Nick Moore | Wednesday, 22 December 2021
Presentation and accuracy are very important in trout fishing, at all distances. But we are going to talk primarily about still waters. With rivers, there are complex currents to deal with when you are in an unfavourable casting position, and so presentation casts and mends must be performed to ensure a drag free drift. In still waters, we have the wind, which may not be ideal if it’s coming from one side. In this instance, you would perform a reach cast to ensure a drag free drift of a dry fly for example.
Accuracy casting is about moving as straight as you possibly can, that’s both the vertical and horizontal plane. Picking targets and practicing on the grass away from the fish is the only way you can improve, if you practice on your local still water then you are tempted to tie a fly on and catch that 5lb brown that’s just risen. So find a field and throw down a tape measure and some targets, they can be anything. I use white emulsion lids that I find perfect. Oh yes, and watch Pauls video on some pick up and lay down casts;
Place the targets at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50’ along the tape (at first). This improves your depth perception, so you can accurately judge how far that fish is away from you. With the latter, you don’t want to make lots of attempts at the fish, otherwise you will spook it, so you have to get good at this. One nice exercise to do after this, is to practice casting to a wall, the goal is to get the fly AS CLOSE as you can without striking it, and try it at various distances. This gets you used to the different line lengths, and how they look/feel in the air. You also need to be accurate with your trajectories, in relation to the height above the target on the surface, and this leads nicely onto presentation.
There are essentially three types of standard presentations;
- Fly landing first
- Fly, leader and line landing at roughly the same time
- Line landing first
To make the fly land first, you need to aim 1” above your target on the water surface, this requires a very step/high back cast, above the horizontal. Great for crane flys, beetles etc which attract the fish if they hit with a bit of a splash. You can even use torque twist to enhance the splash, but the trajectory needs to be set before this.
The next one is more of a standard presentation, it’s very delicate and fairly accurate. This is made by aiming a good few feet above the target on the surface, with a little lower back cast than the former.
Driving the tip down, coupled with a high back cast will let the line land first, which is great for casting into the wind.
Of course, ensuring turnover is another consideration, make sure the leader matches the fly line and fly in terms of mass and stiffness, and remember to check the shoot, or check haul. Presentation on still waters is just as important as rivers, oh, and if the wind is blowing from one direction, then learn the reach cast which will give you a nice drag free drift for as long as possible. Also, a lot of people cast to where the fish was, rather than where it’s going. Don’t cast at the rise, study the pattern of the fish and place your fly a good 10’ in front of it, the target isn’t the fish, it’s the piece of water where it’s going.
Tight lines!