# How far can you cast?



## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Not a contest... I'm asking myself this as I head to the salt. 

Using a 10 weight muskie taper floating line on a 9 weight Scott G series & a 9' 6" Thomas & Thomas, my best was right at 90', using my laser rangefinder. I could put them into the 80's consistently though I wouldn't want to do it all day.


I thought I could cast further than that but I was wrong...at least with the above setup. Really had to work to get that distance. It was directly into a pretty stiff wind but I honestly didn't feel like that hampered me as much as the actual task of casting that amount of line. (shooting at least 30' of it) 

I just received a 10 weight intermediate sinking line & I also have a Depthfinder 450 grain 10 weight full sinker... I'm going to test those out. I'm thinking I will get more distance by using lighter grain lines. I have an 8 weight floating line I may also try. 

Have any of you seen how far you can cast? 

My goal is 100' with a little less effort.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

I can cast about 20 to 25'. My problem is with the bigger flies I tend to lose momentum on the back cast coming forward. I think I dont let the line straighten out on the back cast and come forward to quick. Why did your whitewater post get deleted?


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I deleted it. 





It's tough to get it out there, especially with bigger, more wind resistant flies!


I was using only a 7' leader, no fly...and I was measuring to the tip of leader.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Andrew I know you have, with video. Let's hear/see it.


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

imalt said:


> I can cast about 20 to 25'.


You're probably casting farther than that. I think people tend to underestimate their casting distances at first...the overestimate them later! 

Most people seem to be able to get 30-35 feet even with awful skills, but then it gets tough. A lot of people who say they're 100 aren't though.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

I over estimate my fish so I try to equal it out.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I've never measured casting length. I know I have never casted a full line length, so it has to be under 100'.  I surprise myself in WV sometimes with my little whippy 7'9" 3wt and a #16 dry fly. In the bigger, more open areas with room, I can stay a long ways back from a hole and shoot a dry in where I need it. My 9' 5wt casts very easily, too. With the 7wt and 9wt, casting feels more like work than with the lighter rods. Not difficult, but it feels like it takes more physical effort. Then again, I'm usually slinging big bunny streamers and wind-resistant topwaters on them, too.


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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

Hmm lets see... 400 grain full sinking line the last time I went to Maine I was casting all of my line and 10' of my backing 50% of the time. Now of course we are talking heaving line and double hauling during each tide. We did the math one time we estimated 6 hrs a fishing a tide and casting about every 2 minutes thats 180 casts per tide all double hauling. So for a day it was avg 360 dbl hauls a day, and for 10 days of fishing thats 3,600 casts!..lol.. Now thats alot of work and for some circumstances you will need to have those type of casts cause you will put the fish down IMHO! Good luck my friend! My casting chops are ok as far as WF line goes its about 40-60 feet with little to no effort!


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Andrew S said:


> A lot of people who say they're 100 aren't though.



I was one of those. I judge distance by yardage, & in my mind 35 yards is not a far distance, especially in archery. When it comes to casting, that's a mile.


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

fallen513 said:


> Andrew I know you have, with video. Let's hear/see it.


It depends on a lot of factors, of course. With only a few exceptions, my practice casting is always farther than real fishing casting. I can recall one real fishing scenario where I was putting a fly at just over 100 feet, and I knew this only because I knew how long my line was, and I was casting all of it. This was standing on the bow of a friend's skill on a windless day, using a dense, thin sinking line on a 10 weight rod. In other words, everything was in my favor! No wind, I was about three feet above the water (not wading waist deep in it!), big rod, line with little wind resistance, etc.

When actually fishing in open surf, with wind, big flies, etc. I think (based on marks on my fly lines) that I'm fishing on my longest casts from 60 to 85 feet out, again depending on which rod, which lines, how much wind, fly size, etc. Off jetties or rocks, with plenty of height and backcast room, etc, I'm sometimes getting 90.

(Of course, this is just what I'm getting with my longest casts, but this is not meant to suggest that you should always cast as far as you can!)

I practice in the yard with basic WF floating lines most of the time, and can't cast these as far as some of the specialty lines. It also depends on which weight, and even which rod of a given weight I'm using. (I almost always use a leader with some yarn at the end, and sometimes I use a big tuft of yarn if I'm trying to practice casting wind resistant flies, but inevitably, this yarn is easier to cast than the real thing!). Anyway, I think I can consistently get about 65 feet or so with my little 7.5 foot 4 weight, about 80 with one of my old 6 weights, about 85-90 with my newer 6, and 90-95 with my 8 and 10 weight rods. Again - yard casting. 

