Casting Tip - Water Load & Cast to the Bank

This summer I spent quite a few days on the Yellowstone River in Montana rowing my Fishcraft raft and helping my family to learn the technique of casting streamers and dry flies to the bank, looking for the brown trout or the occasional rainbow that hang right next to shore, tight to the bank hoping to get a grab on the fly. As much as I tried to get my son Zack and my Mom and Dad to get the flies right on the bank, their flies would mostly come up short. When they got it to the bank, hold on!

Typically, 6 inches from the bank would get a strike when 24" from the bank was mostly unproductive . Reach the bank and success would follow. When casting to the bank you just can't worry about hanging up and loosing flies, you've just got to go for it. If you take the risk you may end up with a trophy in your hands.



Here’s a tip to help overcome this problem when you're drifting down the river in a drift boat and pounding the banks.

(1)Start your cast with a tight line with the rod tip pointed low towards the river surface. Use the waters surface tension and frictional forces to load the rod.

(2) Smoothly accelerate the backcast and stop your rod at the 11:00 position.

(3) Load the rod on the backcast and apply smooth power forward to a stop, looking at the target on the bank through your thumb.

(4) Drift through and deliver the fly bank to the bank.

If you make the mistake of starting the cast with your rod tip high and straight in the air, there less loading, no initial rod flex, which ultimately shortens the cast stroke and usually requires unnecessary false casting.

When you load the rod from the waters surface, you give your cast a head start.Point to Remember, Start it low, and let it go!

That’s it!