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Casting Issues

2K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  speypappy 
#1 ·
Hello Folks;

I'm having trouble getting a 10ft sink tip out of the water with pretty much any cast I try to accomplish.

I'm casting an 11ft, 7wt switch, 475gr skagit head, and the tip is a t-11.

Am I blowing my anchor? Or is it something else?

I started casting about two years ago, switched to centerpinning:eek:, and am now back on the swing. I fished a river for about 12 hours Sat and Sun with nothing to show for it except frustration. The river was short enough that I could single hand cast so started doing that.

My casting had started getting better (thanks Andy), but know it seems to be going the other way...

Any help appreciated,

speypappy
 
#2 ·
Go to www.rioproducts.com and check their guide for matching lines to rods. I suspect that your line might be a bit heavy for your spey rod, but I'm not sure.

I don't have much experience with a Skagit line, but try a snake roll at the start of your lift to bring your fly and sinking tip to the surface.

Randy
 
#3 ·
As long as your line is matched right that 475 head should throw 11ft tips with ease. I would say there are a couple things your mite want to try. Try not letting your tip sink to deep after setting your anchor. This will allow less resistace on your tips/flies. Also pushing your Dloop to up a little higher in your casting stroke. This will slow down a your forwrd cast a little. But with a higher rod tip in the air this pulls your sink tip out of the water. This is somethng to mess around with.

Andrew
 
#4 ·
Speypappy,

Excellent post by Andrew,,,,, in addition, we teach students to lift, swing and stab the rod upward about 3"-4" at a 45 degree angle,,, this pushes the D loop upward and minimizes the long anchor so common with over rotation or trunking of the rod tip.

Try and slow down the forward stroke and stop with the rod tip high, the stop will unload the rod and launch the line.

Your rod and line set up is fine and you should study casting technique,,, and not give up. Everyone has experienced the frustration of DH casting when new.

Regards,
FK
 
#5 · (Edited)
If you are having trouble getting the tip out of the water, you are not blowing your anchor or the tip would be out of the water - when does the issue occur? Are you having trouble lifting it out when setting up? If so - do a slower, steady lift and then do not pause going into your set up and D loop formation - the slow steady lift will help pull the line and tip up in the water column - you should watch where it enters the water and you should see it lift up. Once you have set up you really can pause before going into the D loop - If your casting stroke is correct, you should have no trouble launching a tip even if it sinks a bit

If on the other hand, you are having problems on the forward cast in that the tip does not launch, there could be a number of reasons - I would highly recommend Ed's Sakgit Master for casting techniques. My guess after watching beginners is that you may be using way too much arm motion (going out side of the box) and likely swinging around behind you too far (hooking) - this will kill the D loop and forward cast. The most power will come from keeping the hand around shoulder height (not higher) - don't break your wrist when you swing around to form the D loop - this will help direct the D into the 45 thrust Ed talks about (which is not an upward thrust but a thrust to the side) - not breaking your wrist will also help prevent hooking. Finally something that seems to help the most is to keep your upper arms and elbows relatively fixed and against your sides - if you lift your elbows., likely you are going outside the box - keep your stroke very short and compact.

Beginners that struggle tend to use more and more power and arm motion trying to throw the line (same holds for single handed overhead casting). You are not throwing the line - the rod does that - keeping short compact strokes will load the rod properly an as others have said - slow down!!
 
#6 ·
casting issues

thanks for all the help fellas. I bought skagitmaster vol I and that has helped tremendously with correct rod path and not trying to overpower the cast. It's a work in progress and everytime I get on the river my casting seems to get better. I've slowed it down a lot and that has probably helped the most. Got to remember to keep my hands inside the box. I have not caught any fish as of this posting, but I'm sure that relates exclusively to technique and not the flies I'm using. I'm trying to keep it simple...work on the casting, keep my fly choices to a minimum, and get to the river as often as I can. Grass practice really isn't an option at this time. Low 20's and lake effect snow coming down about an inch an hour.

Best regards and Happy New Year to All!

Speypappy
 
#7 ·
The shorter the rod the more difficult it is to pull a sinktip to the surface. It's related to rod length and nothing more. Same reason it's more difficult to cast a longer belly line with a shorter rod. Put the same setup on a 13' 7wt. rod and it'll be easy.
 
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