If I put on an intermediate or sinking line, or a shooting head with very thin running line, then I can get 100 or so. 

This is also all assuming I'm practicing (or fishing) regularly and my arms are in reasonable casting condition. Lately, this is not true!

This link takes you to a video I made of myself casting a shooting head in the park to 100 feet. For some reason, this video is very popular. In this case, I was casting a floating shooting head made from about 32 feet of a WF 12 weight line. It's attached to very think running line (20 lb Suffix Elite monofilament, or maybe Froghair shooting line - can't remember which).

[ame="http://vimeo.com/3967060"]Casting a shooting head on Vimeo[/ame]


There are some other videos on this page showing other casting situations that I was working on at various times.

Andrew


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## jhammer (Jun 13, 2011)

I always underestimate my distance. Every single time I think I'm only 30-35 feet out, I'm close to 50. It takes a bit of effort with my old rods and line, but I can shoot out about all of my line if need be. On my "pretty" rods with brand new line, it's not a problem.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

That's what I was gunning for, shooting all of the line into the backing. Just could not get that last 10' or so! 


SooN!


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

fallen513 said:


> That's what I was gunning for, shooting all of the line into the backing. Just could not get that last 10' or so!
> 
> 
> SooN!


My experience, and others I've talked to (other casters, as well as people in other sports), often describe plateaus of progress: you make some progress, then get stuck for a while, then make new progress, etc. From a distance perspective, the first hurdle for most people which they must leap to get to the new plateau is the double haul. At some point, when you're making good, long casts, you're doing most things right. So to get the next 10 feet is obviously going to be harder because you're trying to perfect very subtle things. I've been stuck at my current plateau for about 8 years! I guess it's a case of diminishing returns, and I think I practice less now than I used to because of this. I don't know if I'll ever be that person who can sometimes cast 125 feet and regularly cast 100. I may have too many bad habits already. I think at some point, strength plays a role as well, although it's pretty obvious that strength is less important (by far) than technique. But, given two casters who are identical in skill, the stronger one will cast farther.


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

jhammer said:


> but I can shoot out about all of my line if need be. On my "pretty" rods with brand new line, it's not a problem.


I have lines that, from the package, were 90 feet, some that were 100, and some that 120. I try to remember which is which, because otherwise I'll find myself casting my butt off and still have several turns of line on the reel, and wonder "What the hell is wrong with my casting today!?"

Oh - that's the 120 foot line!


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

Interesting thread. Andrew, you make some great points. And your video is popular because you make it look freaking effortless. 

Like others, I measure my casts more when I'm in the grass vs. on the water. In real fishing scenarios, I only know the length of my leader and of my line, and I watch to see just how poorly my leader unrolls as it crashes into the water 

Without mentioning the specific line taper of each, some of my better casts have been: 

9' TiCrX #10 + WF10i = ~100' (Haven't lawn-casted this setup much)
9' Redington CPX #8 + WF8i = ~108' (counting a semi-unrolled leader minus about 15' of the total 120' remaining on the ground at my feet)

9' CPX #8 + WF9F = ~95' (this was from a dock, the line is 92', leader didn't straighten)

9' TiCr #6 + WF6F = ~90' (one of those awesome days that carrying a lot of line feels like spreading butter--very rare days--but this is my favorite 6wt for longer casts)

8' Fenwick HMX #5 + WF6F = ~77' 
8' Pflueger Summit #6 + WF6F = ~78'


All of the above were double hauling, and I am counting rod + arm length (measured from my front foot to farthest point of line), except where noted (the 95' on the water is an estimate since I knew line total length but not how much leader unrolled, and the 108' with the intermediate line I subtracted the amount of remaining unshot line from the total length, then measured how far leader unrolled beyond the tip on the ground). 


I have so far never "needed" to cast as far as these casts above, but I do a lot of blind casting and am always working on making my practical casts much further. Like so many mentioned before, the size of the fly, the angle & speed of the wind, and the matching of line weight, taper, and rod all matter. I have pretty consistently found that overlining generally hurts distance after a certain point (because we're carrying more weight than manufacturer's suggestion for that rod).

But again, while I'd love to see my average distance in practical situations and on the lawn increase, the above figures are not my averages. They are moments where I felt like I needed to measure or take note because they deviated significantly above my normal cast. They are all double-hauled, also. I want to make casting those distance less work, because they certainly aren't easy for me most of the time. 

