Distance casting question

[TurbineBlade]

Hi - with the silty waters I decided to go out and grass-cast for a couple of hours this morning.  This time I took a long tape measure and a couple of white towels to measure distance/accuracy. 

 

Rods -

 

3 weight

6 weight

8 weight (wife's rod with 5" lead clouser to make it realistic as possible)

 

Okay, at 50 feet I can hit the towel pretty consistently with all 3 rods.  This is with a "gentle" double haul and not too big of a casting stroke (don't know if that is scientific or not - hopefully that makes sense). 

 

At 75 feet though, I have problems hitting the towel with the 3 weight, period.  60 feet is "okay", but 50 is really about the best I seem to do comfortably with the 3 weight. 

 

With the 6 and 8 weight, I can unreliably hit the 75 foot distance, but accuracy kind of goes to hell....I am also using a lot of body movement (weight shifting) and a really long stroke.  The forward cast I have "reach for the sky" with the rod so that the line shoots out to get the distance...which probably looks pretty grotesque. 

 

Question - with the 75 foot distance (which is really long for me) the fly line seems to kind of want to "crumple" on itself on the forward cast.  This not a tailing loop...because God knows I've thrown enough of those to recognize it.  I used to throw the tailing loops even on 40-50 foot casts until I figured out how to remove slack from the cast and learned to double haul better.   

 

Also, I can only have out about 50 feet of line and still pick it up.  Beyond that and I can't seem to haul/muscle the back cast well.  It looks like a cartoon if I try. 

 

These fly lines are - 1 weight forward, 1 bass taper line.  Should I be able to throw a 75-80 foot cast with these kind of lines, or do most people use some kind of distance line? 

 

BTW - I cannot believe how much easier that 8 weight throws a huge clouser minnow than my 6 weight!  There's no comparison -- the 8 weight is the right tool for the job on those big heavy flies. 

 

Thanks for any tips -- when fishing it seems like I'm only casting between 20-40 feet, but I didn't want to get soft in case I get a chance to go for some SW fishing at some point ;).  I kind of enjoy casting just for the heck of it too.   Crap, the penguins just scored again.  Talk to you!

 

Gene

[Vic Velasco]

It seems to me that the rod has a lot to do with the amount of energy that can be transferred to the line.  The more backbone a rod has, the more energy it can impart to the line.

I know there is more to it than this - casting properly, the type of line, whether you use hauls or not, consistency of the cast - but all things equal, as you pointed out, the more 'rod' you are using, the longer the cast.

[Eric Y.]

No surprise on the 3wt. You shouldn't be concerned there. My 3wt is a bit different (10'6 czech nymping rod) but my old 2wt (helios 8'6) was good to about 50ft max and I never fished it where I'd need more than 30ft max. 

Are your 6 and 8wt mid or tip flex? That will alter expectations on casting distance as MF is designed for presentation and TF to have more backbone. 80ft is okay with my 8wt (Orvis Clearwater, TF) but not much past without basically a running start. Distances of greater than 75ft are basically why a lot of folks have gotten into the two handers. Throwing out miles of line on my 6wt switch is a lot easier than with my 8wt. 

Unless you're fishing for big brutes like striper, marlin, or LMB, presentation is still generally what's most important. I fished redfish, snook, and cobia pretty hard for a short while and while distance makes a difference, you'll scare them all away with poor presentation. It is also a lot easier to get distances when you're in open water on a casting platform (or, alternatively, in a drift boat) when you're up above the water more than you normally would be and there are few obstructions to watch out for on the back cast. 

On Saturday, February 2, 2013 2:15:24 PM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote:

[John Bilotta]

Gene,

Great questions.

Lets talks at a club casting sometime.

John

Sent from my iPhone

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[TurbineBlade]

Thanks for the responses -- that was probably one of the longest, most nerdy posts I've written.  I may try to go out again this morning and work a bit before the caps game too.

I'll try to attend the next casting at fletcher's.  I went once earlier this summer and got some helpful tips from you (John) and Carl as well.  

Thanks --enjoy the superbowl everyone!

Gene

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