First Fly Casts On the River...ever.

[courty]

Today I had my first go at casting a fly into water. I've practised in the field at the back of my house for "grass trout" until I felt confident enough with my Fladen 3 piece 7' AFTM3 rod and Greys GLA 80 reel with hardy #3DT line.
The river is the Upper Don at Thurgoland, between Barnsley and Sheffield, South Yorkshire, maybe 100 yards from where the grass trout are so difficult to catch.

Stood on large "stone beach" with a right to left current on a big bend, river two or three feet deep, fifteen feet across.

I had carefully superglued the braided loop to the fly line exactly to the Hardy instructions, slipped on the plastic tube and put it in boiling water to make it shrink.

Hat on, glasses to prevent me losing an eye, first cast....maybe ten feet, the fly landing in the middle of a coil of fly line, 6' Worcester floating polyleader attached to fly line in a loop to loop knot, Allbright knot attaches thin end of leader to the "tippet" which was Ultima Xtreme maximum strength precision diameter 3.0lb hi-tec etc at 12 ".....small midge fly....
Tried again, cast 11am - 2pm position, steady, felt the line, got it going, let it go....ten feet, fly lands in the middle of a mess of line, how the hell is this supposed to land delicately in front of a fish like a gently settling midge?
Luckily, I had expected a nightmare and was mentally prepared.

Reeled in, third cast was missing the leader. Found it behind me on the stone. The Hardy braided loop was no longer a loop, it had simply come apart. Tied a simple knot from braided remnant to leader. Continued. 11' cast, fantastic floating sedge fly looked the business, very natural. A passing bird squirted white stuff into the water all over the fly. A lucky sign! I reeled in and saw the fly continue with the current. It had parted company with the tippet. So much for the unimproved blood knot suggested in the Ultima leaflet.
Continued with 11' casts in 6" water with improved blood knot on some exotic fly.

Tried upstream. Caught a tree. Tried further upstream. Lost another fly. Finally a dry fly floats mid stream, out of coils, looking good. No bites. Caught another tree.

Realise I'm down to the final 2" of the thinnest end of the leader, having lost five flies, not a single bite or any encouragement from fish. Decide to go home and have a cup of tea.

No fish, very frustrating, haven't a clue what I am doing right or wrong...BUT the woodpeckers sounded great, the wild trout again showed they aren't stupid, the river sounded beautiful and I still have both eyes.
I don't know how anyone else's first day on a small stream went, but mine was special, if only because I didn't hurl my newly bought equipment into the river screaming and crying, but came away humbled and realistic.

If you have read this so far, and are further along the path than I am, please tell me. How do you get the fly to land in the water without being surrounded by coils of fly line, leader and tippet, within easy spitting distance?

Courty

[geejayy]

1, practice.
sorry m8 , i know thats not much help, but its difficult to say without watching you cast.

there are better quallified ppl here to help, but i'll chuck my tuppence in.

practice over water not on grass, there's more dragg from the surface of the water than on grass which puts more initial momentum into the fly line by loading the rod more.

i guess you've got the basic idea of starting the casting with about 10ft of fly line out of the tip of your rod , flick it forwards , draw the rod up and stop at 12 o clock ( verticle) look over your shoulder at the line and just as it nearly straightens out behind you flick the rod forwards again stopping at 9 o clock (horizontal).
it all in the timeing of the forward flick , it needs to be done at the point where the weight of the fly line going backwards loads the rod as the line straightens , the forward flick transfers the power from the rod bach into the line and drives it forward , hopefully landing in a straight line with the fly landing last.

if all looks ok , on the next back cast draw line from your reel , stop at 12 o clock, let the line straighten behind you , flick forward and release the loop of line youve drawn from the reel extending the cast by about a yard each time you repeat this.

remember each time you increase the amount of line you have in the air it will take longer to straighten out behind you on the back cast and so the pause before the forward flick should become progressively longer.


false casting,- working enough line out to reach the fish.

obviously keep laying the line onto the water while you do this will spook the fish & so mimic the back cast and before it lays on the water, just before it straightens out flick the rod back & draw more line from the reel, repeat as nessacery till you have the desired length in the air to reach the fish.

problem solveing-

there's a snap noise behind you-

flicking forward too soon, the line hasn't straightened out enough the snap is the crack of a whip & you often loose your fly.

line & fly slaps hard onto the water-

dropping the rod too low on the forward cast?

line & fly land in a tangled heap short of where you thought it would -

too late with the forward flick or took rod back well beyond 12 oclock, momentum lost & not enough to carry line out in front fully

or too much power for the amount of line out, so it straightens out & stalls springing back in a heap.

aahh, just read the bit about casting 11-2, my guess is your going too far back with your back cast.

hope this might help,

guys?, greenheart, does that sound about right or am i typeing nonsense?

