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