Having trouble feeling the load in the backcast

[Rip Tide]

Originally Posted by mike63

I want to be able to blast a fly out there 45 feet and have the line land on the watrer straight as a laser beam with no curly-Q.

George Harvey is rolling in his grave

[Diver Dan]

Since you are a beginner, and I am going to make the assumption you still have a good neck capable of turning, watch your backcast. That is probably all you need to do. Someday if you decide you want to "blast a fly" past oh... 90' you will find this a useful thing.

[silver creek]

Originally Posted by Rip Tide

George Harvey is rolling in his grave

Mike,

I wonder if one of the reasons you are nor feeling the backcast is that you don't have much line out. Less line mass means less rod load.

By my calculation a 9 ft rod + 30 ft of fly line + a 9 ft leader is about 45 feet. Even if your rod and leader is shorter, you still may not have enough line to bend that rod very much.

BTW, Rips' comment refers to the fact that a straight line cast is often the worst cast for fishing.

From a Packer fan, if George is not rolling in his grave about that, he surely is if they have the NFL channel in heaven.

[mike63]

Thanks guys, lots of good advice here. Will be headed over to the practice pond a couple times this weekend to give some of this a try.

[Hardyreels]

I think I read all the replies Mike and there's not much I could have said beyond what turned up. I can add is that aside from a proper stop point getting to know your timing depending on the length of line you have in the air is a big factor. If you begin to move the rod forward before the line has reached its terminus to the rear there will be reduced load. You may still be getting a decent cast but you'll be having to power it moore with arm energy than rod energy.

Ard

[mike63]

Thanks everyone, I practiced a bit today despite the wind. I tried watching my line in the backcast to get the timing down. I put a rubber band on my wrist and stuck the rod butt into it to try and lessen the wrist bend. I even took a bucket of water and dipped a big paint brush into and tried that drill using my garage door as the target. The pain brush drill helped a lot...I then picked up my rod and imitated the action on the lawn. Instead of thinking of stopping abruptly which implies a "braking" action, instead I think of "flicking" the rod, like the paint brush. That seemed to generate more line speed and help considerably. I've found in actual fishing conditions that I rarely have the luxury of having a clear zone behind me, usally there is brush and trees at my back.

Right now I would say that I'm only semi-proficient out to about the 35-40 ft range. Beyond that things get messy pretty quick. I would still rather be able to lay out the line nice and straight though vs. longer and tangled.

I also think I'm using rods that are WAY too advanced for my skill level (Sage One and ZXL). I don't think either of those rods belong in the hands of a beginner, but who knows. I should probably look for an easier rod to cast until I get better. My goal is to get good in the 35-40 ft range and go from there.

[chuckfluffer]

Mike,

You need to change your perspective. You are not trying to throw a flyline, you are trying to create a loop. The loop is the thing that takes your fly out there, it's the heart of the fly cast.
To create a loop you need to accelerate the rod to a stop. The casting stroke loads the rod, the stop allows the rod to unload. Your stroke should look like this \\\\_/ > . \/ is the angle change of the rod butt and _ is the distance the hand moves during that angular change. For a cast of 35' _ only needs to be about 6''. This will equate to a 3' tip path as the rod ampifies your hand movement. Try to get the rod to unload so that it straightens as close to the path of the flyline as possible. This will give you the tightest and most dynamic loops. Start from using not enough force to cast the line and gradually increasing it until the line is aerialised. Have a relaxed grip.

Don't forget that the fly cast has to mirror itself back and forward and don't put any extra effort into the delivery stroke. Just create the loop and watch it go.

Mike

[mike63]

Sage ZXL with Rio Grand fly line seems to be the ticket at the moment. I paid attention to the loop last night and also slowed down the rthym a bit. I was overpowering the rod. Muscling it was making a mess. Slowing things down got that nice gentle laydown of line right on the target track. Grand is probably a bit too heavy, especially with 35-40 ft of line out so will throw on my reel spooled with Gold and see which is better. The ZXL seems to have some feel to it if I pay attention. Was hitting some 45 ft targets pretty well during my practice session. 45-50 feet seems like a pretty far cast to me and would be adequate on most of my home waters.

[Diver Dan]

Mike, being new to casting you may not be aware, but you just got casting advice from one of the top casters on the planet. Mike Heritage is in a class with few others.

[mike63]

Originally Posted by Diver Dan

Mike, being new to casting you may not be aware, but you just got casting advice from one of the top casters on the planet. Mike Heritage is in a class with few others.

That's great man, awesome. Just got in from a 45 min lawn session, starting to get it dialed in. Mike is right, have to pay attention to the loop. Rio Gold is better at longer distances, casts farther and stays airborne better but less feel in close. I need to tighten up the loop just a bit but slowing down and not watching the back cast was my biggest problem.