June 2018
By Ralf Kanstorf
Fly-casting at denmarks seatrout-rivers
The canadien say „It´s called fishing, not catching“, what means – fishing is a lot more, than only catching fish. But in the near past the fly-casting becomes more and more scientific, so my thought was „It´s called fishing, not casting“. Lots of techniques in fly-casting became popular, but wich fly-cast is in the one or the other situation ideal ? Especially in relationship to the sea-trout fishing in denish rivers we should take a special view on the several techniques. Sea-trout fishing is a lot more, than exact ore long casts. Sea-trout fishing is never „distance“ or a „nice cast“. It has to do with control and presenting the fly, if you want to fish successfully.
For sea-trout fishing at denish rivers the following points are important:
Sea-trouts are extremely shy fish, so the fly-fisher should move as quietly and carefully as possible. This is important for moving outside the water and moving the fly-line on or in the water. Hard steps on the ground and shore, fast and hectic movements and loud „fly-line-touch and go“ on the surface drive away the shy sea-trouts.
The canadien say „It´s called fishing, not catching“, what means – fishing is a lot more, than only catching fish. But in the near past the fly-casting becomes more and more scientific, so my thought was „It´s called fishing, not casting“. Lots of techniques in fly-casting became popular, but wich fly-cast is in the one or the other situation ideal ? Especially in relationship to the sea-trout fishing in denish rivers we should take a special view on the several techniques. Sea-trout fishing is a lot more, than exact ore long casts. Sea-trout fishing is never „distance“ or a „nice cast“. It has to do with control and presenting the fly, if you want to fish successfully.
For sea-trout fishing at denish rivers the following points are important:
Sea-trouts are extremely shy fish, so the fly-fisher should move as quietly and carefully as possible. This is important for moving outside the water and moving the fly-line on or in the water. Hard steps on the ground and shore, fast and hectic movements and loud „fly-line-touch and go“ on the surface drive away the shy sea-trouts.
What are the techniques of fly-casting in relationship to this kind of fishing and their advantage/disadvantage?
As you can see on the picture – fish see us from water-depth of 1 m, if we stay too close to the shore
What are the techniques of fly-casting in relationship to this kind of fishing and their advantage/disadvantage?
As you can see on the picture – fish see us from water-depth of 1 m, if we stay too close to the shore
The overhead-castis the oldest fly-cast and came up, when people recongnized the disadvantage of the most simple fishing tackle – rod, line and hook and the resulting reduced distance. Reels were made to keep the line. Spinning tackle had the weight at the end of the line, fly-tackle took the line as weight. The line by itself was taken to cast out and the hands controled the „shooting-out“. The disadvantage for „our“ fishing is the striking movement of the fisherman at the shore. The for- and backcast should be restricted to a minimum. But anyway – at the small denish sea-trout rivers many for- and backcasts are not necessary.
Not only the low river-breadth make long casts not necessary, many swirls in the stream have influence on the control of the fly – the more fly-line is out, the less controll on the fly you have. Short but exactly made fly-casts are better and one or two for- and backcasts are enough.
Advantages of overhead-cast :
– the angler is able to stand 1m from the shore
– the fly-line touches the water only once
– the fly-line or the fly does not hang in your own shore
The disadvantage starts, when you have woods or rocks in your back.
The overhead-castis the oldest fly-cast and came up, when people recongnized the disadvantage of the most simple fishing tackle – rod, line and hook and the resulting reduced distance. Reels were made to keep the line. Spinning tackle had the weight at the end of the line, fly-tackle took the line as weight. The line by itself was taken to cast out and the hands controled the „shooting-out“. The disadvantage for „our“ fishing is the striking movement of the fisherman at the shore. The for- and backcast should be restricted to a minimum. But anyway – at the small denish sea-trout rivers many for- and backcasts are not necessary.
Not only the low river-breadth make long casts not necessary, many swirls in the stream have influence on the control of the fly – the more fly-line is out, the less controll on the fly you have. Short but exactly made fly-casts are better and one or two for- and backcasts are enough.
Advantages of overhead-cast :
– the angler is able to stand 1m from the shore
– the fly-line touches the water only once
– the fly-line or the fly does not hang in your own shore
The disadvantage starts, when you have woods or rocks in your back.
The spey-castis an old technique of fly-casting for salmon-fishing developped at the big scottish salmon-rivers like river spey, river tay or river dee. It is a special roll-cast. Long and heavy two-handed rods were used out of greenhart- and bambus- material with spliced-technique. The rods were 14-15 ft long, some up to 18 ft. The spey-cast resulted out of a laziness, to handle the long and heavy rods with a minimum of muscle-work and a maximum of control of line and fly in the wide river-breadth. The spey-cast was o „turn-over“ of the long and heavy fly-line over the river. The fly should be most of the time in the water and not in the air. The long belly of the fly-line (DT ; double taper) should touch the water next and behind of the angler and should be rolled out to the other shore. The double-spey-cast is a cast, when the angler stands on the „wrong“ side. A double „turn-over“ is used. For spey- and double-spey-cast a long and heavy belly touches the water bevore rolled out. Even when the material of rods and lines are much better today, the spey-cast is not usable for denish rivers. Too much of the fly-line touches the water and disturbes everything around the angler. The shy sea-trouts are driven away.
The simple roll-castis made for situations, where a back-cast is not possible because of obstacle in the back. The fly-line is taken of with the vertical held rod, placed next to the angler and with a fore-cast is rolled out to the front. The problem with the simple roll-cast is, that there is no direction-change, what is necessary in streaming waters and the fly often stays in the grass or woods of the own shore.
