It was a perfect day for fishing; rainy, cold and miserable.
The rotten weather had chased most all other fishermen off the creek. It was the middle of the first week and the stream had been hard hit. Streamside paths were trampled and muddy from countless boot tracks, enticing spinners snapped off on overhanging limbs glistened here and there over the stream while the now wary trout were especially suspicious of anything entering their sight. Today you had to do everything perfectly to even get a hit.
The bigger holes had trout in them, but I wasn’t getting a sniff. Time to start fishing the area’s most others wouldn’t. I began wading up long stretches of rapids, covering all the water in front of me and caught several fish this way. Then I came to an overhanging tree with a fast, deep run underneath it.
The current was swift here. I’d need to cast 10 to 15 feet above its head in order to give your bait time to sink and, of course, a nasty little bush overhung the stream exactly where you needed to land your offering. Numerous hooks and sinkers dangled there, a testament to the bushes ability to defeat most any challenger. Studying the situation I noticed a narrow, foot-wide space between the overhanging branches just daring anyone to try and hit it. Ah, that’s why there were so many pieces of tackle dangling there.
I was a little low on hooks and sinkers; was it worth the risk of lost tackle to fish this spot? I grabbed a salmon egg and threw it across the creek and watched the current sweep it underneath the tree. I almost swallowed the remaining salmon eggs I was holding in my mouth when a 17 or 18-inch golden and two other similar sized rainbows dashed out from underneath the bank and fought over the egg. Good golly!
In order to hit the narrow opening one would have to cast sidearm, just above the water’s surface to avoid the upper limbs. Naturally, left and right left very little room for error.
I positioned myself and made several short casts testing my accuracy. Then a deep breath and the salmon egg fell perfectly. Whew!
The three trout dashed out, the golden missed and a bow inhaled the egg. I set the hook, and after a beautiful battle in which the leaping rainbow actually tangled itself in the overhanging branches for a few seconds I landed a fat, high, 16-inch rainbow.
The ability to place a cast with accuracy is an important skill to master for any fisherman. Sometimes you need to precisely control distance, other times left and right, the height or all three.
Since you can’t control what is to your immediate left and right or what may be behind you it’s critical to be able to cast overhand, sidearm and at various arm angles in order to finesse your cast into tight spots. This needs not only a trained eye, arm and wrist, but the correct equipment as well.
Rod length is important: the shorter the rod the less control you have. Let me explain.
A short rod has less rod tip speed and must be cast harder to gain the velocity needed for distance. Using a shorter rod on one occasion I found myself frustrated the entire day. Casting hard enough to gain distance whipped off my bait. Having to cast so hard also destroyed my accuracy. The five-foot rod also forced me to hold my arms up on drifts attempting to keep line off the water surface during the drift. Never again, I told myself, this is torture.
A five foot six-inch rod is as short as you should go. A six-foot rod is preferable and if the stream is fairly open a seven-foot rod better yet. Longer rods allow you to cast gently enough to keep your bait on the hook and still achieve the distance needed. Held high, long rod help keep line off the surface close to you. Less slack and a longer rod tip arc help set the hook also.
Your reel must also work perfectly, the line exiting the spool without catch or snag. The reel handle must turn very smoothly so you can detect any hit during the drift; you’ll be reeling often to remove the line slack generated as your bait drifts back at you.
Your line should be supple and limp. The easier it leaves the spool and flows through the guides, the greater you can cast with ease, the less chance you’ll disturb the bait on your hook and the more accurate you can be. Lures, usually heavier, cast easily, but the same basics apply.
Once you have the right equipment the rest is simply practice, practice, and practice.
Like Wayne Gretzky, don’t practice the easy stuff: make your practice sessions very challenging as to distance and accuracy. Remember, trees behind you may force one to cast sidearm just as overhanging limbs on the far side of the stream could. You may have branches behind and to one side, so be able to cast left or right handed, even back handed. You should also practice lobbing your cast from dead in front of you. It’s sometimes your only choice.
Good fishing.