I don't regularly use or cast shooting head systems, but i am still going to keep watching your vimeo vids for form, Andrew.


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## jhammer (Jun 13, 2011)

Andrew S said:


> I have lines that, from the package, were 90 feet, some that were 100, and some that 120. I try to remember which is which, because otherwise I'll find myself casting my butt off and still have several turns of line on the reel, and wonder "What the hell is wrong with my casting today!?"
> 
> Oh - that's the 120 foot line!



That is so true! My 6 weight has an old 90 foot line on it and I usually can cast all of it out on a good day. However, when I'm feeling like hot stuff and grab my 8 weight, (Which has a 110-120 ft. line, can't remember) I get put right back into place pretty quickly. It never occurs to me at the time that I have different line lengths on my rods. 

Honestly, what ruins 99% of my casts is that I accidentally let go of my line because when it's wet, it gets slick and slides out of my hand. I've tried holding it in my fingers and by making a fist around the line. I guess I get too "into the fishing" and zone out while casting.


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

Intracoastal said:


> Like others, I measure my casts more when I'm in the grass vs. on the water. In real fishing scenarios, I only know the length of my leader and of my line, and I watch to see just how poorly my leader unrolls as it crashes into the water


Yes, I guess it's important to determine where we're measuring from. I always measure from where my feet are. For starters, this just makes sense to me - after all, my feet determine how far out on the rocks I can go! Plus, I believe this is how casts are measured in tournaments. And if I were going to worry about measuring from, say, the rod tip, then I'd have to take into consideration the length of each rod. I also don't usually bother to walk down and see if the leader completely unfurled. I'm not THAT concerned about distance!

On occasion, I pull out a 100 foot tape measure that I have. But in my own yard, I tend to stand in the same place and I know where 100 feet is. 

But the other thing I did years ago with a couple of lines is mark them. I did this for practice casting, but it turns out to sometimes be useful when fishing, if I want to know how far out I was casting when I hooked the last fish, and it's dark (which was usually the case when I was striper fishing on the east coast before I moved here). I marked my line with a Sharpie marker in the following way. One small black ring around the line at 60 feet from the end (leader end) of the line, two rings at 70, three at 80 and four rings around the line at 90. With these marks, I can usually estimate within 5 feet or so how long my casts are if I can see the marks on the line. Keeps me honest, too!


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

jhammer said:


> Honestly, what ruins 99% of my casts is that I accidentally let go of my line because when it's wet, it gets slick and slides out of my hand. I've tried holding it in my fingers and by making a fist around the line. I guess I get too "into the fishing" and zone out while casting.


This reminds me of something I meant to mention in an earlier post. One trick that can add a bit of distance to a cast that many people don't know about is to actually let a bit of line slip through your fingers on your final back cast. (It takes practice to know how much, and when, and yes, sometimes I too accidentally let it slip through!) You let that line slip back, then when you pinch it again with the line hand, the added momentum of that line moving back will put a bit more load in your rod before the final forward cast. Or, at least that's my understanding of why it helps. It could also simply be (or be an additional factor) that you're basically now carrying some extra line in the air, so you have less to shoot.

In any case, it seems to work for me and I've heard others describe the same thing, so for those looking for some more distance, it's something worth considering. 

One other thing I was going to mention, since Fallen brought up the issue of shooting line, is that it can be useful to practice (or at least I think so...Tim, Intracoastal you may feel otherwise ) trying to carry as much line as possible in the air. In other words, gradually let line out until you're just at that point where you still have control. Over time, this amount of line should become easier, and then you add a foot or two. 

The longest casts obviously require one to be able to shoot line, but there's a limit to how much line anybody can shoot due to things like friction, so being able to carry a lot of line is always useful.

That said, the shooting head approach is basically the flip side of that...you use a heavier head and very thin running line precisely so that much more of the cast is, instead, due to a long shoot. (But people going for 'super distance' do both: they use very long heads coupled with thin running lines.)


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## ohiotuber (Apr 15, 2004)

I honestly don't know. Far enough to catch fish in fresh & saltwater & some very nice ones. To me, accuracy is far more important than distance. Several years ago, I attended a fly fishing show where Flip Pallot gave a presentation. In the question & answer session, a man asked Flip if he needed to learn to cast an entire line in the salt...He was going for snook as I recall. Flip SHOCKED many of us when he replied that you seldom need to cast more than 30' accurately to catch fish.
I posted this basically because I hate to see new fly fishers get discouraged due to their not being able to cast a long way.
Mike


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

Andrew, great idea about marking the line. I overlooked an overhand knot in an intermediate line once and in a few days the coating peeled right off. So I put some flexible ccg on it leaving a little football shaped bump in the line. It was about 50' back from the tip (don't ask how it happened...my theory is that it occurred while switching the line from one reel to another). This was very easy to feel while casting but didn't hurt distance. I liked the tactile reminder of where my line was distance-wise. 

