[Mike Barrio]

Hi folks

Which type of casting skill would you most like to learn, or improve on?

Best wishes
Mike

[Jim Eddie]

Never managed to master the double haul.

 

Jim

[Irvine Ross]

For myself, I would like to get the basics rock solid and avoid my usual lapses into a wonderful variety of tailing loops and other deadly sins.    After that I would like to be competent at all the repertoire of casts that are useful in rivers when the space for a back cast is limited. I suppose what I am interested in is practical fishing skills. Distance casting has its uses but it's not the be all and end all for me.

It will interesting to see the range of answers to this one

Irvine

[Mike Barrio]

Never managed to master the double haul.

 

Jim

Great stuff Jim ..... Yes, the double haul would probably be an excellent choice of casting skill to work on at the Outcast taster session, certainly one that I would benefit from

Any more ideas folks?

Best wishes
Mike

[Mike Barrio]

For myself, I would like to get the basics rock solid and avoid my usual lapses into a wonderful variety of tailing loops and other deadly sins.    After that I would like to be competent at all the repertoire of casts that are useful in rivers when the space for a back cast is limited. I suppose what I am interested in is practical fishing skills. Distance casting has its uses but it's not the be all and end all for me.

It will interesting to see the range of answers to this one

Irvine

Great stuff Irvine ..... 

[Sandy Nelson]

The striking cobra would be high on my list

Any of the obstacle styles of cast ie , reach, curve, puddle, steeple, etc all of these will provide great fun and be very useful.
Some of the roll casts, ie snake, single speys etc are really good to get to grips with on single handers. Some of the direction changing cast would be good too, i dont enough and certainly cant give them names, Magnus?

Really looking forward to this

Sandy

[Magnus Angus]

Yes Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Yes Sandy

 

It was the names for some of the casts, i was looking for

Sandy

[Magnus Angus]

Snap-T, Circle C?

Lee has some excellent clips on his site - http://www.stsflyfishing.com/Casting%20Video%20Clips.html - they are long so need to be downloaded rather than just played.

As you'll see you can link elements to form more complicated casts - eg a snake roll can be combined with a haul - watch Lee and you'll think he can perform a triple toe loop at the same time. The nice bit about it is you can learn the pieces and build more complicated casts. After a while its just there, you don't need to think about it just use it when the situation call for it.

[Cameron deBoth]

Personally I would firstly like pointers on improving my "normal" casting style. Then progress to learning others 

Also I hope you dont mind me bringing a beginer friend (Mike is the chap I had at Haddo last trip)

[Hamish Young]

Personally I would firstly like pointers on improving my "normal" casting style. Then progress to learning others 

Don't worry Cameron, the plan is that all aspects from beginning to being smart ar*e (sorry, talented  ) casters - something for everyone 

Also I hope you dont mind me bringing a beginer friend (Mike is the chap I had at Haddo last trip)

Plenty of folk there who'll be willing to help out a newbie I'm sure 

H 

[Cameron deBoth]

Good to know, he has got alot better in the few times we have gone, but I'm a shite teacher as I dont know what I do wrong in the first place

[Irvine Ross]

Just a thought

Is grass casting hard on fly lines/rod rings?
I guess the line must pick up a bit of dirt and there is no water to wash it off. Would it be sensible to take old-ish lines to practice with and keep the new ones for fishing?

Irvine

[Peter McCallum]

If your still interested Mike I've sussed what the Danish Casting Game needs so we could get that up & running - do you have a 100' tape measure by any chance?

peter

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Irvine

Any form of casting can be hard on lines and rings if there's a lot of mud or dust and water about. Lines probably pick up less dirt from  casting on grass than they do from any muddy bank.

Old lines tend to have a lot of fine grit in the coating, that can damage rings. By all means use an old-ish line but make sure it's as smooth and clean as possible. The other side of that is that if snake rings show any signs of wear or damage they will damage lines and should be replaced asap. I'll have some line-cleaning gear with me so lines can be cleaned and slicked.

Practice casting can be hard on lines, more because of stress and strain than dirt. Worst case a line can be damaged in a few hours of casting because in that time they endure as much casting action as a line might see in a couple of months fishing and the caster will often be pushing to the limits during practice where they are far more easy going when fishing.

Magnus