How to cast further this autumn
Cast further than you have ever done before with these tops tips...
The biggest and most common fault to not achieving greater distances is being too tight. Your arms are too close to your body; you’ve not got a solid grip on the rod and your stance isn’t balanced and positioned correctly. The goal is to get you working the whole of the rod – not just the tip section and here’s how…
Reel area
First off, set the spool so it’s sat at its maximum height, meaning the main line can peel free and easily off the spool when you make the cast. Next, wear a fingerstall, as this will protect you from getting any nasty line cuts. Thirdly, hold the rod so you’ve got two fingers in front of the reel and two behind it.
Tighten up
One very small and simple tip before you start trying to hit the horizon is to tighten down your reel clutch. When making a big cast, sometimes the spool can slip and if you’re not wearing a fingerstall the main line can cut into your finger.
Lengthen
The drop (the distance from your rod tip to the lead/rig) should be lengthened to half the length of the rod – i.e. so the lead is level with the spigot before casting.
Marrying up
Matching up the rod’s test curve to the lead size is crucial for distance casting. If you have a 3lb test curve rod, then a 3.5oz lead will probably be the optimum for casting. Go bigger and it’ll be unbalanced, go smaller and you won’t be able to compress the rod.
Foot position
Your front foot (i.e. left if you are right-handed or right if you are left-handed) should be pointing in the direction you want to go.
Front facing
Face parallel to the front of the swim with your back leg slightly bent and with your body weight leaning back on it.
A big arc
Most people when casting only move the rod through 60-70° – like a small whip – meaning only the last couple of feet is compressed and bends. So, by putting the rod action through 180° it will help drastically increase how compressed the rod is and will improve the overall distance of the cast.
Straight up
Having both arms almost positioned straight up above your head will help you create this large 180ş arc. By using the hand around the butt of the rod to pull down increases the power, as opposed to just using the hand around the reel seat which really just guides the direction on the cast, not increase accuracy.
Starting and finishing
The rod tip at the start of the cast should be dropped right back behind you and at the end of the cast the angle of the rod and line should match, easing the flow of line through the rings.