And as far as practice, lol, my point is perhaps better said that you should always practice, but if you can practice while fishing, more power to you and you'll have fun when that fish surprises you. 

If I recall, Andrew, that video was made with a TFO Pro series #10. Do you know the grain weight of the 30' 12wt shooting head? And is that system something you actually fish with?


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

I have also heard from some of the distance casters that turning the top 3 sections of a 4-piece rod 90 degrees away from reel in the direction of the casting arm significantly improves distance due to less rod-slap-friction. Has never worked for me and I'm not too into it aesthetically.


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## ledslinger (Aug 24, 2006)

i agree with ohiotuber and intercoatal about accuracy and practice although distance definitely has its play in the surf. Practice with the heavier stuff and just false cast til your hand hurts, carrying as much line as you can---the next day extend it and repeat---your hand strength will increase-- especially on your backcast. After some time you'll be casting further. Pay attention to your form and loop control. Get a good haul technique and study vee-shaped loops.

Im not too concerned about distance except when i cant reach a fish. I do evaluate rods to buy, casting long to see how much reserve the rod has while comparing it to the next rod.

With a 25kt headwind and wrong shoulder wind, your 90 ft cast can turn into 45ft ---hopefully, your fish is at 40 and you didnt cast to his tail---good luck!!


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

ohiotuber said:


> In the question & answer session, a man asked Flip if he needed to learn to cast an entire line in the salt...He was going for snook as I recall. Flip SHOCKED many of us when he replied that you seldom need to cast more than 30' accurately to catch fish.


Snook fishing is a very specific kind of fishing, where accuracy definitely is the crucial thing. This is true for a lot of other kinds of fishing, too, but in some cases it's entirely about distance. Just depends on the situation. 

But I agree with you that beginners should not let their casting distance keep them off the water (it should just keep them off SOME of the water! )


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

Intracoastal said:


> Andrew, great idea about marking the line. I overlooked an overhand knot in an intermediate line once and in a few days the coating peeled right off. So I put some flexible ccg on it leaving a little football shaped bump in the line. It was about 50' back from the tip (don't ask how it happened...


Wind knot. 





Intracoastal said:


> If I recall, Andrew, that video was made with a TFO Pro series #10. Do you know the grain weight of the 30' 12wt shooting head? And is that system something you actually fish with?


I don't know the grain weight. The head was made by cutting off the head of a 12 weight WF floating line, so it didn't come with a grain weight printed on the box. I can weigh it at work and figure it out (I may have done that already - I'll see if I wrote it on the ziplock bag where I keep it.) Usually, two rod weights up is about right for shooting heads, and since I had the 10 wt rod, when I saw a discounted 12 wt line, I bought it. Often, a discounted full length WF line is cheaper than a full price "true" shooting head, so a lot of my shooting heads are home grown, so-to-speak. I also turn a lot of older lines into shooting heads.

I have fished with that particular set up, although the mass of that head combined with the thin running line does make that one a challenge. With a slightly beefier running line some distance would be lost, but overall it would be a better set up. I do, however, use shooting head set ups, with those very thin running lines, with a lot of my rods, from 4 wt on up.


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

Andrew S said:


> Snook fishing is a very specific kind of fishing, where accuracy definitely is the crucial thing. This is true for a lot of other kinds of fishing, too, but in some cases it's entirely about distance. Just depends on the situation.
> 
> But I agree with you that beginners should not let their casting distance keep them off the water (it should just keep them off SOME of the water! )


Great points here. Around cover (which snook love), accuracy is always the name of the game. 


And despite the emoticon, I couldn't tell if the "wind knot" comment was a joke or not--I really think it was a knot from laying the line on the floor while transferring it from spool to spool. Hard to get a wind knot that far back. 

So I take that you cut it at 30' because that's where the rear taper started.


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## jhammer (Jun 13, 2011)

I agree with the statements about accuracy. I taught many people around this area how to fly fish and I always told my "students" what an older gentleman told me when I was a kid and just starting out. He explained that fly casting is similar to shooting. He said, "If you can shoot 400+ yards decently, that's great. But it doesn't mean a thing if you can't hit your target in the sweet spot!"

