Another distance casting question

[TurbineBlade]

Okay -- the measuring tape doesn't lie.  

I've been working and working to try to improve my casting in various respects, (curving, mending over items I put in the grass, etc.) and with distance....since I like SW and it's always pretty windy out there.   

I put the 100' of tape out today on a day with little wind, and found that with the 5 weight and 8 weight I was able to really only reliable hit about 74' in repeated attempts...and that's with shooting a good amount of line and me definitely putting effort into it.  I'm relaxed only out to about 60' honestly.   Strangely, the heavier rod made no difference, with maybe 1-2 casts a few feet longer but with the fly and leader totally collapsing into a huge mess.  I've fished enough now to know that I prefer pretty moderate action rods, and the 8 weight is definitely more fast and less suited to how I like to cast....and this is even noticeable to me at shorter distances. I'm thinking about overlining that sucker.......

I'm stuck at this distance and can't seem to get better!  Both rods are lined with their printed lines, and both lines are typical floating, WF lines with (I think) similar head lengths and such.  

Anyway -- this is with very vigorous double hauling, etc.  Should one be able to hit 100' with a regular floating WF line, or is this something I need a longer head/rear taper for (or shooting head)?  Do I suck?  I'm pretty sure I know the answer but wanted to get some opinions ;).  

Gene

[John Bilotta]

Gene,

a couple random  thoughts.

74' is great, congrats, keep it up.

work on improving your backcast. make sure it really is 180 degrees from your intended target.

practice picking a backcast target and hit it.

make sure you have no slack in your backcast pickup. 

don't make a bunch of false cast. develop a pattern or cycle that you stick with. i try and use a pick up and get it together cast - then shoot a little on the forward cast, shoot a lot into the backcast and deliver.

loop control. continue to practice making good loops, 3' front and back, without hauling. work on balanced loops at 35-50 without a haul. the logic being if you are making good narrow loops, front and back, at those distances, adding a haul improves the line speed of a good cast. 

the longer the cast the longer the stroke - short cast, short stroke, longer cast, longer stroke.

practice weight shift from your back foot to front.

look at increasing the speed of your hauling hand, rather than your rod hand.

make sure your haul acceleration matches your rod. your haul stops when you rod had stops.

look at the trajectory of you final forward cast, it should be climbing, rather than landing.

head length is important in fly line distance. I don't know what WF line you are using, but play around with a longer head in like a salmon steelhead or a triangle taper,  a line can give you a longer carry and some extra distance. 

use a clean fly line.

when you practice distance, pick a specific number of practice casts and then quit or work on something else. 

john

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[TurbineBlade]

Thanks John -- I'm keeping this thread for reference!

The items on your list which read as "off" to me (the things I'm probably not doing) are shooting line effectively into the backcast and accuracy hitting targets with the backcast.  I tend to shoot line on the forward cast mostly, because I seem to "lose my grip" on the line when hauling and shooting line backwards.  I need to work with that.  I know that's what people tend to do with shooting heads a lot.  

One of these days I need to video myself to really see even better what's going on....it's probably more than I think just by watching my backcast, etc.  

Gene

[Carl Z.]

On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 7:56 AM, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks John -- I'm keeping this thread for reference!

Me too.

I find that after a certain point, nothing is going to help me.  My cast naturally has enough slop/slack in it that at a certain point things are just going to fall apart.  The heavy line won't make a difference if you are throwing slack into your own line.

Also, make sure you don't lunge or try to power your final cast.  When going for distance, this is hard.  I would just try to hit 60 feet as clean as possibly without a haul.

 

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