to watch.

I wish I could say I was doing the same.. but I guess practice makes perfect.

[Guest bluecod]

Thanks guys.

I met Wacko down at ATB on Saturday and he gave me a great demo and instruction on casting. He was throwing out 50-60ft casts pretty easily which was a joy to watch. 

I wish I could say I was doing the same.. but I guess practice makes perfect.

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Wacko, Good on yer mate!