For those of you who have been following, I am learning how to fly fish. I have been getting out to our local lock system to try and entice some trout into falling for my faulty/rookie technique. I have a couple of questions.
Before I continue, I do not have a large flyfishing vocabulary, so the way in which I word my questions may seem strange.
My line regularily gets ‘hung-up’ on the bottom of my reel and my right hand becuase it is holding the rod. This happens when I cast the line from behind me. Is it partially because I am holding too much extra (slack) line in my left hand before the forward cast? Or is that my left hand (that is holding the extra line) is to close to my reel and the extra line gets caught on the reel after I complete the cast? See picture below.
Am I being specific enough?
My second question is:
How do you fly fish on a windy day? I tried it last week and it seemed so futile!
Thoughts?
My guess would be that, like Murdock said, you’re crossing your hands, or possibly that your left hand is too close to your right, so that when you bring the rod forward you’re catching the line shooting out.
Hauling, or giving the line in your left hand a short downward jerk with your left hand as you begin your forward cast, would probably solve that problem (since you would need to keep your hands farther apart, or at least better aligned). You can also double haul by making the jerk at the beginning of your backcast as well as the forward cast, though that gets trickier. Hauling takes a while to learn, but it’s not that hard, and it will help your distance. It will help you fight the wind, too, since it increases the speed of your forward cast.
Some other tips for casting into the wind: keep the rod lower (possibly with a sidearm cast, or with an overhead cast angled more to the side), make shorter casts and use shorter leaders. Surface ripples caused by wind obscure fishes’ vision, so you can get closer without spooking them. And the less line/leader you give the wind to play with, the more control you’ll have. Compensate for crosswinds. If the wind is blowing your line off to the right, aim to the left your your target. Ideally, you can get the wind at your back and just roll cast!
Thanks that would be great!
My own casting has been refered to as siezure-like so I am sure there are lots of fly fishermen out there who can help more than me but I will take a stab at the problem. It sounds to me like at some point in your cast your right hand (rod hand) is passing over your left hand (the hand holding your slack line)so that when you release your line it is comming up and getting caught on the bottom of the reel seat etc. It is hard to say without seeing it but that is my guess. I would focus on keeping my rod perpindicular to the ground and see if that helps.
Casting into the wind can be tough too. It requires a tight loop in your fly line. I have had good luck positioning myself in a place where I am casting with the wind rather than against it. Sounds simple but why fight a gale?
Btw great photo of your casting problem. It takes a good eye to turn a casting issue into great looking art.
I will link to your posting at my blog so we can see if there are some better casters out there who can help you.
Murdock