Do you practise your casting ?

[ShaunF]

not all flyline are of equal lenth. cortland444 is probably the longest at 34.. airflo lines are 27m.i'm not sure on the rest and i speak under correction but the cheaper lines are generally short around 25-26m lenth. i know my combo lines are 25m, saving costs during production.

IMHO,
its very rare for anyone to be able to cast much beyond 25m with a 6wt.i have been doing some interesting reading on casting and distance casting in particular. it seems the common census overseas that using a floating or intermediate line the expert casters get about 27m.it seems that you cannot hold that amout of line in the air before gravity eats your speed. however using a specially constructed sinking shooting head they can get up to 50m.
to get those distances they are standing on special platforms and using superfast rods.
i have yet to see one individual throw a complete 40+ line floating or intemediate.it's 41m, the closest i have seen was the Airflo sales director throwing downwind and he still had 2 m left.Using the sinker it flew 44m.

Using a heavier line and a rod that generates a faster line speed.say a 9wt then 35-40m with an intermediate are possible


the brand name has nothing to do with the ability of the rod to generate distance. Its the stiffness of the rod and i agree with Scythe, the tfo's are in general on the faster side.
my opinion Therefore not a beginner's rod.the faster the rod the more difficult it is to get a feel of the loading spot and with most beginners waving a stick in the air there is no way to get that feel.
as always there is a proviso. lighter models2/3/4wts will be softer in action as thery are aimed at river work.
i would be willing to bet that most can equal distance regardless of rod names based on our ability. if you can cast effectivly then any rod will get you there.
fast rods will just get you there 2 false casts earlier.

guys i'm just stirring. truth be told i'm a casting junkie myself.there is something sweet seeing a line peeling off to the horizon.
i'm after that mythical 35m with an18' leader and 3 flies on a 6wt cast. i'm constantly reading and practicing various things.
so keep trying for the distance, its brilliant stuff. In england they have a 40Yd club. i'm keen on getting there.
i am just making the point that distance is not the bee all of flyfishing. we need accuraccy far more. those who can cast far and accuratly will get the fish.
the difference is john daley and tiger woods.
put away the popcorn its not worth the movie!!!!

Hey Guys,

These posts by Gary got me thinking about something I've been wanting to post about for a while. Do any of you guys ever practice your casting, be you a beginner or someone who has been fishing for a long time? If so, how often do you practice and how ?

The reason I ask, is that I've been fly fishing for about 17 years now, and had always thought of myself as an ok caster. Not great, but when push came to shove, I could get a decent long cast out to that big rainbow rising to a hatch, a fair distance off the bank. That said though, it took considerable effort and I was inconsistent. I'd also often suffer things like tailing loops etc, especially trying to force that really long cast.

About 8 months ago, I got hold of Joan Wulf's casting DVD, and after watching it, it inspired me to get out there and do a bit of practising, more to make my casting more effortless than to gain any sort of extra distance.

For practise, I use one of my Xplorer Guide Series rods, a 9'0 5wt and I'm casting an old Cortland 444 floating line, with a 9'0 straight 15kg leader and a bit of yarn on the end of it. As Gary said about, this is a long line at 34m.

Straight off the bat, I could consistently cast about 26m, with all the bad habits I'd picked up over the years, and more than the occassional trailing loop which used to irritate the daylights out of me.

Not happy with what I was doing, I decided I would go back to basics, and break down my cast, working on correcting each part of the cast, and not worry about distance at all, only getting the cast right, and concentrating on minimising the amount of effort it takes to get the line out. Effectively I've retaught myself to cast over the last few months, with some astounding results.

After a couple of weeks of say 1 or 2 30-60min sessions out on my favourite piece of lawn, I was casting the full 34m line on at least 3 out of 5 casts, but it was still taking more effort than I thought it actually required, since I learnt how to properly load a rod and let it do the work. Anyhow, I've continued to practice a couple of times a week, or on the weekend sometime, and I'm very pleased with the results. I can now cast that full 34m line on every cast and with minimal effort. On Sunday afternoon, I also cast what I think was the longest cast I've ever made on a 5wt at 37m.

Even fishing low down, like on a float tube isn't a problem for me anymore. I don't hit the water behind me, even fishing my shorter rods, and I can pretty much cast all my lines completely even from this seated position.

What I'm trying to say, is that if you were like me and never bothered doing a bit of practice in between your fishing, you should give it a go, especially if you don't get out fishing every weekend. Someone also rightly pointed out that when you're fishing you want to be thinking about fishing, not casting. Hence if you never practice when you're not fishing, do you ever actually think about the way you cast ?

These days I spend about an hour at a time, first warming up my arm with a few medium distance casts, just to get my timing in. I then move onto long distance casts and finally moving back to medium distance casts, but focussing on accuracy and trying to hit specific targets at different distances which I place on the lawn. I also sometimes practise casting sitting down, and this has helped immensely when casting off a float tube.

I could well be stating the obvious here by saying that a little practice has made the world of difference to my casting and that I'd recommend that everybody give it a try if you're serious about becoming a really good caster, and one that doesn't suffer from a sore shoulder or arm after a couple of days hard fishing.