Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing How far can you cast?

Years ago one of the best fly fishermen in our little town said he was casting 90 ' on one of the local lakes to catch nice trout.. With conditions right I can cast that far, but not every cast.. Still I catch lots of trout, but I was thinking about how far can most fishermen cast.. I like fly fishing, but love shooting, so it is second string for me. But how about you serious fisherman. How far can you cast or how far do you need to cast in your favorite waters?

I can cast a 6 wt and up 90 ft. + in good conditions, 5 wt a little less but accuracy is poor. I am just throwing line when making those casts. I can consistently cast 70 to 75 ft with some accuracy. Now I do not fish at 70 feet. Over 95% of my casts on the water I fish will be 30 to 40 ft, with most closer to 30 feet. Long casts look good and are great to practice since what you learn casting long can make shorter casts more efficient and accurate but they are not needed to catch fish. In fact it is almost impossible to get consistent hookups with more than 50 ft of line out on a small quick fish like a trout on a floating line.

Stalk the fish as close as possible and make one good accurate cast and you will catch more trout, especially the "educated fish" found on many of the favorite tailwaters around the country.

Practice the double haul long casts and fish as short as possible.

Ed

WIth my 4 weight, I cast about 40 feet. And that rod has probably caught a thousand fish.

I've tossed a lot of line while permit and tarpon fishing. There it is sometime necessary. Problem with that much line out is setting the hook and feelingg/seeing a take. Same with trout fishing. I can put out 80+ or so with my 6wt but managing line and setting a hook is a different story.

Thanks.. I often fish the local lake, where the opportunity for long casts is there.. But with this info, I will just fish and enjoy it!! Off in a bit to look into some bass fishing.. Have a good one..

WyoCoyoteHunter,

I have fished for tarpon to bluegills, from Florida Keys to Montana but I have never fished in a mountain lake like you guys have in Wyoming. I would assume that long casts could be of a benefit to a fisherman on those lakes. Using one of the new "low stretch" fly line like the ones by Rio, I think they call them "IN-TOUCH", could help with making the hook sets out at 60 feet and beyond. Also using a full sinking line to fish sub-surface helps with hook sets by keeping you in direct contact with the fly while sink lines have less stretch than floating line typically.

Like eamyrick above I have spent days making long casts to tarpon, bonefish, redfish, etc. but those fish take a fly and tend to hang onto it while turning and swimming away which gives time to take up the line tight enough for a hook set plus you are typically fishing these on a tight line strip, although this is successful only 50% of the time on many of these species. A trout will suck a fly in and spit it out in short order if not a natural which gives you less time to set the hook. The additional problem, as noted by others above, is the fact we trout fisherman typically introduce slack line in our drifts to provide a better presentation in the various currents present on a trout stream further hurting the hook set.

Try one of those "In-Touch" fly lines and work on that double haul. Good fishing!

Ed

Sorry, not fly fishing, but with a good 12' rod, 2 1/2 oz. Hopkins or a #4 Deadly Dick, and a stiff wind at my back.......... 75+ yards.

I have found that with my current, modestly priced rod and decent line about 80' is my maximum with consistency (including leader, so 80' from me). This is with a 6wt and a WF line. With a better rod, perhaps a line size or two up, and using a shooting basket I suspect that could be extended a bit.
The main fishery that I access where this could sometimes be helpful is casting off the beach for salmon.
That being said, watching someone who is really good is inspiring!

Pretty easy to cast the full length of a weight forward line it's entire length. With that said I cannot remember the last time that kind of distance was necessary even for bonefish or steelhead. Average for my fishing would be more from 20 to 40 feet.
Been a long time since I needed to double haul for catching a fish in Alaska.

Well, most of my stream fish catching casts for the most part well under 30 feet. I can recall just once that I made a 90 foot + cast, It was with a 9'3" Orvis Western Spring Creek 4 wt with 13 feet of Braided butt leader and a # 16 Henryville special. Low water year, I was at a tail of a long pool and the fish at the head was rising, so I let it rip, it just worked out, that fish took the fly and I hooked and landed him. Between the rod, leader, fly line and my arm, every bit of 90 feet and then some! I was more just plain good luck, little or no wind, I just decided to put the fly on the fish from where I stood and did. I would not bet money that I could do it again. I have legs and I can move, so I get to where I can make a good accurate cast, put the fly where I want it, most of the time less than 20 feet. Now for my saltwater, Most of my fish catching casts are in the 40 to 60-foot range, stripers, and bluefish mostly. Casting is a parking lot of a fly shop has little to do with actual fishing. I still have that Orvis Western Springcreek rod, I have not fish with it much after that, I when to an 8'6" RP II Sage in a 5 wt for my trout fishing, for my casting style and skill and the rivers I fish, it's just about perfect, be it #24 Trico's or a # 4 Zonkers.

