line kick

Hello all I am having a bit of trouble casting. especially with my bass bugs

So here goes, let me give you some back ground. I started fly fishing back when i was 17 with a 5wt for trout casting only small trout flies and small streamers for bass. never had any issues casting with these small flies.

I went to college and had a part time job and put fishing on the back burner. now that im out of college and have my first real job on my days off i like to go fishing and decided to warm up the fly rods again. One of my rods I picked up was a 7wt cabelas xst.

I relined it just this past month with a rio small mouth bass taper and began to practice in the parks on the grass with a piece of yarn tied to the end of my leader. My casts unrolled beautifully and straight. went down to the local stream and tied on a larger (size 2-4?) hard bodied popper.

I immediately started having issues. when the loop would unroll it would kick violently to one side or downwards and i cant seem to make a good cast to save my life. I managed to make a handfull of good casts but it seemed like the difference between to much and to little power was miniscule. Is my problem that im overpowering the cast?

I tend to cast slightly off to the side, Lefty Kreh style instead of straight up and down like Joan Wulff style. Should I return to the basics and start the traditional cast straight up and down? or is there something else? Im thinking about investing in an hour or so of private casting lessons from the local fly shop. but was wondering if anyone had any ideas? also when i start making longer and longer casts the line is falling down and slapping the water behind me. is this just an issue of trying to false cast to much line?

Thanks
Sean Scott

For a quick troubleshoot I would say you are over powering the casts. When doing this more overhead the line will kick down, when more side arm the line will kick in the direction opposite the side the cast was made on (If right handed will kick to the left)
Thems my best guesses.

right you are sir. When i cast i am right handed and the kick is always off to the left. and is more pronounced when i try to side arm (shadow cast for you river runs through it fans ) but i dont notice it when using a practice fly or light dry flies and small nymphs. What gives? and I did notice today after watching a casting video recommended to me on this site, Thanks again guys

My problem is that i notice my back stroke is nice and has good form but then my forward stroke i try to wallop the line forward and force power into it. I noticed this today and took some time to practice and not actual fishing. and also i noticed my casting plane sometimes tends to have an upwards angle to it.

Thanks again
Sean Scott

Try using the least amount of power needed to get the job done. That 9' lever adds a lot more power than people give it credit for. If you use too little power the just poops-out on you. Too much power and all sorts of troubles can appear like tailing loops (wind knots), the bounce back you asked about earlier and other stuff.
You might be amazed at how far you can cast without horsing the rod.
I hope this helps.

To add to what Jackster says, if you use the "O" ring method of shooting line, you can feather the cast to rub off excess energy. Since I cannot post links to blogs here, do a Google search for "O-RING METHOD (SHOOTING LINE)"

When you have overpowered a cast, close your fingers around the line to create friction that will slow the forward line velocity. This will slow down cast and prevent bounce back.

The good news is that when the fly kicks down, back, and under on the overhead cast; you have just learned the tuck cast. You just need to know how to control it, and the O-ring shoot will help with that.

Make sure your power application on the forward cast is gentle and gradual leading up to the powerful acceleration and hard stop. Shortening your leader might help as well, down to more like 6' instead of 9'. 8lb/3x is plenty light for bass.

Also, the cupped face on poppers lends itself to sort of a "knuckleball effect" as it flies through the air. (If its asymmetrical from above, it'll be worse) Throwing a diving fly with a more sloped/pointed head might help.

BigCliff said:

Make sure your power application on the forward cast is gentle and gradual leading up to the powerful acceleration and hard stop. Shortening your leader might help as well, down to more like 6' instead of 9'. 8lb/3x is plenty light for bass.

Also, the cupped face on poppers lends itself to sort of a "knuckleball effect" as it flies through the air. (If its asymmetrical from above, it'll be worse) Throwing a diving fly with a more sloped/pointed head might help.

Click to expand...

Thanks cliff and thanks everyone I have been throwing them on a 7.5 ft orvis leader 1x. So hopefully this is stout enough. For whatever reason when i dug around in my fly pack I found a few saltwater leaders i must have picked up when i was younger. I have a 16lb test and i think a few others that might be a bit heavier. I just wana get this casting under control.

In my opinion you can go out and spend all day on the water with a fly rod. catch maybe a few small fish, or maybe no fish. come home clean up and enjoy a nice meal and a beer and have way more fun than if you went out on the water with a spin rod and caught lifetime fish all day.

Thanks everyone I really appreciate the help.
Sean Scott

thanks everyone for the help. I have for the most part solved the line kick problem. I went out bass fishing with my cousin this afternoon. (i brought my fly rod he borought a few spinning rods.)

I was able to cast furter and more gracefully to a point. I find that when i try to force to much line out i start getting a trailing loop and the line falls to the ground before i can start the second part of the false cast. I think the only thing thats going to improve my fishing now is some one on one time with a casting instructor.

Thanks everyone
Sean Scott