I want to talk about casting and retrieving in this post. For me, these are both the most important and, at the same time, the most neglected aspects of Irish lough style fly fishing. Why so you may well ask? I am lucky enough to know and fish with some of the finest anglers in the west of Ireland and I watch what they do closely, while at the same time analysing what I am doing myself. As a result, I see things like boat handling, casting and retrieving as being very important in terms of catching trout, while fly selection, line density, leader materials etc as being of much lesser importance. You can have a thousand flies, the latest leaders that the fish cannot see and a tackle box full of reels loaded with expensive lines, but if your casting lets you down, if you are constantly in tangles or your flies are lifeless in the water you are seriously handicapped.
Let’s start with casting. Of all the problem issues I see on boats this is by far the biggest. Anglers who can belt out 25 yards from a solid bank struggle to do half of that when sitting in a pitching boat on the lough. Different causes of this affliction need to be addressed, but let me start with tackle. Nine foot rods do have their place on a boat, but it is very limited and for that reason I never use a rod of less than ten feet when boat fishing. Eleven or eleven and a half are much more suitable and many manufacturers produce excellent rods in these sizes. Why am I so insistent on long rods? It comes down to mechanics, the longer reach of these rods allows you to pick up your flies more efficiently at the end of the retrieve, throws the line higher in the air, and are better at hanging or dibbling flies. Disadvantages are of course the increased weight and the dexterity required to get the best out of long rods.
Lines come in a bewildering range of designs, mostly aimed at rainbow trout anglers from what I can see. Rainbows hold in tight ranges of depth, finding the exact depth and fishing your flies at that level are critical to success on English reservoirs. Brown trout are less inclined to be that specific about depth, in general they are close to the bottom or up near the top of the water when feeding on surface or just sub-surface food. For that reason, I personally use only three lines, a wet cell 2 for sunk work, an intermediate and a floater for other applications. You could argue that fishing for daphnia feeders in the deeps on Mask requires a wider range of fly lines and I guess you could be justified in that point, but I do not do much fishing out there so I’m not best qualified to comment. Sink tips/midge tips have their place and are useful too, but I find a basic intermediate is all I need.
Line design is now a minefield, with each supplier vying to convince you their arrow/rocket/ultra slick (or whatever else their marketing team can dream up) profile will send your casts to the horizon. For me, a simple weight forward profile is sufficient to load the rod when casting. I gave up on double tapers many years ago for lough style.
Another point about fly lines is that I see angler really struggle because their line is too light for the rod. Some manufacturers have taken to rating their rods for two line sizes, eg. 4/5 or 6/7. This is not to stupid as lines vary considerably and modern rods are forgiving and can handle more than one line size. All I am saying is that you should opt for the heavier lines rather than the lighter one. Very long casts are not part of lough style fishing and so a heavier line will load the rod more and make short casting easier.
I have wittered on about fly leaders in previous posts, but I think it is worth repeating some saliant points. Long leaders are not generally required for lough style fishing in my opinion. Yes, there may be occasions when you are fishing buzzers and a long leader is necessary, but for lough style wet fly fishing I do not go above 12 feet in length and 10 feet is more usually sufficient. Long leaders, especially if constructed from ultra-thin materials, will just end up in a serious knot. That fankle has to be cut off and a new leader tied up, resulting in a lot of lost fishing time. Each season I see new wonder materials that the fish cannot supposedly see, but I still use good old nylon in 6 or 8 pound breaking strain for most of my wet fly fishing. I balance the reduced number of takes due to the fish seeing my leader against the number of times I would be in a tangle if I used the skinny materials and see 6 pound mono as a very good option for wet fly fishing in the wind. Another advantage of nylon is it is easier to unpick if you do have a tangle.
How about the join between the fly line and the leader? Again, I see all sorts of connections and they vary greatly in efficiency. Personally, I favour a two foot butt made from 12 pound nylon, joined to the fly line by a loop-to-loop (if the fly line does not have a welded loop on the end I make one by doubling over the end and whipping it in place with heavy fly tying silk). On to that thick butt I knot another length of 8 pound nylon then tie my leaders on to that. The section of 8 pound get shorter and shorter as I change leaders, so that needs to be replaced fairly regularly. At the start of every season I chop off the 12 pound and start afresh. I see lots of fancy dan tapered leaders being used but I personally reserve them for dry fly fishing where I do believe they aid presentation since floating flies are generally fished in lighter winds.
On a bright day, it pays to rub your leader with a Fuller’s earth/washing up liquid mixture to get the glare off it. The flash of a shiny leader will put fish off, so this little trick will benefit you on those difficult, sunny days. No Fullers earth mixture? Rub you leader gently with some mud from the bottom of the lake.
Droppers are required when fishing more than one fly. I have played about with lots of different knots over the years but have settled on the old method of using the tag end of a full blood knot as my dropper. Always use the tag end of the reel side line, that way if the tail fly snags and you break off you only lose the bottom fly. This is a bit awkward to tie up in a pitching boat in pouring rain, so I make up leaders ahead of time and all I have to do is cut off the old leader and tie on a fresh one. Length of dropper can vary, but I aim for between 6 and 8 inches. Try to cultivate the habit of regularly checking your leader for wind knots, you will be surprised how often they appear as if by magic. Sometimes, if you find the wind knot soon after to was formed, you can unpick it, but more often you have to change the leader.
