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By golly, I just may have something to write
about that could help some. It has to do with
how and why you, I and a whole lot of other
folks have casting problems while fly fishing.
Let me set this up for you. We have to agree
that there are two ways to fly cast. One is a
fly fishing style; whatever happens with the
casting has to be automatic, all of our attention
is on the fish and the fishing. The front and
back loops, the size and shape of them, all are
by second nature, all attention is on the rise
or where the fly should go.
The other style is fun casting. Lawn, street,
grass, tournament, whatever. Accuracy perhaps,
but mostly just for fun and often distance.
Very highly structured. Posture, muscles vs
muscles, breathing, watching both front and
back loops, timing, line speed, use of the
double-haul, keeping the reel in line etc.
Little need for exact presentation, just
casting perfection.
Then this happens. I know it does. It has happened
to me, to the LF and to many others I have seen.
Often good casters too. The fishing gets intense,
all concentration goes to the target, repeated
casts build the adrenalin, the fish does not
co-operate, cast after cast is made with no success.
We try harder, and harder, and harder. And our style
and form start to go south. Our back loop opens some,
we come forward a bit too soon, now our forward cast
lacks speed. We rip the DH more only to flex the tip
and now we are getting tailing loops when the fly
lands.
I have watched as a experienced caster after bonefish
lost it so badly that his rod tip hit the water in
front and in back of him. Now that is a bad cast;
worse than that, he was in a boat at the time. I
have had it happen to me fishing for salmon out
here. Casting into the wind, I started pushing my
cast harder and harder. The rod was too soft for
the job and the tip kept flexing and I got one
tailing-loop after the other. And they kept
getting worse. I was about to pitch the whole
rod and reel into the ocean, really. I lost my
kool! The only reason I didn't do it? It was not
my rod and reel!
There is a fix. Be aware that it can, make that,
'does' happen. Not just to you but we all are
subject at some time or other. Does this make
a case for learning how to lawn and parking lot
cast? Well, yes I think it does, because that
is the fix. If the only way you know to cast is
a fishing style, you have nothing to go back to,
no basics to re-center yourself to. When it
happens now, we revert to 'casting' not fishing.
Ignore the fish for a few seconds, straighten up,
shoulders back, concentrate on your 'form' as it
might be and regain your composure.
I hope this helps some of you. It is the truth
as we see it from here, at least as far as our
fly fishing is concerned. Does this mean you have
to learn things like the double-haul? Nope, but
even on three-hop creeks it does make casting
easier. Need a lot of fancy casts? Anything you
can learn or teach yourself could come in handy
someday; but you will never know if you don't
learn them will you. ~ James Castwell
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