Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing How far can you cast?

Skagit or long belly?

Sitka:

Skagits are way too short. I've used them, and one can get some serious distance out of them. One spends half his time on the water stripping in line for the next cast though, and to me that's not fishing time. With long bellies or double tapers I just pick it up and roll it back out there. Wish I had discovered Spey rods about 15 years sooner. Have a 12 1/2, a 14, and two 16 footers. For sure the most efficient method to fly fish, and at my age there might not be much time left. Have a good one,

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.

I can hit 70-80 feet with my Scott Radian 9' 6 weight and Rio Intouch Gold. Gold is a .4 over weight fly line. I'm going to get Rio Outbound Short for throwing big streamers more easily than with the Gold and I don't doubt I'll be able to cast 90-100 feet with that line. It's a 2 over weight line with a shooting head and a bunch of running line, it's made for distance. Distance is about the individual and casting stroke though. The stiffest fastest action broom stick rod with a shooting head won't make a difference if the operator doesn't know how to use it.