Throwing a full sink line.

[andrew brown]

After nearly taking my ear off , assing myself and almost losing an eye throwing streamers last night, I was unable to find the magical pick up point on a 200 grain line (5.5 ips).  

So what is the secret to it?  

Edit: I’m fishing a 9’6″ 6wt Scott G Series.

[Zach Matthews]

Andrew –

You need to practice what Dan Blanton calls a “water haul” until you get the timing down.  Throwing a full sinking line isn’t difficult; you just have to recognize that you have a narrower profile and less air resistance.  Typically you will also have overlined your rod somewhat (though that doesn’t seem to be a problem with your setup, which is well-matched).  

Here’s how you do this.  I am assuming you have a 30′ sinking head on the front of an intermediate running line.  Some full sink lines have more complete tapers.  With the integrated shooting head system I just described, you want to false-cast the head out of the rod in one or two quick casts.  Once the head is clear, while you are learning, lay the front 30′ out on the water in front of you and let it hit the surface.

As soon as the line hits the surface of the water, pick up the whole thirty feet in a smooth backcast.  As the line comes by your head, let slip about 3-4′ of the running line.  This is called your overhang.  You want the head to be unrolled in the air behind you with ONLY 3-4 feet of overhang out the tip-top guide when you begin your forward stroke.  Make a smooth forward cast, haul if you can, and aim somewhat high.

It will help a lot to have your running line stretched and laying loosely on a clean, preferably wet surface.  For yard practice, a wet tarp to your side will work.

Tangles are part of shooting head casting.  In untangling that narrow fly line, keep a few things in mind.  (1) Knots are ALWAYS caused by loops.  If you find the “key loop,” you can untangle the whole knot quickly.  (2) Knots always untangle more quickly when lubricated.  Water or spit works fine.  (3) Cold weather causes line to tighten and need stretching worse than hot weather.  (4) Repetitive casting in which you do not shoot to the reel will introduce spin into the line and eventually tangle it.  Always cast to the reel every 3-4 casts to unspin the line.  If you can’t, you have too much line out.

Finally, a word about dumping.  Most distance casts with heads fail because the angler overpowers the stroke under the mistaken belief that it takes more power to cast a sinking line.  Due to the line’s thinner taper and (usually) higher grain weights, it actually takes less power.  Dumping is when the head is rapidly turning over before the shooting line has played out of the rod.  Often you will see the line go racing past the point where the head has already flipped over and stopped.  The solution to dumping is to shoot more overhang and maintain a smooth, flowing stroke.  Sometimes I will actually teach new heads casters to throw with a wristy, bamboo-rod motion to avoid this problem (although once you get the hang of it, you should pivot from the elbow like in a normal cast).  

The hardest thing about handling heads is carrying more and more overhang.  Every foot of extra overhang adds exponentially to the distance of the cast.  1′ of overhang might make a 45-50′ cast with a 30′ head.  2′ might make a 65-70′ cast.  3′ should give you up to 80′.  4-6′ will put you in the 90-100′ class, and more than 6′ typically is going to be a very big cast, like up to 120′.  There are people who can cast heads 140′ with a single-handed rod (it takes a double-hander for me to cross that mark :)).

HTH,
Zach

[dusty montgomery]

Andrew,
Yesterday I was reading about “water hauls” as well in Ed Jaworowski’s The Cast. It’s a great book and has helped me with some aspects of my casting.
Dusty

[anonymous]

The “magical point” for pick up on a full sink for me usually lies somewhere around 3′ from the tip of my rod.

[andrew brown]

Thanks Zack!

The water haul worked, I had it shooting all the way to backing!

[Rich Kovars]

The “magical point” for pick up on a full sink for me usually lies somewhere around 3′ from the tip of my rod.  Picking up line that is laying on the water like with a floating line is a way to ensure injury.  Once I got used to having to cast/retrieve these lines differently, they started accounting for their fare share of fish.  Stick to it!

A good trick for picking up a sinking line is to give it a quick roll cast to bring it up to the surface before you break into the backcast.

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