I feel it’s important to get the fundamentals down pat. After that you need to determine whether you are better suited physically/mentally for a fast rod, a slow rod, or in between. There are days when I just want to go out and fish the heck out of the water (combat fishing with streamers) and days when I’m content to fish no more 30 yrds of the stream with tiny drys! For me those two scenarios /situations would not be possible or as easy of a transition if I did not have a good foundation to work from. Even fishing the same stretch of water on the same day with two radically different rods (9’ 3wt graphite and 7’ 4wt bamboo) requires quite an adjustment to your casting stroke! But it’s a piece of cake if you have the basics down pat - the rod will tell you what you need to do! No one can teach you all the weird casting gyrations and situations you will encounter on the various types/sizes of streams you will hopefully fish - that only comes with the experience and practice! This is the nature of fly fishing, and for many, like me, the allure!
One of the things I would like to learn properly is the double-haul - not that I intend to go double-hauling all over the place, just that there are times that I sure could have used it! Why walk away from a fish just because you lack the technique - not the ability.
Both of those guys are absolutely right, because they have each reached their objective, and for their individual personalities, they have taken a good foundation and gone their separate ways - nothing wrong with that!!
Have any of you been in a situation where you were unable to make a successful cast to a particular location or a particular fish?
If not, congratulations because your casting does not need any improvement for the fishing you do. The rest of us can use some improvement so that we don’t face that situation again.
LF,
I remember reading an article (of yours I believe) about practicing and trying to get the fly on the paper plate. I’ve been trying that, and to be perfectly honest, I think my average would go way up, if my plate was larger. lol
to be honest though, that has helped me alot and I appreciate the tip.
Its tough to compare apples to oranges…or lemons.
Most of you cast. I have 2 signature methods of line and fly delivery I use interchangeably with no rhyme or reason behind it.
The first style I call “chuck-and-duck”. This is a great style when casting into a stiff wind with a heavily weighted fly. If I occasionally forget to duck…well, I tend to remember better on the next cast.
The second style I call the “fling-and-flail”. This, sadly, is the more graceful of my two techniques. Since one never knows when you might encounter someone walking along the waters edge who might be prone to having a weak stomach, I’ve learned I should do most of my fishing after dark.
I think people spend way too much time worrying about the length of their casts, and not enough time learning the rest of this sport. Casting is not fishing. It certainly helps, but the best caster in the world won’t catch fish if they don’t have the ability to read the water, predict drift, identify bugs, mend, and all those other things. Iif I can’t reach a fish because my cast is five feet too short, and I can’t walk 5 feet closer… I find another fish. They are just fish, after all, and NOBODY catches every fish in the river, regardless of how puffed up their chests are. As for style, I seldom double haul, and my style is my own. I have no idea how I look when I cast, where my elbows are, and all of that crap. I haven’t looked at my backcast in thirty years, and only look at my forecast because that is the side of the head my eyes are on. I watch the water, not the rod or the line. Footing is never stable, and if I had to position my feet “properly” for each cast, I would make a heck of a lot fewer casts and catch a lot fewer fish in the process. Walk a heck of a lot less, too. After 35 years of doing this, I look at the water, decide where I want the fly to go, and more often than not, it lands right about where I want it, without me thinking too much.
For 6 or 7 years in a row I fished in Montana with a brilliant guide and caster. One day, in the middle of an arduous casting session/lesson, a frustrated I asked “How long am I going to have to keep checking my backcasts?” The reply was “For the rest of your life, Bob.”
Amazingly to some of those who have been “taught” by “experts” , I can cast fairly well without looking at my cast. Not everyone needs to watch the cast to know how the line is moving, or where it is. As for the trees sneaking up on me, I have a fairly good sense of what is around me most of the time. Situational awareness.
There is no right or wrong in this sport. There is just the way people do things. If one need rules, play golf.
Never had the opportunity to learn the double haul - no other mystery behind it. Seems like I have always been on the teaching end and never took the opportunity to advance myself. No one taught me (one on one) fly fishing or tying - learned what I know all myself - mostly by reading!
