Slo-Mo Casts

Confession here...the older I get, the less I care about line speed and tight loops when trout fishing. Yeah, I'm talking about fly fishing in small streams. To throw a tight loop, you need a certain amount of line speed. And, in the mountain Rio's I love to fly fish, there is not enough room for casting fast, tight, line loops. Actually, I mostly want more of a "slo-mo cast" with a bit of open loop to drop a fly gently, 10 to 20 feet away. 

Now, occasionally there is a cast requiring some line speed when I want to send the fly low, just above the stream's surface, and land it under the branches of a tree on the opposite bank. On my little creeks, that is most often done with a side-arm cast. And most importantly, the slower the line speed to pull it off, the better. If the fly hits the water making a splash as if you dropped a pebble into it, well, those Leetle Fellers have shot away like torpedos. So, it can be a difficult cast to pull off on these mountain creeks of mine. Effectively that is.

For most creek environments, I need to apply what I call a "slo-mo cast" to fool those spooky, feisty, little trout in my favorite mountain streams. Not a pretty cast, mind you. The big stream guys would mock it because it doesn't defy gravity, and have a tight loop as it unfurls over the stream. But, I'm okay with that. I go fly fishing to catch wild trout, not to impress others with my casting abilities. And, much of my fishing time requires that "slo-mo cast" to land a fly softly on the water at short distances. The cast uses gravity to make those soft, slow-speed casts, for gently landing a dry fly fifteen feet away.

I read an interview with John Gierach on The Floating Fly website, where they asked his thoughts about the required casting abilities to be effective...he replied, "I'm an instinctive caster and use whatever elements of the formal casts I need to get a good drift. I think it's best to be inventive and flexible." 

Most people will translate John's statement to fit their personal beliefs...and, totally miss the point.