Get The Lure Out - Freshwater Fishing Part 3 - Making the Cast

More of this Feature • Part 1:Longer Distance Casting a Spinning Rod • Part 2: The Stance and Grip • Part 3 - Making the Cast  Join the Discussion "Do you use a spinning reel? Remember the first one you got?  How did you learn to cast it??" Ronnie  Related Resources • Getting Tackle Ready • Putting Line on Spinning Reels  Past "Fishtales" • One Year Ago - 11/26/01 - Largemouth Bass Virus in Lake of the Ozarks? Two Years Ago - 11/27/00 - Alabama Striped Bass On the Coosa River System Three Years Ago - 11/22/99 - Catchin' Gar Four Years Ago - 11/23/98 - Lure a Kid To Fishing Five Years Ago - 11/24/97 - Fish Chowder

 
MOVING THE ROD. I initially assumed the faster I moved the rod the farther I'd cast. For two reasons I was wrong. First: a pitcher achieves maximum power and velocity only when his arm is in sync with his body rotation. If his arm gets ahead of his body he becomes an "arm thrower." No wonder major league pitchers seem to throw as if not using all their might!

Maximum arm speed is reached only at the release. Fly casters will tell you the same thing, but also for the second reason: to fully load the rod it must accelerate. If it moves too quickly or jerks too suddenly, the speed of the line, or in our case the lure, moves as fast as the rod, there isn't enough line tension to load the rod.

The cast dies well short of its target. (True, a stiffer rod loads better with a shorter, faster stroke, but the stroke must still be accelerated.) 

THE CAST AND POWER SNAP. I open the bail and, keeping my wrist stiff, slowly accelerate the rod back and up. At the same time, I rotate my shoulders backwards, and shift my weight to the heel of my back foot. Depending on the intended trajectory of my forward cast, I move my forearm to between twelve and one o'clock, my rod hand to about forehead-level. Immediately I start my forward cast. My eyes are focused on an imaginary target in the sky, about forty-five degrees above the water, but higher if the wind is from behind, or lower if from in front.

Leading with my elbow, rotating my shoulders, I increase my thumb pressure against the handle, accelerate the rod, and soon move the tip in a straight line that points to the target. (The butt moves at a right angle to the line.)

When my arm is about three-quarters extended, I increase my acceleration and shift all my weight to the ball of my front foot. I reach maximum arm speed, then snap my wrist without lowering the rod tip from the target line, and therefore prematurely unloading the rod. Abruptly I stop the rod. My front leg is now straight. My right shoulder is all the way forward. My right arm is fully extended.

Finally, I hold the rod still so I don't lower the tip and pull the line down.

AS I DESCRIBE ALL THIS. Learning to cast a spinning rod seems a lot easier than it was. Well maybe if, like most skilled golfers, I had learned the right techniques from the start it would've been.

But better late than never.

More of this article - Part 1 - Longer Distance Casting - Parts 1 2 33 3

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