Wind Casting

[tatco]

Everything I read about wind casting seems to be solved by double hauling to get a tight loop. But I have a few questions. When we say wind, what are we talking about 10 knot, 20 knot? What is a practicle distance in a REAL 15 knot wind with a 10 weight? Does anyone have a leader formula for a specific fish, weight for 10, 15, 20 knot wind conditions? I've heard folks talk about wind but never the velocity. What constitutes an unfishable wind? On the ocean if it's blowing 20 knot you will have significant swells.
If your fishing bones in 2 feet of water with a 20' leader on a 10 weight rod and the wind kicks up to 20 knot do you change to a shorter leader or go home?

Thanks.

 

[arfishinbear]

When the wind gets that strong I switch to a spinning rod or go home. Even with a great rod and set up casting in strong wind for more then an hour just beats ya up to damn much. Thats me though, some one may know a little more about casting in strong winds.
Bear

 

[Rip Tide]

One of my favorite quotes is from SW fly rodder Lou Tabory;
"When the wind is in your face, the fish are at your feet"
....good advice

I seem to fish in the wind a lot.
It's either deal with it or don't fish... so I deal with it.
When the wind is up to and over 15 knots, I break the 10wt out and for me, wind in the face, I'd say 50' is realistic but I've never had the occasion to measure.
Two seasons ago, on our annual trip, we had 20 knots sustained with gusts to 40 for a week straight. That was an occasion to learn some new spots to fish in the lee. Even fishing with the wind over the non-casting shoulder was tough, mostly from all the spray. We toughed it out, fished all day, every day, fly rods only.

When the wind is up and there's a lot of chop, I find you can get away with a much shorter leader than when the surface water is flat
But personally I have never fished flats when the wind is at 20, I'd look for some place with a bit less exposure

I was at a casting clinic with Bob Clouser a few years ago and I asked him 'what's the best way to deal with a stiff breeze over your casting shoulder ?'
He looked at me and with a one word answer said

"MOVE"

 

[swirlchaser]

When the wind breaks 15 I drop my arm to the side and cast side arm instead of overhead, that helps keep my loops a little tighter.

 

[randyflycaster]

When casting into a wind I use a shorter overhang - less line out - and a shorter downward haul when I'm false casting. (It's impossible to execute a long double haul into a strong wind.)

On my presentation cast I execute a long downward haul.

Randy

 

[FrankB2]

A few years ago, I decided to practice casting during windy winter days.
I've always been a side arm caster, and that helps. One thing I quickly
discovered was that a wind in your face really loads the backcast, and
I've had great success with transferring that energy into a workable foward
cast. My rod of choice right now for windy days is a 9' 5wt Z-Axis. I let the
wind and rod tip carry the line fully back on the back cast, and use a compact
foward stroke, usually with a single haul on the foward cast. This works nicely
on lakes with 15-20mph winds, at least for me .

If moving so the wind is not in your face is an option, that works nicely as
well. I'm not going to let something like the wind stop my fun !

 

[swirlchaser]

One of my favorite quotes is from SW fly rodder Lou Tabory;
"When the wind is in your face, the fish are at your feet"
....good advice

I seem to fish in the wind a lot.
It's either deal with it or don't fish... so I deal with it.
When the wind is up to and over 15 knots, I break the 10wt out and for me, wind in the face, I'd say 50' is realistic but I've never had the occasion to measure.
Two seasons ago, on our annual trip, we had 20 knots sustained with gusts to 40 for a week straight. That was an occasion to learn some new spots to fish in the lee. Even fishing with the wind over the non-casting shoulder was tough, mostly from all the spray. We toughed it out, fished all day, every day, fly rods only.

When the wind is up and there's a lot of chop, I find you can get away with a much shorter leader than when the surface water is flat
But personally I have never fished flats when the wind is at 20, I'd look for some place with a bit less exposure

I was at a casting clinic with Bob Clouser a few years ago and I asked him 'what's the best way to deal with a stiff breeze over your casting shoulder ?'
He looked at me and with a one word answer said

"MOVE"

Hey Riptide is that you? I have a Tupperware stripping basket too! I love the thing, works better that the $60 Orvis one my buddy uses:frogdance

 

[Frank Whiton]

Hi tatco,

I don't think there are very many people who can cast a 20' leader in the wind with a single handed rod. Maybe your expectations are a little high. Most Bonefish leaders are in the 12' range and maybe up to 15' on a calm day. A 20' leader is pushing the envelope a bit more than what is realistic, at least for me.