The spey-castis an old technique of fly-casting for salmon-fishing developped at the big scottish salmon-rivers like river spey, river tay or river dee. It is a special roll-cast. Long and heavy two-handed rods were used out of greenhart- and bambus- material with spliced-technique. The rods were 14-15 ft long, some up to 18 ft. The spey-cast resulted out of a laziness, to handle the long and heavy rods with a minimum of muscle-work and a maximum of control of line and fly in the wide river-breadth. The spey-cast was o „turn-over“ of the long and heavy fly-line over the river. The fly should be most of the time in the water and not in the air. The long belly of the fly-line (DT ; double taper) should touch the water next and behind of the angler and should be rolled out to the other shore. The double-spey-cast is a cast, when the angler stands on the „wrong“ side. A double „turn-over“ is used. For spey- and double-spey-cast a long and heavy belly touches the water bevore rolled out. Even when the material of rods and lines are much better today, the spey-cast is not usable for denish rivers. Too much of the fly-line touches the water and disturbes everything around the angler. The shy sea-trouts are driven away.
The simple roll-castis made for situations, where a back-cast is not possible because of obstacle in the back. The fly-line is taken of with the vertical held rod, placed next to the angler and with a fore-cast is rolled out to the front. The problem with the simple roll-cast is, that there is no direction-change, what is necessary in streaming waters and the fly often stays in the grass or woods of the own shore.
The switch-cast and underhand-cast :First the definition for these two special roll-casts – an underhand-cast is a switch-cast with a direction-change. For the switch-cast you use a WF-line (weight forward) with a belly at the front and a long running line at the end or shooting-heads up to 15m length, sometimes shorter. The angler lifts the line with the rod in a vertical move from the surface. With a back-move a little bit more to horizontal the angler lets a piece of the line or shooting head touch the surface besidehim, creates a „D“ behind him and rolls out the line to the front – the rod has a vertical position (11 o´ clock position) at the end again. With the direction-change for the underhand-cast the angler takes the line parallel from the own shore and rolls it out to the other shore – the movement comes with a move from the hole body. The rod has a ca. 50° position, before the cast to the front ends in a vertical position.
At the development of the underhand-cast the main thing was to create a cast, while there are woods ore rocks in the back. First the rods took shooting-heads (around 14m length) 1 ore 2 line-classes more, than the rod was outsigned for. Overhead-casts were not possible with this creation of tackle. The rods and lines or shooting heads are made more specified today, but the principle stays. The problem for the denish rivers is the line touching the water surface beside the angler. This disturbes too much. And it´s almost impossible to stay 1m from the shore, if you do so, your fly stays in the grass of your own shore. Only really good casters can use this cast at denish rivers, for beginners there is too much moving on the water and anglers, who followe and want to fish the same area after, have no chance, because the shy seatrouts have gone. It is necessary to stay minimum 1m from the shore, like you see on the next picture.
Wird die Au mit Switch- oder Unterhandwürfen von einem ungeübten Werfer „durchgepflügt“, so haben vor allem die nachfolgenden Angler kaum noch die Chance, auf ungestörte Fische zu treffen. Fazit : Switch- oder Unterhandwurf nur bedingt geeignet.
Der Skaggit-Wurf(skaggit-cast) ist ein Wurf, der sich eigentlich in Kanada beim Steelhead-Fischen entwickelt hat. Ursprünglich gab es sogenannte Steelhead-Taper, Schnüre mit einem extrem kurzen, aber schweren Belly. Die Skaggit-Schnur oder der Skaggit-Schußkopf ist ein extrem kurzer Schußkopf und kann als System mit zu verbindender Runningschnur, dem Schußkopf und verschiedenen einschlaufbaren Sinkteilen oder Sinkvorfächern angesehen werden. Der Wurf ist eine Weiterentwicklung des Spey-Wurfes, bei dem extrem wenig Schnuranteil „gewässert“ wird. Er sieht vom Bewegungsablauf ähnlich wie der Unterhandwurf aus, hat aber weniger Scheuchwirkung.
Fazit : Teils geeignet
Abschließendes Fazit :Der beste Wurf für die Meerforellenfischerei an den dänischen Auen ist der Überkopfwurf mit wenigen Leerwürfen. Ist dieser nicht möglich, ist der Skaggit-Wurf die zweite Wahl. Beim Beherzigen dieser Prinzipien sieht das Ergebnis hoffentlich so aus :
Der Skaggit-Wurf(skaggit-cast) ist ein Wurf, der sich eigentlich in Kanada beim Steelhead-Fischen entwickelt hat. Ursprünglich gab es sogenannte Steelhead-Taper, Schnüre mit einem extrem kurzen, aber schweren Belly. Die Skaggit-Schnur oder der Skaggit-Schußkopf ist ein extrem kurzer Schußkopf und kann als System mit zu verbindender Runningschnur, dem Schußkopf und verschiedenen einschlaufbaren Sinkteilen oder Sinkvorfächern angesehen werden. Der Wurf ist eine Weiterentwicklung des Spey-Wurfes, bei dem extrem wenig Schnuranteil „gewässert“ wird. Er sieht vom Bewegungsablauf ähnlich wie der Unterhandwurf aus, hat aber weniger Scheuchwirkung.
Fazit : Teils geeignet
Abschließendes Fazit :Der beste Wurf für die Meerforellenfischerei an den dänischen Auen ist der Überkopfwurf mit wenigen Leerwürfen. Ist dieser nicht möglich, ist der Skaggit-Wurf die zweite Wahl. Beim Beherzigen dieser Prinzipien sieht das Ergebnis hoffentlich so aus :
