Archive for category: Casting

One of my students a beginner (casting rather well) recently had an outing casting from a boat. There was the eternal wind blowing and the boat moving and all that. But the main issue was that the leader was misbehaving and didn’t turn over. The caster was struggling to lay out the line and the leader straight. The caster had no control over the leader and fly, and never was able to lay the ensemble out straight

We all have been there at some point in our journey. Now, I did some sleuthing of the equipment. The rod, an old stalwart #9 Sage II was not the issue. The #9 fly line was a new correctly sized one – not the problem. Now, the leader turned out to be a 12‘long hand-tied affair with a butt section of 0.024‘‘. The fly used was a weighted (bead chain) streamer.

Length of leader

Long leaders (10’ or more) are frequently advocated by guides and experienced anglers. Yet, as the leader lengthens it gets to be much more difficult to cast. The savants forget those beginners will struggle with long leaders plus the wind and a heavy fly. The leader must work for the angler using it, and it makes no sense to use a long leader if it does not turn over. You are better off with a shorter leader that you can turn over and lay out straight. Even if a long leader is preferable, if the caster can’t make it work, it isn’t the right leader.

Butt thickness

My #9 bonefish fly line has a 0.040’’ tip diameter (have micrometer will measure). That diameter calls for the butt’s leader to be around 70% of the fly line’s diameter. 0.040 x 0.7 = 0.028’’ for the two to have comparable masses. Our leader’s butt was not terrible (0.024’’) but not optimal either. For optimal transfer of energy from the fly line to the leader, the masses of each at their juncture must be close to the same. And the longer the leader the more important it becomes that the butt is heavy enough.

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/your-butt-is-too-small/

Heavy fly

We all know that heavy flies can kick when we cast them. Heavy flies are usually on the big side too and will have more drag. So, using a smaller lighter fly, if possible, will help.

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/the-fly-line-kick/

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/casting-a-heavy-fly/

The caster’s ability

The idiot savants of casting can fling out just about anything – long leaders with big flies no problem. However, beginners can’t do that. We must always curtail our advice to the ability of the caster being advised.

My advice for beginners

Buy ready-made leaders and forget the advice of the experts they can tie their own leaders, but it takes experience to get there. Ready-made leaders are now high quality and thus you will have fewer knots (it takes experience to tie great knots). Pay attention to the butt thickness. Quality leaders will have the butt diameter printed on the info sheet. A very good bet is that anglers’ butts are too thin. If you can’t turn over your leader – it is too long and/or fly too heavy/big for your casting abilities. You are in the game with a 9’ leader and your preferred fly laid out straight – but not if you have a 12’ leader collapsed in a bird’s nest.

Your casting abilities at any time are what they are i.e., not a variable, but leader length, butt diameter, and fly can be varied to get the desired outcome. There is no need for self-inflicted wounds or unforced errors. It is difficult enough as it is.

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/take-me-to-your-leader-from-butt-to-fly-through-the-tippet/

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/ready-made-leaders/

Technical consultant: Bruce Richards

“Why can’t I cast this Clouser?”- is a question I often get. “I am using the #8 rod and #8 line, and I have no control over it.” The misbehaving Clouser usually has big lead eyes and is very heavy. We all have experienced this problem at varying stages of our development.

The way to analyze the situation is first to –

Consider the equipment

The Line;

The line weight must match the fly’s mass. So, it follows that the line could simply be too light (Occam‘s razor). The shape of the fly line especially the front taper. The key point is that any fly that resists moving because it is either heavy and/or very wind resistant requires a significant “pull“. The best way to achieve that is with a heavy line. The front taper must be powerful (short and/or heavy tip) to maintain as much energy as possible to have the necessary oomph to turn over a heavy fly.

The leader;

The leader‘s butt end needs to be thick enough (more mass). The length of the leader could be too long and often is. The leader needs to be massive and short enough to turn over a heavy fly. If the leader is too long there is insufficient energy left in the leader to turn over that fly. So, a shorter leader is better suited to turn over a heavy fly.

