As my two tarpon trips are over for the year, I’m back to practicing for an upcoming redfish trip in November.
Understanding your application and using the right equipment is important. Tarpon come by quick and they spot the boat quickly (eyes oriented up). So being able to cast to them before they see the boat is important and long casts are frequent. For tarpon I use a fly line with a 50 foot head. Redfish on the other hand are usually pretty close (eyes oriented down), sometimes very close. Having too much line out of the guides can be a problem because the fish may be only a rod length away. For redfish I use a 30 foot head. I use a salt water quick cast that MCI Jeff Ferguson showed me, though I’ve modified for it my own purposes. For tarpon I have been holding in the ready position with a long tether which is almost the whole 50 foot head. For redfish I shorten the tether, and use a fly line with a 30 foot head.
Practicing out in the yard for redfish, I have learned that as long as I have no overhang and have only the head in the guides, I can make the short casts out to 30 feet without a false cast. I just throw the tether into a back cast and the short head loads the tip sensitive TFO and the next cast is the presentation cast rather than a false cast. Casts longer than 30 feet only require one extra back cast because once you have the 30 foot head in the air you’ve got all you need to shoot to 60,70 even 80 feet. Casts longer than 80 feet have a lot of overhang and can require another back cast, but with in-shore red fish, those types of casts aren’t often required.
I have been emphasizing making casts with only one back cast in my practice sessions because I know how quickly redfish can get away, but I also heard one tidbit from a Millhouse podcast that reinforced my thinking. A guide Andy Mills was interviewing was talking about a particular world record holder and the fact that even though he wasn’t terribly accurate, he could put the fly near the fish faster than any other angler he knew. The guide felt that was a large part of the angler’s success.
I think about the numerous times that fish have gotten away and if I could have just been faster, I might have caught them. I’m well aware of the importance of short heads and short loading rods in red fishing and now I’m taking it one more level, truly taking advantage of the tackle. I’ve been watching the saltwater casting influencers on the web demonstrate their approach and I’ve timed them at four seconds from the time they begin their casting sequence. They are taking two back casts and finishing the casting sequence in four seconds, very good and much better than most weekend fly casters, as expected, but under 30 feet, I’m making the cast in only two seconds with only one back stroke of the rod. Two seconds doesn’t sound like much but a lot can go wrong in only a few seconds. I found when kayak fishing, applying my stripping bucket, rod holder and paddle holder I was able to make casts from the time I sighted a fish in 7 seconds, which was twice as fast as I was before I started using my system. That reduction in time vastly improved my kayak catch rate. I’m hoping my two-second SQC will do the same for me from the bow of a skiff. I am also practicing the two second shot with my 50 foot head so I can get a fly to those tarpon rollers faster!
"Samurai" Fly Shop 