I later learned that the gentleman was a sniper in Vietnam, so whenever I ran into him, I listened. Many of his "words of wisdom" still float around in my head and they've proven themselves useful time and time again. He was also one heck of a fly fisherman. I swear the man could make even Lefty blush. Sad to say, I never even knew his name. I was just a kid and he was always out. He was my buddy!


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## Nick The Stick (May 29, 2009)

I can go about 100' with an 8wt. Try justing a lighter line then what the rod is rated for. mmor weight in the air that suits the rod better. i have a Rio 7/8 on my 9'6 8wt. and i can get 80 out with a double will ease.


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

jhammer said:


> He explained that fly casting is similar to shooting. He said, "If you can shoot 400+ yards decently, that's great. But it doesn't mean a thing if you can't hit your target in the sweet spot!"


_Some_ fly fishing is like shooting. Snook fishing, sight fishing for carp, etc. are certainly like that.

But in shooting/hunting, you can't rely on the animal being attracted to your bullet! 

Some fishing is largely lots of long-distance blind casting. You need to cover a lot of water and you can't see the fish. (A lot of surf fishing is like this, as is some big water river fishing, e.g. west coast steelhead.) You don't even know if they're there - you just cast into likely looking water until you're "lucky" enough to entice a fish, which was unseen and unknown, to take your fly. You make some of that luck by being able to cover a lot of water - and part of that requires distance.

I don't discount the importance of accuracy at all, but I also don't like to see people ignore the value of being able to cast a long line (or, as somebody pointed out, make a reasonable cast under very windy conditions....which requires the same basic skills as making a long cast under calm conditions.)


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

Intracoastal said:


> And despite the emoticon, I couldn't tell if the "wind knot" comment was a joke or not--I really think it was a knot from laying the line on the floor while transferring it from spool to spool. Hard to get a wind knot that far back.
> 
> So I take that you cut it at 30' because that's where the rear taper started.


It was entirely a joke - as you said, it would be pretty unlikely (i.e. impossible!?) to get a "wind knot" 50 feet back into your fly line.

As for you second question: the main reason for why I cut the head at about 30 feet is because of mass, not taper. I believe I started it at about 34 feet (which is usually what I do when customizing a shooting head), then gave it a few casts, and gradually cut back until I find the sweet spot. 

Making a shooting head is always a compromise of several factors. Short heads are quick to cast, they can be heavier, etc. But they turn over more quickly, and once the head is completely turned over, the cast is going to start to deteriorate (in distance and "quality"). When really short heads turn over quickly and the cast piles up into a big mess, we say that the head "dumped". Short heads dump easily. It's even worse with short dense sinking heads, since they don't have some of added wind resistance that keeps a fat floating head from dumping so quickly. So, for example, when customizing shooting heads out of things like LC-13 (leadcore) or Rio's T-14, or similar things, it's usually better to consider the length of the head over the grain weight. For example, when I used to use LC-13 heads (no longer, since the newer stuff is nicer), I would use about 30 feet for a 10 wt rod, 28 feet for an 8 wt rod, and maybe about 26 feet for a 6 weight rod. In all cases, this results in a head that is many weights "too heavy" if you go by the standard AFTMA standards. But a properly weighted lead core shooting head for a 6 weight rod would be so short it would be like trying to fly cast a lead jig! As it was, even 26 feet made for some pretty ugly casting, at least in my hands. But it would do the job, which was to get out there and get down. (In fact, it's the fact that short heavy heads turn over so fast, and "jerk" at that point that causes what a lot of people refer to as "hinging" - but it's got nothing to do at all with the way the running line and head are connected.)

I have a few shooting heads that are pretty long. I cut not just the head but part of the running line as well off of a WF line. These heads are sometimes best cast on a rod that is just one weight below the line from which they were made, and they will cast as smoothly as any standard weight forward line.

Keep in mind that a shooting head set up and a WF line are not fundamentally different, they're just different by degrees. In both cases, you're dealing with a line that has a "head" that is usually of greater mass, and usually greater diameter, than the running line behind it. The fact that usually shooting heads are temporarily attached with loops (or whatever method) to the running line isn't the issue. I could, and have, separated WF line heads from their running and and then reattached them to their original line with loops, and they cast exactly the same as before. The thing about most shooting head setups is simply that we're usually dealing with more weight concentrated into a shorter head (relative to the WF line) and a running line that is, relatively, of lower diameter. Now take that idea and do a thought experiment: keep concentrating the mass of that head into a shorter and shorter thing, and simultaneously make that running line that it's attached to thinner and thinner. You end up with a monofilament attached to a lead sinker! So, you can probably imagine now what some of the trade offs are that come with shorter heavier heads.