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/your-butt-is-too-small/

https://everyjonahhasawhale.com/blog/the-fly-line-kick/

Considering the casting technique

1. Because of its mass, the heavy fly’s residual momentum will be substantial when cast with the standard technique. So, it will kick with a hard stop. Its momentum causes it to bounce, and now it becomes very difficult to impossible to fashion a straight backcast. Thus, slack is introduced and control over the line is lost, and it becomes very difficult to cast a line with a lot of slack in it. The rod doesn’t load properly, the line doesn’t accelerate because it isn’t straight. When there is a heavy fly at the end of the leader all problems multiply. When a casting stroke starts the line/leader must be as straight as possible.
2. By avoiding the stop we can prevent the kick. We do this by using an oval path for the fly on the backcast and maintaining constant tension on the fly. Now, we swing the fly back horizontally and instead of casting straight back, we bring the rod tip up, thus swinging the fly upwards, and then commence the forward cast. This cast is called the Belgian cast.

https://www.thecampflyfishingschool.com/pages/belgium-cast

Technical consultant: Bruce Richards

This is a for beginners – the basic description of the casting arc needed for a short cast.

HOOKING – FAULTY TRACKING

The log on hooking considered a tracking fault i.e., what happens if there is too much bending (radial movement) of the wrist (abduction) in the horizontal plane.

So, it’s logical to consider what happens when we over-abduct the wrist in the vertical plane. The angle between the underarm and the rod then becomes, say 90 degrees. Beginners and intermediate casters do this frequently on their back-casts. This will send the line careening down behind the caster, and thus it will be traveling in a great big loop. When the wrist bending (radial movement – abduction) is kept minimal and the rod is stopped just past vertical, the caster will have a much straighter line behind and now has consequently the foundation for a good forward cast.

Now, on to the forward cast. The same rule applies. The backcast and the forward cast should be symmetric. Therefore, we need to stop the rod high on the forward cast to send the line straight.

Beginners frequently bring the rod tip too far down instead of stopping it higher. That leads the fly line to form a big inefficient loop going nowhere. What we want to do is to stop the rod tip high and shape the top leg (fly leg) straight.

Now the crucial feat is to make the rod tip travel from the back stop B to the front stop A (orange lines) in a straight line. We can do that by bending the rod against the mass of the line behind it (plus the inertia of the rod itself). We start from a standstill, smoothly accelerate the rod, and bring it to an abrupt stop when we reach the front stop. That will send the line over the tip in a straight line making for an efficient cast. To obtain this straight line we must practice a lot. There is no getting around that one.

If we don’t accelerate and don’t bend the rod, there will be no straight line, but an upward curve, and the loop becomes large and inefficient. For an efficient cast the rod must be stopped at points A and B. To get a straight top leg the tip path must be straight between the stop points. When that happens the cast will be straight and efficient.

Picture above. Sibbi is here casting – the wind is considerable blowing down the river. The wind is hampering his backcast and his line looks like an ECG. Sibbi is an elite caster and gets away with it, but he is at the edge of his carry limit with the wind in his back i.e., it is difficult to straighten the line on the backcast.

The carry.

The Suncoast Club (https://suncoastflyfishers.com) hosted a casting clinic Jan. 8th. I helped out and noticed one particular error that several intermediate casters there made. They were making nice false casts and then suddenly they lost control just before their delivery. I have suffered from the same malaise.  All casters have a certain length of line they can comfortably carry in the air false casting. Beginners can’t carry much line but little by little they are able to carry more. We refer to that length as their carry. Distance casters can and must carry say 100’ of line to be able to reach 120’. So, the carry length is highly individual. As we practice, we can carry more line. 

Back to our intermediate casters – it turned out they were slipping line (releasing a bit of line on the back cast and/or front cast). Thus, they were increasing their carry, and some didn’t even realize it, and in the end, they had moved past their carry limit. What happens then is that the line can’t be kept straight neither in front nor in the back and control over the line is thus lost. Consequently, they were introducing slack into their cast with the known outcome. The remedy is to teach a caster where his/her carry limit is. That task turns out to be very easy. Carry more and more until control is lost, that length is a bit too long. Mark the line with a marker at that point.  So, now we have established the individual’s carry limit. Then we just have some line at the ready to be shot on delivery. When our casters observed their carry limit and then shot the line, they suddenly were able to get more distance than previously.

