casting question

[kevin200100]

when beach fishing. do you just cast you fly as far as you can and retrieve it or do you have to cast it a certain way?

[TieFlier]

When beach fishing you either try to cast to a school of fish, or if you can't spot a school casting as far as possible helps you keep your fly in the water. When fishing for Pinks distance isn't too critical as the school are often fairly close to shore. Coho on the other hand move fast and can hang out quite far of shore. The distances from shore they often inhabit are usually referred to as "10 feet beyond my farthest cast". That said they will come closer into shore as well. The fisherman who can cast the farthest will not always catch more fish than one who has more humble abilities. However there are some days where an extra 5 feet on the end of your cast that seems to be the difference from reaching and hooking fish and not.

[BCBound]

Last couple times I tried beach fishing, I was using a floating line and some sort of sinking, clear, 12 foot leader on a 6 weight rod. Man did I ever have a hell of a time casting. That said it was my first time on the beach and I was pretty deep, so that dosn't help.

[Coastrider]

Yeah my first beach casting was with my 6wt and a floating line. the further out you wade to "get to the coho" the further out they move. my advise is to get a shooting head and a fast rod that can launch it. Otherwise its all 2 handed rods for the beach. I was one of them guys that needed the extra 5-10ft. Added a ft of t18? to the line and it was too much for the rod, so dont bother trying to overdo the rod as it will only frustrate you.....unless youve go a beast of a rod

[kevin200100]

i got a 8 weight single hand with rio versittip so ill have to do with that cause i dont got means for new set up atm

[TieFlier]

I started beach fishing with a rod I bought from wal mart that comprised of a tip section from a seven weight and a butt from an 8 weight. Long story on why I bought should a set-up, but that is what I started with. My line was an 8 weight type III sinking line and the reel was a super cheapo I had lying around. I switched up floater that I bought on special from canadian tire. I think I paid all of $8 for. I went to a floater because I was having trouble pulling the sinking line out of the water while I was casting. I had a pretty funny looking double haul to get the slack line off the water in front of me. With the sinking line I could cast about 60', when I switched to the floater I was able to add about 5-10' to my longest cast. I was frustrated with the poor quality reel so I found a decent one on craigslist and purchased that. I was lucky enough to be lent a 896 sage RPL Xi for a few months. When I casted this rod with the cheapo line I couldn't improve my max distance. I felt that the rod wasn't loaded to its potential, both from my casting technique and the line being a bit light. I was also debating getting a stripping basket at the same time. I decided to build myself a basket and I found a older SA 9wt floating line at a fly shop sale. With these two additions to my outfit I was able to get over 90' of line out with a fair bit of practice. It felt pretty good to launch the entire fly line out past the rod tip. It wasn't like that every cast but I was able to hit 80' somewhat consistently. Thats where I left off after last season. I am able to cast close to 80' with the wal mart rod with the 9wt line and basket. The extra distance only go me one fish, but there would have been no way to get that one fish without it. There are many ways of getting the distance this was one route that worked for me. This season I will be using a switch rod and a shooting head to blast line. Just goes to show there are several ways to get distance.

[andy.larkin]

You should be fine with the floating or intermediate (clear) tip on your versitip for beach fishing. Once you get your casting down, with a bit of work you'll be throwing 70 footer's in no time .

[kevin200100]

if i cant get distance this year ill just target pinks ha

[TieFlier]

One of the better ways to learn is to go out and try. The versi-tip line is quite nice for distance casting you should do well with some practice. I would highly recommend you get a stripping basket. I built my own for under $10 and it works great. Here is a thread that showed me how to build it.

http://www.flyfishbc.com/forums/thre...a-or-nae/page2

[kevin200100]

what a stripping basket