Don’t Outkick Your Coverage

Don’t Outkick Your Coverage

The old adage goes that the sixty-yard punt is a great thing until the team realizes there’s nobody downfield to cover immediately, and then the kick returner wiggles loose and sprints down the sideline for a touchdown.

The funny thing with anglers is that they use the distance of their cast as a measure of proficiency. “Wow, she can cast ninety feet, she’s really good!” Well, she probably is a really good caster, but the jury might be out on what kind of an angler she is.

Because expert anglers are actually more interested in seeing how short a cast they can get away with, and don’t really give a rip about making those long, hero casts. At least that’s true on most trout rivers. Saltwater is a different game with different rules. A long cast is often the price of admission on the flats.

But on a trout river, it’s often dumb to cast far. It’s hard to set a size 18 dry-fly hook, for example, from sixty feet away (if you’re going to try, a swift down-current directional jerk at waist level is better than lifting over your head).

Even if you hook up, it’s hard to keep tension, steer the fish, fight the fish, gather slack and more. You simply outkick your coverage at that distance, and there are few reasons to do it.

Maybe there’s a fish rising on the other side of a deep current, and you can’t wade into range. Fine, take your best shot, but you’re going to have about two seconds of presentation (max) before the current grabs the line.

Great casting is really all about positioning, and I wish more anglers would equate a fly cast more with throwing darts than hitting a driver on the golf course.