[sagefly]

Hi all, I have heard you guys in the US mention grass casting and grass leaders top practise your casting.

Can anyone give me some info on how to make these up and the pro's and cons of practising with them.

I would have thought thye were to slippery to anchor a D loop.

 

[kush]

Sagefly,

I find grass casting a decent sustitute when water isn't available. To get any real gains however, one must use a "grass leader". This is a simple affair. I usually make mine about 12', I use a fairly stiff 20lb line like Maxima and tie a blood knot about every 6". The key is to leave the knot tags about 1/4" long. This series of knot tags creates the "grip" that is essential to spey casting - without thiis grip even Skagit Casting is quite difficult.

The biggest downfall I see with grass casting is that it can be a little too forgiving - as you can get away with dumping too much of your d-loop - it doesn't "stick" to the water. However, if you are working on your technique it can be a great way to get some quick practice in

 

[sagefly]

Tanks for both replies I will give them a try and obviously tinker with the set up to get the optimum.

Many thanks

 

[speycaster]

Grass casting

I agree that grass casting is helpful and that a grass leader is important. Even with the grass leader, however, the double spey isn't quite the same. As a cast that requires you to peel the line off the water in forming the D loop, it needs some line stick as well as leader stick to be realistic. The line itself doesn't stick to the grass, so it sort of balloons far out to your right side rather than coming around the corner nicely as you form the D loop. Makes it hard to line up the D loop with your intended direction of cast.