"Charlie Wilson" wrote in
:


"Scott Seidman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
"Doug Kanter" wrote in
:

New fly rod....big trouble. Tried casting while actually standing
in a stream last night. Two books said that x amount of line should
be laying in front of me before the pickup. This worked fine when
practicing on the lawn. They do not explain what to do when the
water's moving swiftly from left to right, taking the pile of line
with it, and you want to fly to end up to the left. I managed
something creative, but the leader & tippet were not exactly
landing gracefully - more of a bunch than a nice presentation.
Help.





Many folks develop the nasty habit in this situation of roll-casting
to
put
the line out in front of them so that they can pick up for a backcast
in the right direction. It works, but I'm told its not desirable.

I've always done it that way; it is quick and I think it looks
cool. I'd
like to hear why it's "not desirable".



I often do it, but I know its not ideal.

Two of the Grand River Coop guides (Neil Houlding and Ian Martin) told me
and a friend (Andy), being guided separately, that it was bad practice
when they caught us doing it. On quiet water, roll casting to pickup
the line will spray alot of water over your target area, and needlessly
line fish. On a backcast, much of that water will spray behind you.
Seems reasonable to me--slightly worse than useless false casting,
because of the water spray.

That said, on small water with lots of cover, it just might be
unavoidable. I still do it, I just try not to.

Scott