{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Distance casting question

Hi - with the silty waters I decided to go out and grass-cast for a couple of hours this morning.  This time I took a long tape measure and a couple of white towels to measure distance/accuracy. 

 

Rods -

 

3 weight

6 weight

8 weight (wife's rod with 5" lead clouser to make it realistic as possible)

 

Okay, at 50 feet I can hit the towel pretty consistently with all 3 rods.  This is with a "gentle" double haul and not too big of a casting stroke (don't know if that is scientific or not - hopefully that makes sense). 

 

At 75 feet though, I have problems hitting the towel with the 3 weight, period.  60 feet is "okay", but 50 is really about the best I seem to do comfortably with the 3 weight. 

 

With the 6 and 8 weight, I can unreliably hit the 75 foot distance, but accuracy kind of goes to hell....I am also using a lot of body movement (weight shifting) and a really long stroke.  The forward cast I have "reach for the sky" with the rod so that the line shoots out to get the distance...which probably looks pretty grotesque. 

 

Question - with the 75 foot distance (which is really long for me) the fly line seems to kind of want to "crumple" on itself on the forward cast.  This not a tailing loop...because God knows I've thrown enough of those to recognize it.  I used to throw the tailing loops even on 40-50 foot casts until I figured out how to remove slack from the cast and learned to double haul better.   

 

Also, I can only have out about 50 feet of line and still pick it up.  Beyond that and I can't seem to haul/muscle the back cast well.  It looks like a cartoon if I try. 

 

These fly lines are - 1 weight forward, 1 bass taper line.  Should I be able to throw a 75-80 foot cast with these kind of lines, or do most people use some kind of distance line? 

 

BTW - I cannot believe how much easier that 8 weight throws a huge clouser minnow than my 6 weight!  There's no comparison -- the 8 weight is the right tool for the job on those big heavy flies. 

 

Thanks for any tips -- when fishing it seems like I'm only casting between 20-40 feet, but I didn't want to get soft in case I get a chance to go for some SW fishing at some point ;).  I kind of enjoy casting just for the heck of it too.   Crap, the penguins just scored again.  Talk to you!

 

Gene

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