Now, I’ve never claimed to be more than a journeyman, perhaps less than that, fly caster. I can double haul after a fashion, sometimes it works, sometimes my timing sucks. Then, there’s the whole dealing with the line itself. To get any distance, you have to ‘shoot’ some line. That line is either in a stripping basket, or on the ground/deck at your feet. For me, at least, most of the time this line will NOT flow smoothly from it’s place of rest and up through the guides, allowing a smooth and graceful cast. It will form knots, loop around itself or ANY thing it can, catch on or under even the smallest obstacle, and ‘spoil’ my casts. AND, it seems that on those rare occasions when the line will actually flow free, THOSE are the casts where I mess up the timing, drop my backcast, or otherwise spoil it anyway. I perservere, but there has to be a better way…
I came to fly fishing after spending many years as a ‘conventional’ tackle angler. I was pretty good with a casting reel, after much practice. Last ten years or so, the casting reels have been relegated to storage. I’ll sometimes use an ultra light spinning rod, but otherwise it’s all been the fly rod for me.
Decided to clean up my shop a little over the weekend. Too hot to work much. Came across a few of my old casting reels.
Ever have one of those ‘DUH!!! Why didn’t I think of this sooner!!!’ moments?
Putting the fly line onto a reel you can actually CAST with would allow me to actually control the line at all times. I could even use the reel to retrieve the fly, keeping constant contact. The faster retrieve speed of the geared reel would certainly be a plus. As would it’s fish handling abilities. No more line wrapped around stuff in the boat. No more missed fish due to too much slack or because I lost control with the ‘line hand’ at the wrong time. Heck, my casting reels are pretty smooth, so even for moving water they’d work for drifting, probably as well as those center pin set ups.
But, the overriding question was, ‘Would it even work?’
I have an old ‘practice’ 6 wt. line that I use out behind the house to try to keep my casting reasonable during the many months I can’t fish. I cleaned up a reel and put on some backing and the fly line. I was concerned about the capacity, these are bass reels, not really ‘high capacity’ in the line holding department. Still, the reel held about 75 to 80 yards of backing and a 90 foot fly line with ease.
Needed the reel to be up on the rod grip (can’t control it if it’s at the bottom of the rod like most fly reels). A few turns of electrical tape solved this temporarily…(I can think of several ways to do this permanently without completely rebuilding a flyrod). I taped the reel to the grip just below where the grip ends. Plenty of room for my hand below it.
Took it out back to see if I could cast it. Working out line took some adjustments, no stripping so you have to keep the reel in free spool and let it out as you begin the false casting (You ‘can’ strip it out if you want to, but I wanted control of the line-that was the whole point of this).
In any event, after a few false casts I thought I’d try to actually ‘cast’ the fly line. I made some short casts, controlling how the line came off the reel with my thumb, just as I would if I was casing a plug from a reel full of monofilament. Worked okay. Took some practice to get the technique down, it’s been a while and I had to resurect some of those old skills.
The short, 25 to 40 feet, quick casts were pleasant to complete. I could really ‘feel’ the casts well, and the line control was exactly what I wanted. I could see this working really well for target fishing with a topwater fly for bass.
Still wanted to see if I could get any distance. I was hoping that the spool enertia would let me cast, or ‘shoot’, more line with less aerialized (spool enertia is why a casting reeel will outcast a spinning reel). I was also hoping that the line speed required to do this wouldn’t get away from me and cause a serious backlash…
So, I got about thirty feet of line up and working. Gave it a pretty good speed, and let it fly. I was pleasantly surprised. Easily went out about seventy feet. This could work.
Wanted to try two hands on the rod. With my right hand under the reel, and the left not needed for controlling the line, there was no reason not to use it to help on the cast. I tried a few shorter casts using the left hand on the base of the rod. This turned my right hand into a fulcrum point. I found I could get much more speed in the rod, plus I could stop it better, with both hands. The rigth hand pushed, the left hand pulled…rod stopped like it hit a wall…Line moved REALLY fast.
Tried this with about thrity feet up. I knew it went ‘far’, but I was surprised when I looked down at the reel spool and saw only two turns of fly line left on it. That’s about eighty feet.
Upshot is, after an hour or so of playing with it, this ad hoc set up will let me throw over one hundred twenty feet consistently. With forty feet of line up, it really sails. A few casts went to the one fifty mark. I’m sure that anyone who can hold more line in the air could do better, but forty feet is my practical limit.
The timing is tricky, takes some practice. If you’re not skilled with a casting reel, this probably won’t do you much good unless you want to take the time to learn.
In any event, I’m surprised that no one has discovered and ‘published’ this concept before. I’ve already modified one rod with an extended butt so I can use the reel seat…and I’m going to build a new one specifically for this technique…
Still slapping myself in the forehead and saying ‘DUH!!!’
Buddy
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