Here's one maybe we can have some fun with.

Learning to fly fish in Michigan, I rarely had cause to cast much more that 60 to 70 feet. Almost no one I knew ever double hauled or worried about long casting techniques. But when I started doing salt, I found 60 feet was a short cast and 80 to 90 feet was more the norm, some over 100 feet. Now I never dreamed you could cast a whole fly line and shoot backing to boot, so I never learned.

Since my great salt revelation, I have found that long distance casting is normal in many places and double haul is the only way many people cast. I have found that people on bulletin boards from NZ and UK consider 100 feet as sort as a rite of passage and there are even 100' clubs. They put great emphasis on distance.

Now I am sure many of you west coasters are familiar with this and even have casting clubs for long distance competition. But I have not seen it around here.

My question then, is this. Am I living a sheltered existence and all of the rest of you out there can go out and double haul 100 feet of line? Or throw a whole line and shoot another 20 feet of backing? Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings if you say I'm a wimp.

Bob Bolton