Do you ever stop and think about your casting and what you actually do?

We were doing some filming stuff earlier this week and at one point I was talking to the camera about casting. I am perfectly comfortable talking to a camera about fishing, but the thing we arguably do the most - casting - is actually quite a hard one to break down and communicate about. We obviously cast far more often with lure fishing than we do when bait fishing, but it’s just one of those things we do and I bet most of us don’t give it a second thought………………

So we did a bit of casting related stuff on camera, but when you stop and really think about it, there’s a hell of a lot to casting all manner of different lures in all manner of different situations. I get to watch a hell of a lot of different anglers casting lures in many subtly different ways, and it’s always interesting when you see the different styles and launch angles and so on. Just as with bait fishing I reckon that some lure anglers could do with improving how they cast their lures, but that’s pretty easy for me to say when I am watching and not actually doing it myself!

Do you know what you actually do at the end of the cast for example? I was breaking down the various elements of the cast and “braid management” to the filming lads and I actually had to do a few casts to remind myself of what I do with the braid and bale-arm at the end of the cast. What I do has become so natural I don’t even know I’m doing it, and I am sure it’s the same with you. Do you deliberately change your launch anglers depending on the wind direction for example? Do you automatically change your drop-lengths depending on what specific lure you are fishing with and how you want to get it out there? Do you subtly adjust how you cast depending on the specific rod and how it works? And so on. Start thinking about it and there’s a lot of information to get across.

This is not me, I am not nearly brave enough to wear shorts for wet-wading in the UK! Will here is one hell of an angler and he gets lures out there properly!

So we filmed a bit of very basic casting stuff in some very changeable weather, plus filming always takes double the time of any plans you might make, but to be honest I’d love the chance to really break the whole lure casting thing down one day and try filming it properly. I don’t know if it would help any other anglers out, but at least I’d be able to slow it down and see just where I am going wrong and how I might improve things myself. You all have a good weekend and try breathing nice and evenly if you are into Test cricket like I am!