Casting Disaster

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.

"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.

Pick up the line however you can, and adjust the direction later

Scott

wrote...
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.

I am not sure I am fully understanding your problem, but hopefully
this will be of some help. It sounds like you were using a pile
cast when another type of cast may have been more useful (see link).

http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/j...ast/index.html
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt on either yahoo or earthlink to respond via email)

"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.

Pick up the line however you can, and adjust the direction later

Scott

Like....working it around while it's airborne until it's oriented correctly?
In other words, if the line's headed downstream to the right, the pickup's
going to head pretty much to the left initially, unless I keep it airborne
for a few cycles to get it behind me.

"Doug Kanter" 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.

Pick up the line however you can, and adjust the direction later

Scott

Like....working it around while it's airborne until it's oriented
correctly? In other words, if the line's headed downstream to the
right, the pickup's going to head pretty much to the left initially,
unless I keep it airborne for a few cycles to get it behind me.




Yeah, but it really shouldn't take more than one false cast. You cheat
the direction a little bit on the pickup, then the first front cast. You
might not even need any false casts.

Alternatively, you might not even need a backcast, if you can just sort
of flip your line upstream from its downstream position. A roll cast
might be all you need

Scott

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

Pick up the line however you can, and adjust the direction later

Scott

Like....working it around while it's airborne until it's oriented
correctly? In other words, if the line's headed downstream to the
right, the pickup's going to head pretty much to the left initially,
unless I keep it airborne for a few cycles to get it behind me.




Yeah, but it really shouldn't take more than one false cast. You cheat
the direction a little bit on the pickup, then the first front cast. You
might not even need any false casts.

Alternatively, you might not even need a backcast, if you can just sort
of flip your line upstream from its downstream position. A roll cast
might be all you need

Scott

Ah ha....I fell asleep with the book on my chest the other night before
reaching "How to Roll Cast". Tonight!

"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".

"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

"Scott Seidman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
Many folks develop the nasty habit in this situation of roll-casting

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.

The rationale is good enough but it only applies in a limited set of
circumstances. As long as you've got sufficient room to either side of
where you want to drop your bug the roll cast pickup can be forced to the
side, thus eliminating the droplet problem or lining the fish. It can also
be done with a short line, with the same result. In either case, it's easy
to pick up the line, back cast for acceleration, and shoot line on the
forward cast for distance. I used the roll cast pickup frequently and
deliberately. I find it very useful in some tight quarters, but even more
so for repetitive casting while moving slowly upstream and for working the
shoreline of a blue gill pond from a belly boat.

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

To each his own, but I think you're trying to cheat yourself out of a very
useful tool.

Wolfgang

The obvious solution is a new Scott rod. You simply don't have this
abominable situation.
--
Wayne
To Fish is Human...To Release Divine!

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
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.