David Siskind | Sunday, 30 August 2026
I have a problem extending my carry. I assumed that it involved poorly formed, inconsistent, backcasts and designed a practice accordingly. Of course, on taking it to the grass, it morphed into something else - it was easy enough to practice picking leaves and monitoring the loop but only in a closed stance. Alternatively I tried performing the triangle drill - it’s easy enough to craft a clean stop, maintain a little tension, and get a loop to move to the end of the line but these loops aren’t the bedrock of my fishing stroke. When the rod is moved in the horizontal plane gravity tends to separate the plane of the rod's arc from the plane of the loop. The planes merge if more energy is added to the stroke. Only in the vertical plane are they completely aligned. For me it requires a little more tip-speed to get things right overhead.
So what am I having trouble with? When I’m working on distance, going through the gears - lengthening my carry, I have trouble with the transition from open stance distance to the 170. I think what’s really happening is that my open stance backcast is weak. I’ve never really learned it properly. While I practice a lot of “fishing” casts with my feet closed, open and walking, I’m never trying to extend my carry beyond what is comfortable - working mostly on hauls, shoots and their control. Something breaks down on long carries. With the goal of minimizing false casting and putting a fly on target as quickly as possible I’ve emphasized various types of pickup-and-laydown, and snakehead casts. That and a forgiving walking practice has let my false casting skills languish. Something has gotten sloppy. I haven’t confronted my fears. It’s basic. My open-stance cast needs a lot of work.
I am recently trying something new. I run through the gears spending a full minute false casting, exploring loops, weight transfer and cues at each new length. I tried it yesterday - 1 minute seemed like a long time. Clearly I’ve been picking it up and laying it down reflexively. But I’m going to stick with this one for a bit and if nothing else will train some muscular endurance. Of course this is inspired by my club practice. I’ve been performing mills for 6-7 minutes intending to eventually increase that to 20 minutes. It has encouraged familiarity with all of the sensations felt during the movement and, I believe, drives the organization of my effort toward its most efficient expression. Too exhausting otherwise. It feels like casting when things are going well - Swinging or casting a club or rod in one plane is energetically most efficient. Both are under increasing load until a moment of release. The club is more punishing when swung out of plane so an endurance practice reinforces good mechanics. Applicable to the fly cast? I’ll see.
Tide’s right. Grunion are somewhere tonight. There’s big swells coming up from the South Pacific and Mexico - could be a problem coming. So I’ll be on the beach in the morning when this thing drops.
Cheers,
David Siskind