Now if you can cast that 20' leader, in the wind, then you are doing great with you casting. I am going to have to stick with the 12 footers and down to 9' in the wind.

Frank

 

[BigCliff]

I think 15mph is tough, and 20 is about the max I want to deal with. When dealing with really nasty wind, try to set it up to where you're casting straight downwind, and use a roll cast with a big loop. The wind will catch the loop as its unrolling and make fairly long casts pretty simple.

Double hauling is a vital tool to fight the wind, but worthless if you can't tighten up your casting loop.

 

[FrankB2]

Hey Cliff,
My wife and I were fishing in HONKING winds a couple of weeks ago: white
caps on the big part of the lake, and rollers coming into the cove we were
fishing. The wind was at our backs, and my wife loved the casts she was
getting by casually using the rod to toss line into the stiff breeze. Even after
laying all the stripped line out straight, most cast pulled line off the spool as
well :biggrin:.

 

[BigCliff]

Hey Cliff,
My wife and I were fishing in HONKING winds a couple of weeks ago: white
caps on the big part of the lake, and rollers coming into the cove we were
fishing. The wind was at our backs, and my wife loved the casts she was
getting by casually using the rod to toss line into the stiff breeze. Even after
laying all the stripped line out straight, most cast pulled line off the spool as
well :biggrin:.

Yep, gotta use it to your advantage.

 

[Rip Tide]

Hey Riptide is that you? I have a Tupperware stripping basket too! I love the thing, works better that the $60 Orvis one my buddy uses:frogdance

Yeah, that's me, my old yankee heritage doesn't permit me to pay big bucks for something I can easily make :icon_roll
I included that picture 'cuz that was an honest 20 knot wind that day, probably even more.
My basket has some rather unique line management cones... not the usual zip-ties or trimmer line fingers
I'll post some pictures next time the subject comes up

 

[tatco]

Thanks for all the replies and the helpful suggestions. I have put them to the test for my particular casting style. I'm a bit anal when it comes to measurements. So when I wanted to see what I could cast in the wind I used an anemometer(wind speed gauge). 15 mph is marginal for me 20 mph is darn near impossible. On a calm day I can cast all my fly line (100') with a 12' leader on a 10 weight. On a 5 weight I'm good to 80'.

As measured, the wind is somewhat less as you get closer to the surface (ground/water). A 45 degree off of vertical for me gets the fly line between 9'- 10' off the surface, full side arm 90 degree from vertical gets it down to 4'. At those angles a 20 mph wind is 19 and 14 respectively.

My test with a hand tied 20' leader was fine in a calm condition, tended to get blown back at 15 mph and useless at 20 mph. So without a doubt I'll be shortening up on the leader as the wind increases.

I'll do more testing and report back as soon as the rain stops here in Castle Rock, Colorado.

As far as the wind? It's spring and the wind always blows. That is how I came up with the speeds. It has been blowing from 12 mph to 27 mph steady with gusts up to 43.

The next tests will be changing the pitch of the line. So instead of casting to a spot above the horizon I'll angle the cast to shot the line into the sky and stab at the target.

And casting down wind? Like FrankB2 says it really takes the line out. So for all you wind casters may the target be always down wind.:icon_lol:

 

[swirlchaser]

Yeah, that's me, my old yankee heritage doesn't permit me to pay big bucks for something I can easily make :icon_roll
I included that picture 'cuz that was an honest 20 knot wind that day, probably even more.
My basket has some rather unique line management cones... not the usual zip-ties or trimmer line fingers
I'll post some pictures next time the subject comes up

I used foam darts from my son's Nerf gun. They are about 3" long and 1/2" dimameter. I siliconed them down and they work great nd stay flexible so they don't come lose.