FLY CASTING VS FLY FISHING - Neil Travis - August 17, 2009

[solowookie]

I am one of the worst casters, but I can catch fish (not a master by any means, but I can pull fish out of the water).

I put zero effort into casting, and always feel bad about that lol

[vargoje3]

Dont feel bad solo. Bout the only kind of casting i'm good at is pulling my 3 fly nymph rigs out of the water and lobbing them 15 feet upstream. As you can imagine i'm not a very good dry fly fisherman. I just throw em out there and hope i'm lucky.

[Silver Creek]

I mostly agree with the article that casting and fishing are two separate but related skills; but in all fairness, Steve and Jeff Rajeff are fantastic fly fishers. They won the first Fly Fishing Masters contest on OLN TV that had competitors from all sections of the USA, many of whom were guides.

I would say that on balance the fantastic caster that is a poor fisher is an anomaly in our sport. Most good casters are also good fishers and the skill of casting and fishing pretty much match.

What makes the article so engaging is that it points out the anomaly of a good caster who is a poor fisher. But that is not an excuse to ignore casting as an important part of our sport.

My second point is that with the advent of strike indicator lob and drift fishing, you can be a relatively poor caster and still catch fish. If catching fish were the only object of fishing, very few of us would be fly fishers. I believe fly fishing transcends just catching fish. Much of that is the beauty and skill of fly casting. I enjoy watching a skillful fly fisher and caster work the water with pinpoint casts. I really don't enjoy watching someone lobbing a short line strike indicator rig.

But that is just me.

[hairwing]

Well said, Silver Creek! I agree. I'll stop dead in my tracks to watch a fly caster who looks like he knows what he's doing. He doesn't even have to be catching a fish.

[Steven McGarthwaite]

Some fly cast-right handed, others fly cast left-handed, to really master fly casting learn to become a ambidextrous fly caster. Being proficient with both your right and left arm and hand.

Practice on an open public playing field, with Frisbees scattered at various distance down wind.
Build-up muscle memory in both arms and hands, until you can cast without thinking about the cast. It helps to keep track of your percentages for each target, to monitor your improvement.

You will learn your natural range for accuracy (90% or higher) and at what distance your accuracy falls off at.

On really windy days you can scatter the targets in a wheel formation around your casting position and cast with the wind in all quarters. Again building muscle memory in both arms in hands.

Practice casting to "Lawn Targets" will increase your effectiveness casting on the water, causing you to enjoy fly fishing more and thinking about the cast less! ~Parnelli

PS: If you normally fish sitting down normally (tubes or drift boats) bring a stool and practice sitting down).

[Silver Creek]

I've never seriously tried off hand casting. I am sooo right hand dominant. I know I should try to learn because I can't fish the right side of a river as well as I can the left side. Being a lefty is an advantage in fly fishing.

Speaking of off hand casting, Jerry Seim, the rod designer for Sage casts every new rod design with his left (off) hand to simulate how the new rods would feel in a beginner's hand. He uses that to tweek his rod design to perform well for beginners as well as experts. I thought that was an inventive way for a very good caster to test his rods.

[MikieFinn]

Guys, the reason I fly fish is to relax. it's not even the act of fishing but more the act of getting out there and think of absolutely nothing. If I had to start to practice my casting be that range, accuracy, tight loops etc it would become too much like work and I would not do it. My casting is horrible, my flies look even worse. But since catching the fish is only a bonus I still enjoy what I do and quite frankly I do not care how good or bad fly fisher I am. If you gotten onto this activity (fishing is not a sport) to become good caster then by all means practice casting but to most people I fish with "the style" so to speak is quite unimportant. Last dude that made a comment about my bad casting got outfished and laughed at...

I like Neil's article very much because it brings the High And Mighty Fly Fishing to the level of normal everyday folks...

[fishingnewsman]

I found Neil's article was a breath of fresh air. I to teach fly casting along with fly fishing, and fly tying. I had the experience of being a good caster and poor fly angler.

Back when I was introduced to the sport in 1970, I was taught much about casting and very little about actually fly fishing. As a consequence I became a good caster but became increasingly frustrated with my low catch ratio. After a while I gave up fly fishing and went back to pulling plugs. Then in 1986 while fishing a Cariboo Lake I witnessed rainbows feeding on scuds in the shallows. This led me to question why my fly fishing mentors had not told me about the proper use of flies. This got me reading books on the subject. The more I studied the better my catch ratio became.

The self taught road was a long one, but I learned and got into instructing and writing on the subject in the mid 90s. Now I teach my students that fly casting while being a very effective way to present a fly, it is not fly fishing.

I also agree with you Silver Creek. There is far too much emphisis put on distance, when learning to cast effectively with both hands would serve an angler much better. When I teach intermediate fly casting; I get my students to work on casting while sitting on a bucket, on one knee, and sitting flat on the ground, with both right and left hands.

[CM_Stewart]

My dear old Grandpa was an extraordinary fly fisherman. His casting skills were functionally very practical but not fancy and he caught fish more than anyone I've since met because he knew trout, and trout water. Any time I was there to watch I don't believe I ever saw him cast more than 20 or 30 feet.

I strongly suspect that one of the primary reasons he was an extraordinary fisherman is exactly because he never cast more than 20 or 30 feet. The further you cast, the more of your line is on the water where it will be subject to varying currents, so getting a good presentation becomes harder and harder with increased casting distance. Reading the water and the "microcurrents" is hard enough at 20 feet. I think it is impossible at 60.

I'm sure it depends on where you fish, but I strongly believe that practice in stealthy wading and good presentation will pay more dividends than practice in distance casting. I fish with a tenkara rod, so casting much beyond 20 feet is out of the question. The presentation is much better, though, and I catch a lot more fish than I did when I could cast further.

[DG]

My attitude is more like Mikie's I think. I like to consider myself a fairly proficient fly fisher (others with whom I have associated may disagree), and while I can throw a fly around, I will never claim to be an expert caster. I put the flies where I want, when I want, most of the time, but suffer all of the normal difficulties in doing so. But when someone comes up to me and says "You need to [insert corrective action] to improve your casting", I get riled. If I wanted to be a competition fly caster, I would be out in the yard right now practicing. I know there are "flaws" in my casting, and I know that, given sufficient hard work, I could "correct" them. But that is not why I cast. I cast because you need to do it to get the fly to the fish, and that is the ONLY reason. And I HAVE seen more than a few people who were beautiful casters, who had no grasp at all of the skills to turn that into successfully bringing fish to hand.

Each of us has his or her own reasons for partaking of this sport, or the parts thereof. Casting, tying, fishing, etc. I feel it is inappropriate for people to say that to be successful at any of it, you "should" be able to do certain things. THERE ARE NO RULES, THERE ARE NO STANDARDS! Sheesh. If you are enjoying yourself, you are doing everything you need to be doing.

PS. Ugly flies catch more fish!

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