I was asked to give some thoughts on casting in tight places. So I took it on as a project and went fishing in North Georgia. I put myself in places on the streams that offer no chance of a back cast, and very little space to move the rod. I drew on my knowledge as a fly casting instructor, and situational applications. The following are my observations and conclusions. I will start with the conclusion; it is much easier to fly fish with lots of room.
Given we don’t always get that luxury, here are some tips. Use a short rod with a mid or full flex design. A 7ft rod is a great tool as it is much easier to control around the branches. It will not offer as much control for high- sticking, but you got to get the fly to the target before you can even start the drift. The mid or full flex will let you load the rod with less line out of the rod tip. And speaking of line, have you heard of ‘over lining’? That is when we use a line weight 1-2 weights higher than the rod specs. We do that to get extra line mass to load the rod at short distances. A hat with a small bream is a benefit too as it allows you to see the surroundings.
Now that you have the right gear (hopefully), give some thought to re-positioning rather than casting from a difficult spot. It is more fun changing positions than getting your line out of the trees and cutting new leader material. But if you got the spot and need to make the cast, here are some thoughts.
Thought #1: How can I get my fly in the water? With a weighted fly, give it a toss. Yes I said it. A simple under hand toss gets it in the water. I think an over hand toss disqualifies you from the fly fishing brotherhood so only do it when no one is around. I’m not saying throw it at the fish, but get it out there in the current so you can feed a little line out.
Thought #2: Did I build the right leader for the fly I’m trying to cast? If not then Thought #4 will not work.
Thought #3: If the current will not pull enough line out of the rod tip, do I have room to use the water tension and repositioning of the rod tip to slip line?
Thought #4: Get the fly in place and make a roll cast to the target.
Keep in mind we normally do a roll cast with the line going behind us in a ‘D’ loop,but there is no room. So what did we have to do to make that cast? We had to set up the forward cast properly. Often that just means lifting the line so the fly is to the top of the water and in line with the target. Then rather then bring the rod tip behind us, bring it back and up as far as possible and make a forward cast out and over the target, not around and down.
There are a lot of techniques to learn from spey casting that will aid in these situations. One thing is the repositioning of the fly. Another is the line placement on the water for the set up. For example, the less room you have to form a D-loop, the more important it is to lay your line further away from you on the lift/ line placement motion. That allows you to use the water tension to load the rod, rather than the D-loop. Learning some of the single hand spey techniques will really aid a caster in tight fishing situations. They are worth a look.
Casts to research are the double spey, snap-T and Snap-C as well as the bow and arrow cast.
That bow and arrow cast will leave you with hook marks in your thumbs until you get used to it.
I hope all your waters are big and open and if not, I hope you gained a little info for your next tight water trip.
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