Sandy Moret Casting Tip; Never Let Go

Sixty feet away a pair of tailing bonefish is rooting up the bottom. The current is strong right to left and they are feeding hard into it. Your guide sets the skiff for you slightly up current and up light. It’s a slight stretch in the 12 mile per hour breeze but you’re ready…… three false casts and you let go of the line to shoot the last 12 feet. The bones continue tailing as your line lands in a ball 6 feet short. By the time your line hand regains control, a cloud has come over the flat and the fish slide away. Another blown shot!

Now is not the time for sagging shoulders and grunting guides! Laugh it off, it won’t be the only time this occurs, more importantly, use the opportunity to improve your skills by analyzing what happened. After plenty of botched presentations over the years I’ve developed a practice of discussing the results of every sight fishing opportunity with my guide or angler at it’s culmination. What went wrong? Did you see it the way I saw it? Did the fish see the fly? Did I draw any reaction from the fish? Etc. Sometimes they just don’t eat a well placed fly no matter what!

This particular opportunity was lost before the fly hit the water, due to the bad habit of dropping the fly line from the line hand in an attempt to squeeze a few more feet out of the cast. Several things occur when you drop the line while making a sight casting presentation. None are good!

First, you lose your casting distance breaks and are unable to feather the fly line to avoid over shooting the fish. Second, loss of line hand tension shuts off the energy transfer from rod and hand to the line causing the line to stop unrolling. The line only travels forward while the loop is unrolling. Third, the loose line invariably jumps around the rod butt or reel handle preventing recovery and a recast to the fish.

The rule of thumb here is to always control the fly line with your line hand and never let it go. This habit is ingrained in every good flats angler I have ever known. Keep your fly line and your line hand in contact with one another, you’ll have more control and catch more fish.

Sandy Moret is the owner/operator of Florida Keys Outfitters with over 30 years of experience saltwater fly fishing in the Florida Keys and is considered an authority on how to catch very difficult fish.