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Casting Tip for TBFFC: 27
While fishing recently with Bryon Chamberlin our success was improved
by slowly dragging our flies on the bottom in about 6 feet of water away
from the shallow grass. Both using full sinking lines, we were plagued with
twisting in our lines caused by not casting in the same plane. Using
Belgium type casts where a horizontal back cast was followed by a more
vertical forward cast allowed us to keep the weighted flies away from our
rod tips preventing a rod damaging collision. Bryon suggested a simple tip
that Dave Chouinard showed him for getting rid of line twist. Make a
forward cast very high in the air and shake the rod tip as the cast unfolds.
As the line free-falls to the water it will untwist. Several casts may be
needed to get out all twists. If standing in a stream or where there is
current, remove your fly and let the line dangle downstream. The pressure
of the water against the line will cause it to straighten.
Pat Damico, MCI
Here is a Line Handling Tip that Most People Don’t
Think About
When fishing in a skiff with the wind blowing, the location of the angler can
help reduce the line from blowing out of the skiff and into the water. If I
don't have a stripping bucket with me (I hate using them unless I have too),
I try to use the cockpit of the skiff as an area to strip my line into in order to
keep it from blowing into the water. This helps quite a bit on windy days,
but there are times that it is so windy that the stripped line blows out of
the skiff as soon as it leaves your hand, never making it to the floor of the
cockpit.
Sometimes a simple location change of the angler on the forward deck of
the skiff will cure the problem. For example, there is a wind blowing right to
left across the skiff. Most people stand in the center of the forward casting
deck, and in this situation, the line may still blow out of the boat and into
the water. For this example, reposition yourself at the right back corner of
the casting deck, and that will give you more target area behind you to strip
your fly line into the cockpit and not the water...If the wind blows the other
way, step to the other side of the casting deck. Pretty simple...To counter
the listing of the skiff by adding the weight of the angler on the one side of
the boat, have the person poling the skiff stand on the opposite side on the
poling platform, or if there is a another passenger, have them sit on the
opposite side that the angler is standing on. Now the angler can focus on
fishing and not line management.
Bryon Chamberlin
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