too confrontational.
gotta have fun.
may not need to cast that far, but fun to be able to.
cast to your fish regardless of distance.
accuracy counts.
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too confrontational.
gotta have fun.
may not need to cast that far, but fun to be able to.
cast to your fish regardless of distance.
accuracy counts.
Distance is great.
To get good at it, it takes practice and disicpline. And THAT leads to 'skill'.
However, it is up to each of us to decide if we want to invest that 'practice and disipline' in the pursuit of the 'skill' of making long casts.
You can decide that you don't need to be able to cast that far, or even HALF that far and still enjoy fly fishing.
Nothing wrong with that.
You can decide that you really DO want to learn to lay a fly out 100+ feet accurately, spend the time to learn to do so, and be justly proud of that 'skill'.
Nothing wrong with that either.
What is 'wrong' is either side of this issue thinking that how far you can 'cast' has any bearing on how 'good' a fly fisherman that person is. There are outstanding casters out there who have trouble catching fish. There are folks who have trouble casting 30 feet who catch lots of fish. One doesn't necessarily equal the other.
I know that those who 'can' double haul and pitch a 100 foot cast easily will tell everyone that will listen that if you just do 'this' and learn 'that' it's 'not hard'. Folks learn at different rates, coordination and physical abilities differ wildly, and many folks have ingrained 'bad habits' that while 'wrong' for the pure cast are now second nature to them and are very hard to 'unlearn'. Not everyone CAN get it, at least not without a lot of that disipline and practice.
For some, it is NOT easy to simply learn. And, as we get older, it can get harder.
I know it's hard to believe, but many folks find taking instruction, practiceing something, and trying to 'learn' a new skill to be hard work and not in any way 'fun'. Many people have serious trouble taking any criticism, especially in a group setting, and are self conscious about looking 'bad' as well. Hard for these folks to even consider taking any kind of casting course unless they have the money to get private instruction.
For many of us, fly fishing isn't all our life is about. It's something we like/love/enjoy doing, but we have other things we have to spend time on as well. Work (I know it's a four letter word), family, even (shudder) other hobies than fly casting. Some folks would prefer to spend 'extra' tying flies or building rods rather than practicing the cast.
So, if you want to cast far, learn to do it. It really isn't 'hard' if you have the drive and determination to take the instruction and practice applying it. If you are happy with your fishing as it is, then don't sweat it.
Nothing wrong with either approach.
Good Luck!
Buddy
AMEN BUDDY!
Excellent post. I agree 100% with everything you said. 8)
Bob,
Sure there are advantages with being able to cast more than 100 feet but they are in techniques that can be applied to much shorter casts in certain situations. What's the sense of being able to cast 100 feet or whatever distance if your fish are 1/2 that distance and you can't come close to putting the fly where it has to be? There's casting for: A)Distance; B)Competition; C)Showing Off; D)Accuracy; E)Necessity; and F)Fishing. The first 3 have nothing to do with the sport of fly fishing. I'm sure there are those who will disagree but this is just MHO.
Deezel
Bob,
I doubt I could get to the 70 ft. mark. I dunno, I've never tried. I fish small spring creeks and around 30' max, if that.
I do do some bass fishing and pike/muskie stuff but anything more than 50 ft is rare there. I can do that alright w/a dbl. haul but seldom need to try for more.
Maybe I should seem just for the fun of it....I have a son who "reaches out" a lot. I've just never tried.
Jeremy.
I enjoy casting and working on my casting [u]almost[u] as much as the fishing and I can tell you I would love to be able to cast to the end of my line and I envy those who can. That being said, I don't need anymore than 60', roughly, to reach my quarry 95% of the time. I will cast huge distance one day, but I'm not in a really big rush...at least not until I see a big fish 100' out from me.
Brad
No matter how far you can cast there will always be a fish 5 feet farther than you can reach, whether it is 10 feet, 100 feet, or 200 feet. Reaching him and catching him are two different things.
:shock:
I'm not a great doublehauler but I wish I were....folks that can tend to use it on almost all casts [I'm told]...and are able to expend less energy on even short casts...making long sessions of casting [fishing] less fatiguing.
Well, not true in my case. I worked hard in California to cast a long distance. Maybe not 100 ft, but not too far off. When I got to Colorado I never saw a need for long casts. Even on the bigger rivers. Well, big for my area anyway. Since I didn't need long cats, I dropped to a 3wt and never say to myself "I need to cast longer than this rod can do".Quote:
Originally Posted by J Castwell
I've said it many times. I see no sense in casting a fly farther than I can see it on the water. Keeping in mind I have poor vision.
Hi,
Our club had a casting clinic with a friendly competition as well. The competition involved a series of accuracy tests and a distance component. My 3 best casts were all about 61 feet, within inches of each other. Most rivers I fish I never come any where close to needing to cast that far. However, if I'm fishing a lake, the further I can cast the longer my fly is being retrieved along the bottom and so the longer it is in the zone. Also, there are some pretty large rivers that, on occasion, I also fish. One of my most memorable fish landed was on the Rangitieki, and in a nice riffle above Te Awa camp a rise would start each day just before noon. On the far side of the river was this one fish that always seemed to be the first one to start taking off the surface. There was a tricky set of currents to deal with as well as this fish sitting just beyond my casting range (this was a couple years ago, so my best casting wouldn't have been 60 feet, probably closer to 50 or so). However, we had some pointers at the club the week before, so I was practicing while on the river. All weekend I fished this riffle, took a number of nice little fatties (ave 1.5 lbs). All weekend this fish was mocking me. However, I continued to practice what I had learned at the club, and finally, on the last day, I was able to place a fly where I wanted in order to get the drift, and sure enough, I could see him turn and grab it. Like all the others, this one was a nice rainbow of about 1.5 lbs, and wasn't even the biggest fish of the weekend. But it was the most satisfying.
Since then, I have noticed that there are always fish just beyond my casting distance.
- Jeff