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344 Posts
I had the good fortune of fishing last weekend on the North Umpqua. (I had my recently-typical 10-second hookup in the first pool I hit, but only raised 1, maybe 2, other fish in 3 days. Reports were of slow fishing.)
One highlight of the weekend was setting new personal distance records. It maybe wasn't that great by spey forum standards, but I was pleased. The interesting part was that the longest casts came while I was waist deep.
On the other hand, I struggled more when my feet were barely wet, or worse, elevated above water level while standing on a rock.
So my question is, what is the best way to adjust for wading depth? Is it more of a timing change to maintain the proper amount of anchor, or is it more of an adjustment to the tilt of the rod?
I'm fishing an Airflo Traditional 7/8 on an 8 wt rod, so the question is more focused on mid- and long-belly lines, if that makes a difference.
I think my challenge was mostly with the forward stroke, but since I don't know what my D-loop looks like, I can't say for certain. I do know that this weekend was the first time that I really felt successful in setting up a good D-loop with more than 60 feet of line out the rod tip, 'throwing' the D-loop as a backcast rather than just pulling the anchor into positon.
I felt more than a little pleased with making these good casts while waist deep, and I can't help but feel that I'm close to being really consistent at normal wading depths if I can learn how to make the proper adjustments.
--Bill
One highlight of the weekend was setting new personal distance records. It maybe wasn't that great by spey forum standards, but I was pleased. The interesting part was that the longest casts came while I was waist deep.
On the other hand, I struggled more when my feet were barely wet, or worse, elevated above water level while standing on a rock.
So my question is, what is the best way to adjust for wading depth? Is it more of a timing change to maintain the proper amount of anchor, or is it more of an adjustment to the tilt of the rod?
I'm fishing an Airflo Traditional 7/8 on an 8 wt rod, so the question is more focused on mid- and long-belly lines, if that makes a difference.
I think my challenge was mostly with the forward stroke, but since I don't know what my D-loop looks like, I can't say for certain. I do know that this weekend was the first time that I really felt successful in setting up a good D-loop with more than 60 feet of line out the rod tip, 'throwing' the D-loop as a backcast rather than just pulling the anchor into positon.
I felt more than a little pleased with making these good casts while waist deep, and I can't help but feel that I'm close to being really consistent at normal wading depths if I can learn how to make the proper adjustments.
--Bill