[Portland Pirate]

Hi Courty.

I think GeeJayy has pretty much covered the basic mistakes that I have seen novices make. Like he says you just need to keep up with the practice.
Keep at it and before you know it you will have your first wild Trout on the fly.

[courty]

Thank you for taking the time to give me such detailed replies guys. I haven't had a chance to work on your tips yet. Whilst I'm getting line out of the reel, I'm clearly not in control of it just yet. There were plenty of whip cracks and the momentum wasn't right.
I'll definitely try again. Geevay, how did you arrive at 12 o'clock 9 o'clock cast? The 11 and 2 or 10 and 2 seemed to be quoted all over the place, which is why I started at those positions. Is there leeway for personal style, or is this the law of physics?
Looks like I'll be paying my daughter with sweets to film me while I cast so I can see what I'm doing. I tried looking over my shoulder and all my stance and timing went wrong.
Cheers,
Courty

[geejayy]

yeap, courty, there's plenty of lee way for personal styles,

its the timeing thats the important thing imho,
i could type a few tips about how to change your casting action but without being able to see you cast i can't see what needs changeing.

don't worry about it too much, as P/P said , it will come with practice.

[Rossthedon]

hey courtey, couple questions here....
i take it your hardy line is brand new? if so did you remember to stretch the line? this can result in your presentation going to s*** as the line will land in a heap!!! simple solution, put 2 NAILS (never screws) into the garden fence about 8ft appart and stretch and wind the line round the nails pulling tight as you wind, you should feel the line stretch.

also, when applying super glue to the braided loop a lot of people will put to much glue on, which results in line or loop breakage, the glue will eat through the line and it can make the loop brittle, so just a tiny bit of glue.

and lastly if you use fluoro leader make sure and tie with the uni knot as this stuff dont seem to like the bloodknot

failing this.... just keep at it, river fishing is a whole world away from stillwater fishing, try to perfect up stream mends for presentation and the rollcast and this will serve you well on small rivers and will give you access to parts of the water thought un-fishable

[kieran1]

good idea about wearing glasses man!
Also, when i river fish i usually sideways casted, because of tangles from the bank etc... i dont know if your environments suited to that but its just as easy as overhand casting.
But keep at it, the outdoors, the wildlife, the de-stress and enjoyment fishing is what its all about... for me anyway. catching a fish is fun and the excitement of never knowing when your gonna get a bite is really fun. dont worry about how many fish you catch thats not important at all.

"How do you get the fly to land in the water without being surrounded by coils of fly line, leader and tippet, within easy spitting distance?"
im going to be similar in a few days, but from the last time i was fishing i know that you WILL improve FAST and itl become even more fun. and then your first fish.... happy days!!
you could allways cast without leader and fly til you become good, but even on a poor cast you still have a chance.
keep us updated!

Ross. whats this about stretching lines??? never heard anything like that before.

[Rossthedon]

you gotta stretch new fly lines, they've been wound up for god knows how long, when you buy a new line you can feel the difference if its not been stretched. thats iswhat iv always been taught when replacing a line

[courty]

I didn't stretch the line, but I will! I've done some fly fishing on still water and had better success. I tried again on the river today, and discovered that my new waders leak. I found that I could cast better with the practise I've had, but I've no idea what I'm doing in relation to the current, and there are so many overhanging trees to contend with.
The current was strong, it took my fly along faster than I could retrieve the slack.
I guess that at this stage, it's a very steep learning curve!
I haven't sorted lessons out yet, but it's on the list.

[Rossthedon]

one of the first things you learn about river fishing is that the water ALWAYS moves faster and stronger than you think, i learned this the hard way when salmon fishing, water was crystal clear, slow moving and only knee deep! then i started wading it, it was groin deep and real strong, i got bounced down the current and nearly ended up in the sea!!!!

the main thing with river fishing is presentation, you gotta present the fly in as natural a way as possible, when you cast out on the river the fly will drag accross the current due to the line and no self respecting brownie will touch it, you need the fly to ride down with the current, you do this by mending the line, when you cast out and your line hits the water drop the rod tip and lift and flick it upstream, this will give your line some slack and the more slack the longer your fly will be drag free. on the other hand, if your fishing for sea trout just cast accross stream and retrieve right away accross the current!

by the way ALL waders leak, even brand new ones!