OK, let us move on to actual casting. I begin by saying I am NOT a qualified casting instructor, it is not something I ever fancied doing, so take what I am about to say as just one angler’s opinions. We will presume that your tackle is up to the job and you are an average caster already. You are in a boat out on one of the big Irish loughs in a gusty force 5 with a two foot wave. Your experience of casting in a gentle breeze from the bank is not going to get you through the day and you need to make small changes to your casting to prevent near constant tangles.
First, your line needs to be tight when you start your back stroke. A loop of slack line will use up the energy that is required for the back cast. This is easy to do when your retrieve ends with the rod low down, but when you are dibbling or hanging the flies this is not so easy (see below). The trick is to use your wrist to flick the line up and backwards while at the same time extending your arm so that you are effectively lengthening the rod. Sounds difficult but is just takes practice.
Now, that back cast. The most important aspect is not to drop the rod too low behind you. Seems to be basic enough and something we are all taught when learning to cast, yet it is amazing to see how anglers try to cope with a strong wind by whipping the rod too far back and too low. The result of this fault is the line does not extend fully, the power of the cast is lost and, most dangerous of all, the flies a liable to come flying forward so low they hook another angler in the boat. Lord only knows how many times I have to extract flies from anglers hats, coats or skin during a season. Remember, the flick backwards is achieved by the wrist snapping, not trying to force the rod back using your arm muscles.
The pause between back and forward strokes is often times forgotten. This is a mistake and causes the line to bunch up in mid-air, losing power for the forward stroke and frequently causing tangles. The length of the pause of course depends on the length of line being cast, so hard numbers are not possible, but unless there is a gale blowing there needs to be a pause to let the line extend behind you fully.
The figure of eight. During the cast, if you could look down from above, your rod tip should describe a figure of eight sort of movement. This means there is a slight difference in the path of the rod between the back and forward strokes so the line does not catch on itself.
The forward stroke can often be too wishy-washy, lacking definition and direction. The wind coming from behind lulls anglers into thinking all they need to do is push the rod forward and the breeze will do the rest. Yep, the line will go out, but not under any degree of control. You must snap your forward cast using the wrist, not flailing at it with your arm.
Also, too often I see the rod not being lowered sufficiently at the end of the forward stroke, it is left in mid-air and thus becomes a magnet for the flies as the shoot forward. Finish your forward stroke with the rod well down towards the water and out of harm’s way. I know that this is against what you are taught on the clipped lawns that edge English chalk streams where ending the forward stroke too low can lead to a noisy landing of the line and flies, but you are not on a manicured lawn, you are bobbing about in a two foot high wave. End the forward stroke low and you will reduce tangles.
The best of anglers get into tangles when casting. Nobody is immune, we get tired or lazy, the wind changes direction, the boat swivels a bit – all of these and more will cause a tangle. The question is how often do you tangle your leader when casting? If is a regular problem for you then work on the above solutions and above all, PRACTICE. I understand that all of the little changes you have to make to your cast sounds overwhelming, but with practice they just become send nature and you don’t even think about them.
What about those days when the wind to almost too strong for normal fly casting? Roll casting becomes not only desirable, I would go as far as to suggest it is a pre-requisite. I know I use simple roll casts a lot and they have a few advantages. Plus, of course some disadvantages to balance things out. Starting with advantages – the line is always in front of the boat, so the chances of hooking someone are low. There is no need for long casts in a big wind, suiting the short range of most roll casts. As the boat is drifting fast in the strong wind you can lift off and replace your flies in the water quickly. As for disadvantages, long casts are not really possible with a basic roll cast, your timing has to be spot on and some lines are not that good for roll casting. I would humbly suggest that you learn how to execute a decent roll cast from the sitting position in a boat, it will pay off on those blustery days afloat over here.
Retrieving the line after the cast is not an exact science. Some days the fish respond to wet flies which a barely moving, other days you can hardly strip them in fast enough. Therein lies the problem, anglers seem to find a pace of retrieve which suits them and they stick to it. In other posts I have discussed the mechanics of how a drifting boat ‘catches up’ on the flies so the angler must factor that into the speed of retrieve. The higher the wind, the faster the boat is travelling, so the faster the angler must retrieve the flies. After casting, the biggest difference I see between the top Irish anglers and others is their ability to strip in fast and to be able to vary the speed as required. I often come home from a day on the lough with my left arm ready to fall off it is so tired (I am right handed, so I strip in with my left).
‘Fanning’ casts to cover more water is something I do without thinking, and I am sure this adds to catches, simply because more fish have a chance to see the flies. Once again, the ability to cast properly is vital as any slight change in casting direction will require small changes to timing and rod movement during the cast. It is all down to practice again lads!
When to lift the line off will decide how the rod is loaded for the back cast. Here we enter another grey area as this will depend on how you are fishing out each cast. Dibbling the flies on surface will ensure the rod is near vertical. I would roll cast from there, to put the line straight out in front of me before lifting into a normal back cast. Hanging the flies off the end of the boat will require a very similar approach, but this can be easier as you can hang the flies well past the end of the boat, allowing you to go straight into a roll cast as the line is already behind the rod. A fast strip can end with the rod near the surface of thew water and you can lift straight into a back cast from there and I tend to pull on the line with my left hand to help loading the rod quickly in this scenario.
I hope the above is of some assistance to those of you who are struggling with casting from a boat in the wind. Timing is everything and not brute force.
Claretbumbler 