Long Distance Casting

[afishinado]

Fred,

Casting is an individual thing. The physics are the same of everyone, but individual styles of casting are almost limitless. Just think about pitchers or batters in baseball; they all have individual styles, yet they all manage to throw or hit the baseball with proficiency.

An expert casting instructor can pick apart your casting and help you adjust your technique to achieve more distance, accuracy, or whatever improvement you wish to make.

At the the Mini LV casting Jam last summer, Old Lefty (Dave Rothrock) was kind enough to give casting demos and help individuals with their technique. He turned my creep into a drift and really helped me gain some distance.

Maybe we can do the same thing again this summer.

 

[jdaddy]

"At the the Mini LV casting Jam last summer, Old Lefty (Dave Rothrock) was kind enough to give casting demos and help individuals with their technique. He turned my creep into a drift and really helped me gain some distance.

Maybe we can do the same thing again this summer."

That would be absolutely awesome.

 

[bottomroller]

Hard to say without seeing you cast. 1 hour and 100 bucks and I am sure I'd could have you casting 100ft, given you can actually cast 80ft now and can actually DH. But, since that ain't happening, my best blind guess is you are not shooting enough line on your back cast. Most people only try to shoot line on there final cast. You should practice just your back cast line shooting. Make 1 false cast and then on your next back cast, haul, and then let the line shoot out and fall to the ground. If you are not shooting 20 to 30 feet here you'll never cast 90ft plus.

Also, your should never make more than 3 backcasts.

Your welcome. Hopefully this is more helpful than all your other responses.

 

[jayL]

Bottomroller gave good advice IMO (though I never tried to cast a full line). I began shooting line on the back cast this year, and it's improved my distance a good bit.

 

[gutcutter]

if you are casting 80 ft and can't get the last 10 to cast the "whole line" then asking questions on a website isn't going to help.
sounds like you have practiced this for a while now. if you are throwing 80 and can't get 90 then you never will unless you unlearn what you are doing. if you could throw 80 with good technique then you could certainly throw 90 with the same technique. you are doing something wrong and the only way to figure it out would be to have an "expert" deconstruct your cast. this is what the fff certified casting instructors are supposed to be able to do. analyze the cast and tell you what you are doing wrong and then teaching you how to fix it.
believe me - it can be very hard to unlearn bad habits - harder than to learn good habits. i have been there.
sounds to me (without seeing you cast) that you are overcompensating poor technique with muscle. that can get you to the 75-80 ft range but rarely will it put you over the top.
of my three 5 weights, i can only cast the whole line with the BIIMX. i can cast the whole line with my 6wt winston XTR, 8wt XTR, 10 wt redington CPS and 12 wt XTR, but it took me years of practice and fishing a lot in the salt to do so.
my advice:
slow down your stroke, don't muscle it and let the rod do the work
remember - the rod is designed to throw the whole line. getting it to do so is your part
gut

 

[flipnfly]

i dont kno9w if this will help but i remember hearing someone saying at the jam i think it was ed heritage angler for more distance one keep your rod tip higher and make an upward stroke more than outward on the final haul..... or you can just ask him

 

[Heritage-Angler]

flipster - The technique I was talking about was drifting on the backcast. The Leland video shows the technique pretty well.

I don't practice distance casting enough. The old argument that you don't need to cast that far is a myth. Practicing distance casting (correctly) really improves your casting overall, and sharpening those skills is essential. Better casting can definitely lead to better catching.

That said, I've practiced with some great casters, and the best ones make it look effortless. Technique trumps power every time. Gary Borger once had a conversation with me while aerializing an entire DT5F flyline with a soft action 7 1/2' 5wt rod. He's not human! The longest cast I ever witnessed was made by John Wilson (ex-coach of the USA Youth Team). He threw 133' of line and backing with a 9' 3wt ! And yes, I measured the distance.

My favorite caster to learn from is Old Lefty. He threw the entire line while making it look effortless. And his line was a special distance casting line that is 120' long!

Throwing that much line is one thing - being able to teach it is another. The left handed one is a superb instructor. Maybe I can convince him to come down to the Valley for another Casting Jam. Anyone interested?

 

[Fredrick]

I'm game

 

[Fishidiot]

If Dave R is going to do a casting demo, why not videotape it (with his permission of course) and make it available for all to see here on PAFF. Call it "Casting Tips With Old Lefty" or something like that.

 

[jaybo41]

Two words for you Frederick.

Zipcast
Shadow Casting

:lol:

 

[StudentofTheStream]

Fred,

As many people have mentioned working on your 'drift' my really help you. Also throwing a heavy rod that you can't overpower will also tell you whether or not you're overcompensating with muscle/power where slightly better technique is needed.

Also your rod may come into play when you start to reach out to those lengths (a pro caster could argue otherwise). I have a couple 4 wt's I can through the entire line with but when it comes to one 5 that I have it dies out at 80-85 feet. I have made it on occasion spit the whole line into the backing but those are few and far between.

I know that between some of my rods with just slightly different actions I have to adjust my casting stroke to 1: keep from throwing tailing loops at long distance and 2: utilize the flex of the rod to do the work for me.

When I was struggling with tossing the whole line on some rods I read about and implemented a 'drift' in my back cast which enabled me to feel the line a little better and translated into better/cleaner forward strokes. I found this to be especially true on light rods such as 4, 5 and 6.

Lastly, and this is a question I've been meaning to ask to other distance casters is, how much line are you carrying before your final haul for distance? I find that if I'm carrying too much line in my final haul that my line/leader will peter out at the end and will end up in a bunch instead of be straight out. Typically my last haul before the the long shot I'll be carrying 60-65 ft of line (roughly). If I get out into the 70's I typically lose control of my back cast and it all goes to crap.

Not sure if any of this will help you or not but hopefully it will give you something to think about. Also having another at least experienced caster to diagnose your stroke a bit will help. Have a video camera or digital with video? Have someone video you and watch it. It will reveal wonders.

Forgot this:
http://www.sexyloops.com/advice/drifting.shtml

 

[gfen]

I'm in whenever the Left Handed one comes to the Valley, casting or not!

Either that, or we head out his way someday.

Now, who here can teach some spey casting?

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

Try using running line -n- a shoting head instead of a regular fly line.

 

[Fredrick]

PACOFRANSICO wrote:
Try using running line -n- a shoting head instead of a regular fly line.

That would be cheating Paco

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

I'm with you Gfen, I'm currently assembling my 13 ft. spey now. I don't care about casting a whole line with my 6wt. ( which has a shootin head on it). I wanna cast a whole 100ft. of runin' line and a 60 ft head. Then I'll be good.