DG - Most humbly have to disagree with the “There is no right or wrong in this sport”! Sure there is! Just like riding a bike or running or throwing a javelin, there is a right way to move your body to optimize performance. Fly casting is a mechanical movement and in optimizing that movement you can either cast 15 ft or 45 ft. You can flail away, putting everything you have into a cast and get no where. You can put 1/4 the energy into a cast that is executed correctly and send your line out there almost effortlessly! You need to know how to let the rod do the work and not your arm. Yes - there are other fish in the creek, but I just care about the one in front of me I’m trying to fool/reach. All the tools you mentioned are important. If just one of those tools fail you, you are not going to catch that fish. No amount of stream entomology is going to help you if you can’t put the bug over the fish, and no amount of casting prowess will get you that fish if it doesn’t like the fly you picked. All the skills and knowledge combined are what will get you a fish - right down to the knot you used to connect your tippet or your fly or your dropper. There really isn’t a reason to walk away from a fish, because you can learn the skill necessary. As I’ve said before, I’m guilty of walking away from fish just because I never took the time to learn to double-haul! Nothing saying that once I do learn that skill that that fish will like my fly - so then I will work on that!! I don’t like rules either - but trying to beat/ignoring the rules of mechanics/physics is not goin get you there! IMHO!! Why walk away from a perfectly good challenging fish to find another! I honestly don’t know why you wouldn’t “puff out your chest” after figuring out a particularly difficult fish. Did I miss the memo - because I thought that WAS why we fly fish???
If your willing to take a chance at learning, I’ll be glad to help you teach yourself the double haul. There is no cost to my offer other than when you learn pass it on. I’ve worked with a number of people over the internet both in the U.S. and other country’s were English was a second language to them and we over came that too. My bet is you understand far more than you may think you do already all I’m offering is to help you use what you already know.
I think I subconciously alter my stroke based on what I’m trying to accomplish and the type of rod. I know that I look like a monkey and a football with an 8 weight and I fistfight with 3-4 weights. I am really in the groove with a 6 weight.
Thank you very much for your kind offer. I will be getting out to visit and fish with a number of good fishermen soon. I will see what I can glean from them! I will keep your offer in mind as a back-up plan! Also - thank you for sharing your skills with others!
Do you have a particular issue with the double haul you would like some help or insights with? I’ve come to appreciate the truth that each person develops their own understanding of how they are going to apply the dynamics of the double haul and all forms of loop control for themselves. What I try to do is help people find the answers they themselves may not be aware are already within their own knowledge base and refine them to their purpose. When I chose to work with somebody across the internet its sort of like your reading a book on a subject. But in this case you can ask the author to explain what they meant and in turn the author asks you questions to help complete the picture they can’t see. A teacher can teach a thousand ways, a student learns only once.
While a dble haul may be used as a crutch to compensate for poor casting simply put no matter how you cast, adding a double haul adds distance. For some, 50’ is sufficent for others not. While it generally works for me in fresh water, in the salt, with the wind and desire to be able to cast better 50’ casts doesn’t cut it.
My generalization is that there is no standard. Being able to cast in the situation you find yourself is what you need.
Yesterday I fished and did not need to cast more than 20’, I was nymphing. Next week I’ll be in the boundary waters and every inch of casting will come in handy.
I have no particular issue with the double haul myself you just made is sound like something easy that you could pass on here rather simply … not that the double haul if very hard once practiced and learned,
anyway, forget it sorry I asked…
I have no particular issue with the double haul myself, or so I think, you just made it sound like something easy that you could pass on a tidbit or two here, rather simply, a good thing … not that the double haul if very hard once practiced and learned,
but it can be bit intimidating at first, like riding a bike once learned you got it…
Your words most certainly are those of encouragement, a very good thing…
anyway qrrfish1, forget it sorry I asked…
I have no particular issue with the double haul myself, or so I think, you just made it sound like something easy that you could pass on a tidbit or two here, rather simply, a good thing … not that the double haul if very hard once practiced and learned,
but it can be bit intimidating at first, like riding a bike once learned you got it…
Your words most certainly are those of encouragement, a very good thing…
anyway qrrfish1, forget it sorry I asked…
Steve you seem to have misunderstood what I do, with Casting Instructors, not an uncommon situation with people unfamiliar with my techniques and philosophy. I work with a person and see them as an individual who hears what they hear and interprets what I say in the way it relates to them. If what I say doesn’t work for the individual then it needs to be presented differently until the student displays clear comprehension of the thought. Everyone learns differently. While concepts can be universal, physics bends to no one, how we relate to that truth is subject to what each person brings to the circumstance. When I work with a person I have to consider every aspect of the situation to include language skills, physical ability, depth of preexisting knowledge, conceptions and motivation. When you add in equipment and environmental factors there’s a lot of judgment calls to be made. I can’t speak for others but personally I’ve never met anyone exactly like me so I have to ask each one I work with how do you need to learn.
