Our club recently had a fly casting clinic. It was well-done by the casting instructors and very much appreciated. I think the instructors did a great job. I think the new casters learned a lot. I signed up too but it wasn’t for beginner instruction, I simply wanted some time to get help on a back-cast presentation for my saltwater fishing.
I was surprised by the certified CI’s answer to my question about how to make a good BC presentation. He basically discouraged me, saying not to expect more than about forty feet of distance and without any accuracy. He told me exactly what I had heard in the various Youtube videos I had watched. He did offer an alternative. He proceeded to describe a cast similar to a Galway except the cast had a long name I had never heard. The cast he described and demonstrated was basically making a forward cast in the opposite direction of the target and then turning the wrist on the presentation cast.
Well… I don’t think so. If I have learned one thing it is that to keep the plane you must not turn your wrist. When you turn that wrist you are going to make a scoop in the air with the rod tip and the result will be an out-of-plane cast and the results will be bad. And his actual demonstration cast was not stellar.
I don’t mean to throw any shade, they did a great job. When I realized they were giving me the same suggestions as everyone else, I was polite and just thanked them and left it at that.
And this is in fact why I am not a certified instructor and I never will be, because I am out of the box, but for good reason. Sorry, not sorry.
In the “re-visited” post, Slide Loading for Back-Cast Presentation, I talked about using slide loading to make up for the power lost in trying to present with a back-cast. Since that post describes what I am doing I won’t go into another description. I will reiterate that to keep an eye on the target, the cast is done across the chest which precludes using your bicep and having a longer stroke, hence the need, IMO, for the slide-load.
Currently I am casting accurately beyond 87 feet and have made distance casts to 100 feet with my slide-loading back-cast presentation. The shorter 60-70 foot casts to a target are very accurate and very easy.
And, there are even more positive aspects to the slide-loading BC which would be appreciated by saltwater casters.
- Carry. This cast doesn’t require any more carry than a small portion of the head. Coming out of a saltwater quick-cast only requires one false cast before presentation. This is because the shooting of the line along with the slide loading provides the “weight” or load that can’t be achieved with rod translation alone.
- Plane. No turning of the wrist occurs because the hinge or v-type grip is used to let inertia maintain the plane while the energy of the haul, the shooting line and the slide-loading does all the work.
- Speed. The cast is done quickly because only one false cast is required.
- Wind. Less affected by wind. Having mostly only head out of the rod and only one false cast makes for less line that can be affected by the wind.
I was so successful with the slide-load in the back-cast presentation, I couldn’t help but think of trying to add a slide-load to my normal forward cast. I had attempted using slide-loading in the past and that’s how I got the idea to use it in the my back-cast presentation. I made a fresh attempt and quickly realized why I am successful using the slide load in the back-cast presentation and not the forward cast. It is because in the back-cast presentation I can watch the rod tip because it is in front of me. As I slide the rod the instant the tip bends, I pinch the line and make the haul. The timing is much easier because I am looking right at it.
Trying to slide load on a forward cast I have to look over my shoulder and I just can’t watch the rod tip very well. I haven’t been able to get the timing right because of this. I will say that occasionally I do get it right and the cast really goes.
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