On Dec 29, 11:34 pm, Frank Church
wrote:
"Larry L" wrote :

One problem I have fishing from a personal watercraft is that some of
the energy intended to go into the cast is transferred instead to the
craft ( make a casting motion right now and feel how your butt swivels
and tries to rotate your chair to understand what I'm saying ) making
my "longest" casts shorter than on dry land ( wading )

Am I just doing everything 100% wrong ? Is there some tricky way to
minimize this?

....Larry, I have fished out of inflatables for at least 10 yrs now and I
never noticed that it affected my casting. But then again, I usually fish
to the bank for smallmouth and maybe casting 20-25 feet at most.

Frank Sr.
...is it spring yet?

If you only cast relatively short distances, and overhead, the problem
that Larry mentioned does not occur, or at least not to anything like
the same degree. If you are trying for distance, then the tendency is
to try and use the same technique you use on land, and with many
people this means twisting their bodies around. Unfortunately, this
results in the water craft revolving in the opposite direction to the
body, and ruins the cast in a number of ways The effect is not quite
as bad in a pontoon boat, but still appreciable.

If you learn to cast without twisting your body, then it improves your
casting, and also precludes the movement problems in a small water
craft.

The idea is to use the energy for the cast, not for moving the boat.
There will always be some reaction, but if the cast is in a straight
line over head, and the body does not twist, it is minimal.

For a long time, I used float tubes and pontoon boats regularly on the
Baltic, where it is often necessary to distance cast with
comparatively heavy gear. If you use the wrong technique, the action
of casting will twist the tube around while you are casting,
completely ruining your tracking, and any hope of a straight line
path, and thus the cast.

MC