To me, the relative costs and benefits of shooting heads (by which I mean shorter, heavy heads and thin running lines) vs. WF lines (and, going even further down that spectrum, DT lines) are more or less as follows: shooting heads reduce false casting (benefit, usually), increase distance, both absolutely and often relative to casting effort (benefit), they reduce handling ability because of the thin running line, so hooks sets are sometimes tough (cost), and they cannot be mended very well (cost). Given these costs and benefits, you can imagine various scenarios where each line is the best overall choice, and when it would be a bad choice.

Andrew


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

Andrew, thanks for the info re: shooting heads. Interesting point about "hinging" vs. shock. I've never felt a sink tip or shooting head "hinge," and it's probably because it felt just like having a big lead-eye clouser on--jolty, but not at the connection point. 

On the distance topic, I went today and "practiced" in some great lakes surf with a ~15 kt quartering headwind over my casting shoulder. It might have been the wind, it might have been my fear of hooking dogwalkers on the beach, but I was lucky to break 50' with a 10wt intermediate on a fast rod. Most casts were short of that mark, and when I carried 40' or so, upon shooting the line would get blown back toward me 10'. So of course I lowered my line trajectory, but this proves to be a catch-22; in the wind you need to lower the path of the line over water to be less affected by wind, but it leaves less "hang time" for shooting line. 

I then went to a public park and cast in the lawn to "redeem" myself. I put the wind over my non-casting side, and was able to hit about 109-110' with the 10wt intermediate line on 10wt TiCrX. 

At the lake, I managed to catch something rare, too, a bonus to actually fishing for practice rather than vice versa...a monster 1" cigarette butt. I seriously caught this...see below.

I did some some interesting and mysterious scenery, however. Not sure if passionate love was made or a heart was broken, but there were several of these strewn along the transition where soft sand meets hard:


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

I'm not sure, far enough to catch fish and not get hung up in the other bank? But when you fish the Ohio from shore, that's kind of a range lol. I've paced it off to something like 80 feet, but in all honesty when I'm fishing I MIGHT bother with 60 feet, and even that is pushing it. The line's too springy and it's hard to get a hook set for me at those ranges without some enormous saltwater strip set. And I hate how stupid it feels to do that to something like a 2 lb largemouth lol.


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

in a 7 wt, I can cast out all my line and about 20' of backing. lighter weights, not so much..


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## jgrdispatch (Oct 3, 2011)

Hi Andrew, as a casting instructor, I can tell you that strength plays much less a part of it as technique. Joan Wulff, a lady well into old age, routinely outcasts men a third of her age and twice her strength.

Don't worry about casting 100 feet, it's completely unnecessary in the majority of fishing scenarios.



QUOTE=Andrew S;1289025] I don't know if I'll ever be that person who can sometimes cast 125 feet and regularly cast 100. I may have too many bad habits already. I think at some point, strength plays a role as well, although it's pretty obvious that strength is less important (by far) than technique. But, given two casters who are identical in skill, the stronger one will cast farther.[/QUOTE]


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## Andrew S (Jul 7, 2011)

jgrdispatch said:


> Hi Andrew, as a casting instructor, I can tell you that *strength plays much less a part of it as technique.* Joan Wulff, a lady well into old age, routinely outcasts men a third of her age and twice her strength.
> 
> 
> QUOTE=Andrew S;1289025] I don't know if I'll ever be that person who can sometimes cast 125 feet and regularly cast 100. I may have too many bad habits already. I think at some point, strength plays a role as well, although *it's pretty obvious that strength is less important (by far) than technique. * But, given two casters who are identical in skill, the stronger one will cast farther.


[/QUOTE]

I'm fairly certain we're in agreement here.


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## jgrdispatch (Oct 3, 2011)

Woops! Agreed then hahahaha


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## Intracoastal (Sep 12, 2009)

Patricio said:


> in a 7 wt, I can cast out all my line and about 20' of backing. lighter weights, not so much..


Which line?


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

Intracoastal said:


> Which line?


standard weight forward. cortland I think. but its a lot of work getting that much line out, and hooking anything is a matter of luck, not skill.


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