Learned something about my casting distances the other day.

I've never considered myself much of a fly caster. I'm more into the presentation and catch the fish type. I'd rather tinker with trying to get different fly actions at the vise than go out and practice throwing the line. Really, the only time I paid attention to casting wa while I was doing it.

I knew I could cast around forty feet consistently. Never measured it, though, but I felt that was my comfort limit and only rarely did I try to exceed that 'forty feet or so' distance I was comfortable with.

Friend has a pool, and I wanted to to test some of the new fly designs I've been tinkering with for the last few months. He said I could use his pool. This is great place to try out flies, you can see them really well and learn what different rod or line manipulations cause the fly to do in the water.

His pool is not a large one. I stand at one end and make casts, keeping them short so that the fly lands against the far edge at the other end next to the diving board.

He's watching me, and givign me some feedback on what the flies are doing after they hit the water, etc..

At one point, I ask, how long is your pool.

Forty feet, he says.

I was bit taken aback. I'd have thought it was like twenty feet.

So, now I really want know how 'long' my comfort zone casts that I thought were around forty feet actually are.

I go a nearby park with a tape measure and some old orange cones that my daughter used to use for sports drills.

I found out that I cast much farther as a matter of routine than I thought I did. I've now pushed my comfort zone casting distance out a bit farther in my mind. I'm not really casting farther than I've been, I just now have some clue as to how far that really is.

I guess that I've either gained some casting skills by just doing it, or I've always underestimated the distances I fish. I'd have thought it was normally the reverse, given that whole fisheman's exageration thing.

For folks who really want to know, and in reality it doesn't matter all that much, it was fun to put a tape to it.

Buddy