Score Casts Like You Would Golf Strokes

Score Casts Like You Would Golf Strokes

I’ve often thought that golf and fly fishing are very similar.

Both attract the same mindset of “problem-solver” type-A people who are into making a mark. Both sports were born in Scotland centuries ago at around the same time, though there’s evidence that certain tribes in the Amazon rainforest tied bright bird feathers to hooks fashioned from shells many centuries ago.

If you ask how much time in a given golf round is actually dedicated to making a swing, it would be seconds or minutes against hours. Same should be true for fly fishing.

There’s a silly notion that you need to “cover water” and drop flies into every darn place where you think a trout might be hiding. I suppose that’s fine. Take your chances. But I am more into the idea of dropping a fly into a spot where opportunity legitimately knocks.

So, I wonder if more fly casters shouldn’t hold off and drop a shot where they think it really belongs, rather than putting a cast where they might think something could happen. Nothing wrong with the latter, mind you, but I’m into higher odds. Anglers who routinely fire casts into blank spaces might actually be better off if they hold back and make one good cast really count, as opposed to making three warmup casts.

Think of it like golf. It’s the same sport, one played wet, the other played dry (though in my case, with golf, they’re often equally wet). But imagine if anglers scored their casts like golf strokes. Nature, and the trout, are doing that already. The fewer the better.

As soon as you start thinking about fly casts, false casts or otherwise, like golf strokes, the lower (and better) your overall score will be.