Technical consultant: Bruce Richards

Generally, sinking lines are more difficult to cast than floating lines. That’s not a big surprise now when we know they must be heavy upfront to sink, and they can kick like a mule.

Why are the Sinking lines difficult to cast?

Sinking lines

Remember they are not designed to be cast easily – they are designed to sink and cast big heavy flies – to catch fish floating lines can’t reach.

These lines kick because the leader can’t bleed away the surplus energy in the fly line’s end see this blog.

The fly line kick

So, the real issue is the transition from the line tip to the leader. It is difficult to impossible to match the mass of the leader’s butt to the mass of the line tip. The line tip may be very small but quite heavy due to its density – remember it’s designed to sink. To match the masses the leader´s butt would have to be considerably thicker than the fly line’s end.

Correctly designed lines will have a mass profile that doesn’t change when going from the floating to the fast-sinking sections of a sink tip line. The floating part is huge, the sinking part is small, but the mass/inch is the same. Badly designed sinking tips lines will in addition have the clunky uneven mass transition.

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Two errors

Usually, fly slingers make two errors when they cast and rig sinking lines.

The line. The first error relates to the cast. Understandably, casters try to cast the sinking line as they would cast a floating line, and that does not work very well. Cast a line like that straight back it will stop and bounce and create slack. Because of the kick, with each cast, control of the line is lost, and it compounds (remedy below). Remember the big and heavy fly usually used in tandem with a sinker is waiting for its opportunity to strike the back of the caster’s skull – ears are a good target too. So, false casting should be minimized and can be downright dangerous. 

The leader. The second error relates to the leader. The butt of the leader anglers use is frequently way too thin, so the transfer of energy will not be optimal creating more bounce. To use a suboptimal leader is an unforced error. Sometimes your casting abilities are evolving but the effort of tying on a suboptimal leader is the same as tying on an optimal one. So, pay attention to your damn leader’s butt.

Your butt is too small!

Since the issue with sinking lines is at the transition to the leaders only, there isn’t a need for long leaders, at least not to cure casting ills. The leaders need to be long enough to temper the kick somewhat, but no longer. When the line kicks so does the leader, of course. The part of the leader’s butt forward from the fly line, helps to temper that kick, usually 2-3 ft. of butt is enough. There are diminishing returns going longer than that. Then add a taper and tippet and a total leader length of 4-6 ft. works well for casting, and the short leader also gets the fly down quicker than a longer leader would do. 

Here is a useful blog on the same

https://www.demystifly.com/post/2017/04/20/tips-to-help-you-cast-and-turn-over-big-flies

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How to cast a sinking line

The solution. Forget nice sharp loops these lines can’t be controlled casting that way. Open your loop to minimize the kick. Make one back cast and then briefly lay the line down in front of you. Pick that line up and make another back cast, shooting line to get the line’s head out of the tip-top, then shoot the front cast. No false casting is required. Lay down every fore-cast once the head is out of the tip-top and shoot the next fore-cast. This is much safer and easier to do than trying to false cast a with a dense head and a big heavy fly. A Belgian or an oval cast works very well, especially with an on-shoulder wind. As you retrieve your line and get ready for the next cast, the line is now in the water, not on the water as the floater is. It is not possible to go into a backcast with the line sunken like that. You might even break your rod if you tried. The solution is to make a roll cast or two and get the line to the surface. Once there we can make our usual pick-up. Remember to pinch down the barb for your own sake if not for the fish’s, just in case.

Here is a video of the Belgian cast.

https://www.thecampflyfishingschool.com/pages/belgium-cast

Line management of a sinker. Fishing in water the stripped sinking line will sink if not managed. Obviously, the line does not come as easily from the water as a floating line comes off the water. The stripped line can be coiled and held in the stripping hand, or a stripping basket can be used.

Rod. Casting sinking lines isn’t about short distance and accuracy, it’s all about distance and covering a lot of water. Therefore, soft rods (noodles) aren’t appropriate. In the right hands they can work, of course, but why fight a slow rod when a faster one would work better? Beginners and intermediate casters would be well advised to use fast rods for casting sinkers.

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This picture has nothing to do with sinkers but just begged to be posted.

Technical consultant: Bruce Richards