Casting the long leader

When you watch the highly skilled fly casters at work you will notice one thing. They are all throwing the line with a nice tapered 9 foot leader at the front. With such a set up you can demonstrate tight loop casting perfectly.

And I can do the same.

Yet in the real world of reservoir fishing where you are often chucking a line 30 yards from the bank with a leader of up to 20 feet with up to 3 flies on it, the concept of achieving tight loops goes out of the door. I would like to see the fly casting instructors demonstrate this sort of casting.

The art of opening the loop is seldom discussed, yet the ability to cast with a very long leader will put many trout on the bank for you.

It's time we started to talk about open loops, not tight loops.

What do you think?

Yes, I agree that open loops are better for longer leaders with 2 or more flies on droppers, but it all collapses when you're fishing into the wind though, doesn't it?

That's when you need to be able to cast a tighter loop to combat this. The only problem I then have is that I can't fish more than 2 flies on a leader if I have to cast a tight loop as I get more tangles than normal.

If you can teach me how to cast an open loop 30 yards into a wind then I'll travel up to Rotherham this weekend and happily learn that skill from you Ron.

It ain't easy Adrian and it depends on the strength of the wind. I have a tendency to use a clear, very slow sinking line with a shorter leader when casting into a strong wind.

However you can cast a longish leader with a floating line into a moderate wind with an action similar to a crippled cow as Arthur Cove one described it.

The secret is to execute a sort of single haul and then stop the line quickly in order to get the leader to turn over. Don't try to cast long distances and anyway the fish are often close in when the waves are lashing your shore. The big advantage is that you can often have the windward shore all to yourself.

And by the way a weighted fly on the point helps considerably.

Only up to 20'??

I thought you said long leaders?

Colin

Long leader, team of three flies and into a head wind. Disaster and birds nests.
I,ve done a lot of fly fishing into the wind and only use point fly and leaders no more than 12ft. Have tried 15 but end up cutting back.

That's when I use a tapered leader too, to try and ensure that I get turnover.

I've tried long leaders into the wind with poor results when using more than two flies, and even with two its tough. Much prefer to use a shorter leader and or a heavier point fly. When Ron and I last fished Rutland we had to use leaders in excess of 20 feet with small nyphs on the droppers and damsyels on the point. The conditions were ideal for casting, a light wind, sun and fishing from a boat. We put out long lines and caught good trout, but we still had tangles and a few issues even in those conditions. Me a few more than Ron though!!!