Great information here guys.. Thanks a lot.. I am going to take about 2/3 of the rods out of my truck and use my three old favorites..

Far enough to catch fish, without getting too close to spook them.

Always be leery of folks that put numbers to fishing. Most folk err on the high side of reality.

Ability to achieve proper, drag free, drift trumps distance every time.

Full length of an entire line? Does that mean like 200'?

IMO, people who can cast well at 70', 80' or 90' are likely in the top 5% (or higher) of all fly casters in the world, especially with rods and lines typically used for trout fishing.

But don't take it from me.....

The lines I've used have been 27 meters or 30 yards depending on time and brand, so 90 feet roughly.

I have not tried spey. With a conventional rod, 9-1/2 foot, 9 weight, with a WF 10 sink / HD sink tip line, I used to throw up to about 115 feet. That was not the intent for that rod, just happened to work out. It was bought for winter steelhead fishing but it turned out to be more useful for late summer / early fall evenings where the canyon we fished turned into a wind tunnel. It'd shove a 7 weight right back at your feet. The 10 would punch through it. Once in a while we'd get a break in the wind near dusk and rather than switch over to the lighter rods, the trash talk would start and the long distance casting attempts would begin.

Really long casts, at least for our style of fishing, are not very practical so far as catching fish. It's very hard to effectively manage more than about 70 feet of line and 50 feet is a lot better. That's with sub-surface wet flies ... the little bit of dry fly fishing I've done calls for shorter lines yet.

Tom

Never saw a line that long...
Most of my lines (WF) are a smidge shorter😉
Went through a shooting head phase around 30 something years ago. You might remember that Cortland came out with a product called "Kerboom." Trimmed them down and spliced them together for different sinking rates in an attempt to dredge out the bigger Rainbows from deep water. Gave it up quickly once I realized the stuff was overly heavy and too unwieldy for my uses. To this day, I am convinced that Cortland named that stuff after the sound it made when one got slapped in the back of the head with It😮😀

Usually about 10' to 20' less than what it takes to reach the fish.lol

With my 16 ft spey rods I'm picking up about 68 ft of line and a 20 ft of leader when the cast starts. I shoot about another 30 to 40 ft of line on the cast, but I should really pull it all in and measure it some day. There are not many unreachable rocks in the river I fish. If I'm really trying to max things, I may have 3 or 4 loops of shooting line resting in the water, and another 2 or 3 loops in my mouth.

Maxing distance though is often less than rewarding. With steelhead, takes are often undetected until the weight is there. I've hooked some way out there, but they often break off because I can't get all of that cross current line out of the water. That current alone is enough to break tippets even when a fish is simply holding.

One of the major factors in how far a cast can be made is how much line can you shoot. The practical issue with shooting line is it laying on the ground, gravel, weeds/sticks, grass, still water, moving water, or a boat deck/ platform? Will the the line peel up smoothly and shoot or get hung up? AND, how high above where the line is laying are you and the water you're casting on.

All of these things play a part in fishing and not just how far someone can cast under ideal circumstances. It's difficult to shoot long lengths of line when you're wading in a river up to your thighs and the line has drifted below you. It's easy to cast far standing on a boat with a flat surface, or on grass, where you can coil out the line you're going to shoot.

With that said, under most conditions, with a 8 1/2' or 9' 5wt I can consistently cast up to 70' + ... no problem. With my 9' 8wt rod (underlined} with a 7 wt WF fly line I can cast 80' or 90' consistently.

Over the years I've found that the longest cast possible, most of the time, isn't what's needed to catch fish and especially in rivers. It's far more important to get the right drift. When your fishing lakes with dry flies you can't slap the water with a long cast and sink the fly. Wet flies in lakes is a different story. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules.

I went through the shooting head phase about 45 years ago but when I became experienced at actually catching fish I veered away from it. I never fished where you HAD to make long casts to catch fish. I also never bought a shooting basket. Occasionally I'll run into a circumstance where I can't cast far enough but that's when I search for fish that can be reached and there's almost always a few.

That's my two cents.

For myself, on my list of things to try is a shooting basket when beach fishing for salmon. A little more distance may be useful on occasion when trying to reach a sighted fish or when just searching the water. Most of my fish off the beach have been hooked up at least 50' away. I typically try to stay in water at crotch level or less. I'd like to try a high end rod and see just how much that would help, though it may just show my lack of ability!