How far you can cast a line in the yard is somewhat relevant to fishing. It is great practice for loop size control. Yard casting is rarely done into the wind, or with a big fuzzy fly, without tailing loops, with 3/0 split shot, standing in 3 feet of water etc... Casts over 50 feet are rarely neccesary for most fishing situations. You likely will need to be able to cast 80' in perfect yard conditions in order to reliably cast 50' in wind, surf, cold, with heavy or bulky flies, or deep wading. I used to take pride in how far I could throw an 8wt. Could cast over 100'. I was recently embarrassed at how poorly I threw a big mullet fly into the wind with a 10 wt. I blew several good shots at roosterfish because I was out of practice and folded under pressure.
