Casting Efficiency

[Guest flyfishBDS]

Dano was mentioning about feeling pretty tired at the end of a day casting 9' rods, which sparked a few thoughts about casting efficiency or lack thereof.

I haven't seen Dano cast, but I do get to see a lot of people wearing themselves out on the river, through poor techniques, overpowering a cast, casting too much and some other fundamentals.

I offered a casting clinic on these methods

But I thought I'd put some of these tips down here to give people an idea what Im talking about when i speak of efficient casting/fishing

*OVER POWERING. Most of us myself included hit the forward cast way too hard, trying to throw the line further forward. Try this exercise one day, mark out 30' of line and try casting a nice loop out and back with less effort each time. concentrating on a good loop, nice stops etc. You'll be mazed how little phsysical effort is required. This is what makes great casters look so effortless.

*DOUBLE HAUL: Most of us associate the DH with distance, but its really for more line speed with the same rod hand effort. Great for windy days or tightening your loop for a more accurate presentation even at trout fishing ranges

*LOW ROD TIP: Start all your casts with the rod tip at the water. Makes for a better pick-up and backcast.

*ENOUGH LINE OUT OF THE TIP: I see a lot of people stripping in line till they have just a foot or two out of the tip on each cast. Start your cast with 10-20-30' out and see how much easier it is.

*SHOOT LINE ON YOUR BACKCAST: Easy way to extend your range. On the back cast immediately before your final forward cast, let line slip through your left hand fingers, for a RH caster. Coming forward you have more line out (hence more weight) than on your previous forward cast. The rod will have more load and shoot more line on your final forward cast.

*TOO MANY FALSE CASTS: Learn the above two steps and you can kill this off. But using 4-5-6 false casts on every cast is way too many and too tiring. On most occassions a pickup backcast, forward false cast, back cast (shoot line) and forward cast shoot is all that is required. Do it on one backcast and you have half the effort. That's a lot at the end of a long day.

*ROLL CAST UPSTREAM AT THE END OF THE DRIFT: None of us can pick up , turn the line 90 degree and forward cast efficiently. Use the current, to help you load the rod at the end of the drift, adjust your stance, and you can relocate the indicator fly upstream into a position you can make a clean standard cast to your fishing target.

*KEEP THE FLY IN THE WATER: If your fishing long slow sections like on Taney or Beaver, use stack mends to fish downstream drifts further than the distance of your cast. Longer the fly is fishing in the strike zone the better. Im still yet to see a fish leap clear of the water to eat a scud

*REACH CASTS:Aerial mending sounds technical but its easy peasy, and allows you to get the fly to depth faster and more efficiently.

*POLARISE GLASSES: If your spotting fish schooling or feeding your fishing good water, can save hours of blind searching over unproductiive sections.

*FIND YOUR LENGTH: Most of us have our "sweet casting range" where we can be accurate, not get too many tangles, pick up the line and put it back easily and quietly. Get too close and you don't have enough line out of the tip to bend the rod and you lose accuracy and stealth, too far away and you get tailing loops, less accuracy and more noise. Guess what, move your feet until your at your best range, rather than trying to cast to the fish. You will catch more fish.

*SIT DOWN AND WATCH: This is relaxation so take a break. Watch the fish feeding, water movements, practice your fish spotting. You'lll feel better at the end of the day and you'll fish better too.

Anyone else feel free to add to the list

Cheers

Steve

[Greg]

Steve

I'm a decent enough caster. BUT sometimes at the end of a long day I have some wrist and hand pain. I think that's because I tend to use my wrist too much as I cast. As a casting instructor - do you see that often? Any advice? Do those wrist splint devices that I've seen for fly casting that hold the wrist flat and straight actually work? I think it's called the Wulff wristlok?

thanks,

Greg

[Guest flyfishBDS]

Hey Greg,

Wrist and hand pain to me would signal a couple of things possibly

Too tight a grip and probably as you suggest too much wrist. Though a chokehold grip can flow through into wrist pain.

There is no such thing as a locked wrist in a cast _ but there is too much wrist, or rather too much at the wrong time.

I don't claim to be the world's best casting instructor, but Ive had breakfast in the same room with a few of them lol, so I'd prefer to see your cast before being too definitive, or suggesting a wristlok

We do have the Wulff Wristlok and the cheaper, simpler Liteloop Wristband. We use the wristbands a lot with beginners, might work for you if you have that L shaped backcast.

But first Id be trying to cast with less grip pressure less effort (the two seem to go hand in hand) still with good stops and loop form.

The reason I mention stops particularly is whenever Ive been told by instructors to work on my stop over the years, is I would immediately grip the rod harder as though this would work better _ wrong LOl

Hope this helps, if your ever down this way lets have a cast

Cheers

Steve

[jdmidwest]

Greg, the wrist problem may be a sign of something else, Carpal tunnel or repetitive motion problem. Try a simple wrist brace or wrist band. I use one all of the time and it has eliminated the pain, numbness, and tingling . My right wrist is crap due to hipower pistol loads, too much mouse, and fly fishing. Watch the elbow too, I have seen tennis elbow type problems also.

In addition to Steve's suggestions, use the right rod for the right fishing situation. A 3 or 4 wt for dry flies, a 6 or 7 wt for size 6 streamers or muddlers. Shorter rods for narrow streams and longer rods for better line control in wider streams. Not using the right rod will cause you to work more while casting. I usually carry several and several different spools of line for the reels to match the situation. I have went back to the truck several times in a day as the fishing changes.

Also, the right leader, tippet length combination can affect the cast considerably. Longer lighter leaders and tippets for dries, shorter heavier for streamers.

[Growler]

This won't really help with the issue of wrist pain, but for casting stroke and efficiency, I am a huge advocate of using a video camera.

Grab a buddy, a vid cam with an LCD screen and go to the back yard or a park. Take turns taping each other, then play back the tape. It's easy to work on flaws in your cast when you can visualize what it actually looks like vs. what it should look like.

People can tell us what we're doing wrong, but when we see it for ourselves, it many times makes much more sense.

G