I’ve had my first rig now for two weeks, All from Cabella’s. 9’ rod, 8 weight DT Fly Line and the Prestige reel.I’m following Dave Whitlocks book on casting, and I’m placing the fly roughly where I think I want it. My leaders are; 9Ft. 4X, 6lb. with attached tippet. Its the Prestige tapered leader, 2.7M .178mm, 2.7 kg.
I’ve been practicing in a park on grass, and placing the fly roughly where I want it, about 25-30 Ft. But my first trip to the lake was a mess. I couldnt get the line straight in front of me to save my life.
I had trouble with the pick up, I couldnt get the line straight in front of me, my up and back cast was way short and my forward and down cast was a pile of flyline.
Is my basic rig setup wrong? Are the sizes and weights close to correct or way off?
Charley,
Some teachers are good, and some are great. Some will tell you that all the rest are a joke. JC is great. Dave Whitlock is great. I personally think that Joan Wulff and Lady Fisher are the best. If you can find one, I would suggest that you BUYJoan Wulff’s “Casting Dynamics.” Other than that, go to your closest PRO SHOP, and ask for help. Learning without ambarassment is the best way, and Joan does it best. Deanna is pretty darned good at it too. Your local PRO SHOP is good for one on one.
Good Luck and God Bless,
Charlie,
The best advice I can give you is to go to a local shop buy a few items, explain your situation and ask them to give you a quick critique. Make them your friends and leave some money there from time to time. It will be the best investment you ever made.
picking up problem could be you have to much line out, or if your fishing wet flys, the fly is under water making it hard you will need to strip the line closer to you making it easier to pick up
Here’s a perfect example why buying your first flyrod online or from a catalog is a terrible idea. Had you bought the rod from a fly shop they would gladly have spent time with you to help you with your casting, you would also have a place to go when problems arise (and they will). Now, walk into a flyshop with a mail order rod and you should expect to pay for your lessons. A flyshop would have set you up with exactly what you needed for your fishing conditions and got you off to a good start. You will NEVER learn how to cast very well from a book.
Charlie, there are too many variables here to eliminate on a website. Learning to cast from a book is difficult, the videos and dvds are better, but not much. (check with your local library)
First I can think that perhaps the wind was blowing differnt from when you were practicing. perhaps it was a different angle to the water, or perhaps you got the fishing equivlent of buck feaver and your technique went out the window. (been there done that)
Find a local Fly Fishing club and start attending meetings, also find a local shop that the people are friendly and find a good instructor and pay for a couple of lessons.
It is a long, slow and can be a somewhat expencive process to become good enough at fly fishing to get at least some degree of enjoyment out of it.
I ffed for many years before I taught my self to DH or be able to hit the water close to where I wanted to or tie knots and what knots to tie. I blamed poor tackle selection on my inability to cast…not true. To be a good caster you must PRACTICE. And not just a little bit…make it a part of your weekly routine. Forty years later I’m still practicing weekly in warm weather.
Get help from a living person, someone that knows what its all about.
Charlie, what size flies are you using? If your using heavy or larger patterns,(which i’m assuming, since your fishing an 8wt. on lakes) your leader may be a bit light. You might also try a shorter leader, maybe in the 7.5 ft. range. Other than that, I would recommend what others have said. Go to a local shop and ask for some casting advice.
I can tell you this, it will click if you truly are interested enough to keep at it. It is not rocket sicence. More like learning to ride a bike
If you can get someone to show you the general idea
and build from there thats a good start.
Learn not to break your wrist think of your entire arm as an extention of the rod butt section. At the same time relax.
Enjoy, and yes, you can learn only from books and this site but it will take hours practice and proably a bit more time. One hour of one on one instruction with a seasoned fly angler would go a long way. You do need to be sure that the person
has a fair to good casting ability.
If you have been reading up on casting keep this in mind when you watch another person casting If the cercumstance is right ask them questions, I have never ran into a good caster that is not willing to share.
Its is how we grow.
I am not sure if your setup would be harder
being a heaver weight setup. I started with a
3 & 4wg. I do find now after some years at it that
I enjoy starting my practice sessions with an 8 or
9 wg and moving down to a smaller wg. Just feels
good. Flycasting has so much of a relaxing feel.
Don’t be stiff, smooth as silk, the line will sling out of the guildes. Let the rod do the work…
Thank’s Steve and the rest of you guys who tried to help. I have a lession set up from a shop I’ve purchased some gear from. I appreciate yours and the others courtious replys,
I’ll second Steve, you CAN learn from a book (That’s where I started), but it takes more time and an hour of watching someone who knows how to cast will make you realize all the small things the books tell you but can’t show you in words. I caught my first few trout after learning to cast from a book and practicing for a week (literally), but after seeing others who actually knew how to cast, my casting got better by leaps and bounds. It’s not perfect or even good by any means, but I lose sleep on Sunday night because I can’t wait to get out next Sunday. Heck, I almost fall asleep casting because I find it so relaxing.
It’s funny you mentioned Dave Witlock, His book
on flyfishing for bass in my own estimation is one of the top books on the subject.
Dave is a top notch caster I suspect much like J.C in his heyday… :lol:
:arrow: On another thought you may want to consider a forward or rocket, bass bug taper with that setup you have. You should be casting at 30-40 range
at the start – the forward taper
lines will have you extending this to 55’ without
a double haul in no time.
The DT that you have is ok to roll cast as a beginer, but the forward
taper will give you an overall better experience
being this is your first time with type of this setup. If you can afford to get another spool
for your reel so you can cast each on demand
during practice and on the water. This is what we
do another excuse to get more equipment. :idea:
Check into it at the fly shop. They can advise you.
Everybody has a method so listen and compare and try what you here.
Sounds like you are heading in the right direction.
I have been following your questions on this board, and provided some suggestions for some of your other queries.
I have been absolutely swamped with work for the last month and probably through this month. But when I get some breathing room I may be able to set aside some time to meet to assist in person with your casting and other FF questions that you have. Maybe even fish somewhere. I can range most anywhere in San Diego County.
I have sent you a Private Message (PM) with some contact info.
Charley,
Here’s a local BB for local SD fishers. I see that Craig Smith (who offered some 1on1 time w/you) posts on the SD site too. If you are in a hurry, maybe you can post to see if a fellow FFer can hook up with you. I too started out with books and videos from Whitlock and they helped a lot, but nothing beats someone there to tell you what you are doing right and wrong. http://www.sdfish.com/forums/dcboard.ph … &forum=127
Charlie, casting from water should be easier than casting from grass. The tug of the water on your line builds some tension in your line on your backcast.
One possible problem may be that you are starting you backcast with slack in your line. YOu can’t really start your backcast well until you are actually moving your fly, not taking up slack.
Getting a lesson is certainly a good idea. Videos are the next best and books come third, but are workable.
Try these two visuals. YOu are standing in a bathroom with a loaded paintbrush held upright in your hand. YOu want to flick paint on the wal behind you and on the mirror in front of you without getting any paint on the ceiling or the sink. Or you have an apple on the tip of your rod and you want to throw it forward at your target.
An exercise that works for me is to run as many feet of yarn through your guides and out your tip top guide as you can control. Practice casting the yarn. It makes it really easy to see how your casting loops are forming and when you can get tight loops with the yarn you’ll be able to get tight loops on many feet of fly line.
