far & fine

[Chris Shelton]

Attachment 670
Tony Biggs in action - photo by Tom Burgers

I recaptured this photograph with my digital camera from the original print that Tom Burgers generously gave to me. Unfortunately a lot of the original's detail has been lost, but for the purpose of this thread, I thought it would still make a good enough subject.

A lot of talk on this forum has been centred around fishing up close, but there are many situations where we do need to put out the long cast. The photo above shows a classic far and fine situation. Perhaps we can use this thread to collectively discuss some of the pitfalls of far & fine fishing on streams and how to overcome them.

[dpammenter]

my only concern when needing to put in a fairly lengthly cast on a stream like that one is the possibility of lining fish.

normally the way i'd approach that situation would be to have one person head off onto the rocks - keeping in mind their body position, shadow and speed of movement, etc - as a spotter, and have the other person fish the pool. at least this way you have less of a chance of spooking a fish close in that might spook others in the pool

[Chris Shelton]

Yes, it is always good to have a spotter, but presuming you don't. Ok, let's sketch a scenario; You arrive at the tail end of a long glide. You are still busy scanning the water with the polaroids when a fish rises 15 to 20 metres ahead of you. What do you do?

[dpammenter]

if i'm alone, i'm still going to take a quick stroll up the rocks to see 1) if i can spot any other fish holding closer in and 2) if i can see what the fish is rising to

presuming there's nothing holding closer (or rather - i didn't spot anything closer) i'd put in a few shorter casts towards the sides and one or two down the middle. after this i'd start working the casts up towards where the fish is (hopefully still) rising. i'd try not go for one cast that's spot on, cos i'm not the greatest caster around

[Chris Shelton]

Excellent! Ok, so now you have covered all the water at your feet and progressively extended to other likeable lies in the glide with no takers. The fish is still rising in the same spot.....and it is a good one too! What next?

[dizzy]

Yes, it is always good to have a spotter, but presuming you don't. Ok, let's sketch a scenario; You arrive at the tail end of a long glide. You are still busy scanning the water with the polaroids when a fish rises 15 to 20 metres ahead of you. What do you do?

Leave him! Get the others before him, then when you're close enough, get him!

[dizzy]

Excellent! Ok, so now you have covered all the water at your feet and progressively extended to other likeable lies in the glide with no takers. The fish is still rising in the same spot.....and it is a good one too! What next?

Usually, its a matter of 1 cast! You fluff it, move on.........

[Chris Shelton]

You have extended to the max of your comfort zone. The fish is another 5 metres beyond....****, he has just jumped clean out of the water.....a good 4 pounder!!! oh ****....what now!!!!???

[dpammenter]

ok, so we've got what we think is the right fly, and the cast is nearly at the fish. at this point my approach is to go for broke. get the fly to land about a meter upstream of the fish, and hope for the best.

having covered the rest of the pool from a number of different angles, you should by now know how much drag you're likely to get and how to overcome it. i'd also use a fairly lenghtly leader/tippet provided there's little wind, or even better, a slight upstream breeze.





... and pray

[dpammenter]

You have extended to the max of your comfort zone. The fish is another 5 metres beyond....****, he has just jumped clean out of the water.....a good 4 pounder!!! oh ****....what now!!!!???

jump in and swim after it!

no, seriously, i'd try get into a position closer to the fish. move up alone the rocks on the side or something. but not having such a great cast, i'd more than likely screw it up royally.

anybody else wish to offer any advice on catching this beaute?