Quote Originally Posted by CM_Stewart View Post
...If I tried to do a classic roll cast, there wouldn't be enough line still in the water to give you the anchor for the cast. ....
... casting technique using my medium fast conventional fly rods to develop a modified roll cast that does not require anchoring on the water, and that cast works well with Tenkara rods, better in fact, with the slower action Ayu.

It is kind of difficult to describe, but I will give it a go. When you start a conventional backcast with your conventional gear, you lift and pull the line off the water and cast it overhead behind you. Duh !!! When you start the basic roll cast with a spey rod, you pull the line off the water but low to the water, and land the last 15' or so of line ( plus the leader and tippet ) on the water to your right and in front of you just as you complete the "D loop". When the line hits the water, you get an anchor and start the forward cast. ( Any experienced spey casters should feel free to correct or elaborate on this rudimentary description of how I recall using a spey rod a number of years ago. )

Fishing with my conventional rods on medium size streams where there was little room for a backcast, I started doing the spey type movement with a water anchor for a roll cast, but then tried starting the forward cast before the line hit the water. Eventually, I got the feel for this cast down and got the timing right and found that I could consistently cast reasonably accurately for a moderate distance. With the longer, slower action Tenkara rod, the cast works quite well, to the point that I use it almost as much, if not more, than a more conventional overhead backcast. ( Except with those heavily weighted nymphs that would probably end up hitting me in the knee, or thereabouts, if I tried casting them that way. )

The key to this cast seems to be the ability to watch the fly as it comes at you low to your right, and, just as it comes even with your body, power out a strong forward cast. With conventional gear, the weight of the line and the movement of the rod load the rod sufficiently to make a pretty good forward cast, including a decent change of direction cast. With a Tenkara rod, I think it is simply the bending of the rod that loads it and the string just follows along.

Especially with the Tenkara rods, very little line, if any, actually goes past and behind your casting position. Virtually all the line is taken up in a rather shallow D Loop so the room you need behind you is determined more by how far back you take the rod tip than the length of the line.

John

P.S. This modified cast does not lend itself to false casting, at all.

P.S.1 I am a totally unschooled caster. Someone who has been taught how to cast properly and uses good casting technique as a matter of course may have trouble adapting to this way of getting the fly back on the water.