I had
a very fortunate introduction to fly casting. I
learned about the sport of fly fishing from two college
buddies on Georgia farm ponds and the only type of watercraft
we had available was a tiny johnboat with a few broken ribs.
It was an awful boat and was appropriately outfitted with
a metal pot for an anchor and a plank for a paddle. Because
of the broken ribs, the boat was terribly unstable and standing
up in it was as easy as standing up on a waterbed. Looking
back and realizing that I learned to fly cast from a seated
position, I am very thankful for that beat up johnboat.
It gave me casting skills early on that some people never
take the time to master.
Whether
wadefishing a shallow flat or standing on the casting deck
of a boat, you have plenty of room to move your body - very
different than casting from a kayak.
These
days, whenever I mention to another yak fly angler that
I like to fly fish from my kayak, they usually start asking
me questions about wading boots, stingrays, and mud and
I have been a bit surprised to learn how many kayak fly
anglers rarely, if ever, fly cast from a seated position
in their kayaks. The purpose of this article is to share
with you wading yak fly fishers some of the wisdom I gleaned
from a busted up johnboat on a Georgia farm pond many years
ago so that you might relax a bit out there and better enjoy
those subtle advantages that a fly rod sometimes has over
conventional tackle. But before I talk about casting, I
think there is something that anyone who owns or is thinking
about purchasing a kayak or small canoe needs to know -
in most cases you will be more stealthy seated in your small
paddle craft than you will wading. The reason is simple.
A boat drawing only a few inches of water blends into the
surface to a fish a few yards away. Two feet sticking down
and kicking up bottom dust are hard to miss to that same
fish. I was keyed into this fact during one of my first
redfishing trips aboard my sit-on-top kayak when a redfish
tailed up to the bow of my yak, put his tail down, went
under the yak, and then put his tail back up and went on
his merry way. I was so amazed I didn't even bother to cast.
In order
to better understand how to fly cast seated in a kayak,
it is crucial that you have a better understanding of casting
mechanics in general. All the wind knots, lackluster distance
and accuracy, and the annoying sound of the fly smacking
the water behind you are not the fault of the kayak and
are usually signs that there are problems in your everyday
casting that could be easily fixed. So, lets start with
probably the most universal kayak fly casting issue - hitting
the water on your back cast.
With
your casting arm only a few feet above the surface of the
water you don't have much room to work with, so why be hard
on yourself? In order to make a lengthy cast, you have to
move the rod a given distance. If you don't get that rod
loaded and begin your casting stroke as soon as possible,
you will most likely "run out of room" causing your back
cast to end too far behind you and consequently, your line
and/or fly to smack the water behind you. So, before you
ever begin your cast, make everything easier on yourself
by making sure the tip of your fly rod is in or at the surface
of the water and move your casting arm a bit farther forward
than you normally would. Start your cast slowly and smoothly
accelerate as your line begins to leave the water. Now,
when you stop the rod on your back cast, it will be much
earlier than before and you will be less likely to send
your line and fly towards the waters surface.
But
this may not solve the problem entirely. Another possible
culprit could be that your line is not straight before you
begin your cast or that you are picking up the line off
the water with way too much force causing shock waves in
your line as it unrolls off your rod. Either way, the slack
that is created from not having a straight line will rob
you of precious casting stroke once again making you have
to move your arm farther than you are able in this seated
position. If this is the case, you will most likely find
yourself not waiting for your back cast to straighten before
you start your forward cast, the logic here being that if
you get it all moving before it falls in the water it will
somehow work. The opposite happens, however, because by
not allowing your cast to straighten, you have just committed
yourself to making an even longer casting stroke! Always
look for ways to remove slack by having a straight fly line
both in the air and on the water. A fly line without slack
means a much more effective casting stroke.
Ian
Slack stops the rod high on his back cast to keep his line
off the water and to make the most of the cramped cockpit
of the kayak.
Now
that you have removed slack and understand the importance
of having enough arm room to execute a given cast, lets
look at how your are forming your loops and aiming your
cast. Both of these tasks are accomplished by stopping the
rod on the end of the forward and back casts. The direction
you stop the rod is the direction the line will travel.
This is a very critical point and a thorough understanding
of the physics involved will allow you to make casts seated
in your kayak that you may not have even been able to make
standing up before. Obviously, we can draw the conclusion
here that if you want to cast a fly to a target than you
need to stop the rod tip when it is traveling toward that
target, but your ability to get the fly to its mark is also
reliant on where you stop the rod on your back cast.
Ian
throws a nice "kayak cast" that doesn't hit the water or
cause tailing loops, and, most importantly, unrolls smoothly
to the target.
Try
the following exercise standing on grass: while false casting
stop the rod down behind you and down in front of you making
the rod tip travel in an arching path. You will notice that
the size of your loop increases and the length of your cast
decreases. Now, begin to stop your back cast and forward
cast higher until they stop in completely opposite directions
from one another. Your loops should start looking a little
more like Lefty's and your fly line should begin to tug
at your line hand as it straightens in the air. This is
the "perfect" casting loop that you have been striving for.
But we are not done . . .
Now,
begin stopping your back cast higher and higher while maintaining
a straight ahead forward cast. You should start seeing your
loop begin to close and those nasty "wind" knots beginning
to form. Having your rod tip travel in a less than 180 degree
rod tip path is one common cause of wind knots. But do you
recall the arching rod tip path you made when you stopped
the tip down in front and behind you? After stopping the
rod very high on a back cast, make this arching forward
cast and look at the resultant loop. It should no longer
be closed and unroll in front of you like a "good" cast.
There will also not be any wind knots. Freshwater trout
fisherman call this cast a "Steeple Cast" and routinely
employ it in situations where there is not much room for
a back cast. But using this technique can also be very useful
in areas where you don't have much room to move your arm
in an efficient casting stroke - like a kayak!
For
our "Kayak Cast", though, we don't need to send our back
cast straight up. Just aim it slightly higher than you typically
would and throw a slightly wider loop on the forward cast.
This "Kayak Cast" is not a powerful cast, but can be very
accurate once mastered and in the kayak will allow you to
be much more at ease casting while seated. If you need more
distance, you can easily add a double haul, but because
distances are not so critical because of the stealth of
your watercraft, this cast should prove to be very adequate
in most all situations. One last important thing to keep
in mind is to not rely on power to get more distance - it
simply doesn't work. Removing slack, a smooth acceleration
to a stop, and using all available arm movement as efficiently
as possible is the secret to casting distance while seated
in a yak.
Simply
going through the process of mastering the different rod
tip paths and the resultant loops will do wonders for your
fly casting in all situations and is something every fly
caster should take time to practice. Fly casting sometimes
gets a bit tricky in tight situations where we have limited
body movement or casting room, but your ability to make
adjustments can really help get the fly to its target.
