Surf Casting

[OneWhoFishes]

Help! I am a New York surf caster stuck in california. What I am looking for is any suggested places that produce any fish. I am in long beach and have limited travel expensense. Willing to share any info for Long Island from Fire Island to Montauk.<br><br><br>

[gvanzant]

There is a pretty good spotfin croaker bite going on, right now. They are being caught from the Huntington Cliffs through the Bolsa Chica strand. Check in at the Big Fish Tackle Shop in Seal Beach. George<br><br>George Van Zant<br><A HREF="http://www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm " target="_new">http://www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm </A><br>

[RonPaulFan]

I ventured out of my state group, Utah, to post where those who surf cast might advise me. I just bought my surf casting rod and I'm practicing casting at a Utah pond to be proficient for a future trip to a coast.

I'm looking for tutorial resources like books and videos to help me with distance casting as so far I haven't ever seen it done and I must be doing a lot wrong since I'm only casting about 100 feet so far.

What is the technique?

Ronald
[signature]

[RockyRaab]

Way back when I lived on the beach in Florida, I learned to set my weight about 25 feet behind me on the sand, then walk into the waves with the rod behind me. Then, with one hand at the reel and the other hand on the very end of the grip (two feet or so apart) I made a strong snap with both hands - push one and pull the other.

The usual front-back casting motion only sent the weight 100 feet, while the method above got at least twice that. It also helped to have a section of very heavy tippet material from the weight to the reel (30 feet or so) to help absorb the strain without breaking the main 20# line. I used 40# tippet.
[signature]

[RonPaulFan]

Thanks. I practiced yesterday and still only got 5 ounces to cast little more than 100 feet. Two hundred feet sounds better, but the seller tells me people routinely cast two hundred yards and that's ordinary and not top athletes setting records which is much further by a lot.

After practice casting, I put it away to fish with my tiny seven foot pole and easily cast about one ounce in a bubble float out past two hundred feet.

This pole is stout and stiff and strong premium quality construction of carbon fiber. If I can load it up, it sure seems to make sense that it can store the energy to sling that five ounce weight 200 yards. It says right on it 3 to 7 ounce, so 5 should be what it will cast best.

My guess is there is a technique that I need to watch and study.

Ronald )
[signature]

[RockyRaab]

It must be that darn Al Zeimer guy creeping up on me. You wrote "feet" and so I did, too. But I meant to say yards. I was thinking it.

If you are truly casting only 100 feet, there's something very oddly wrong somewhere. A knot getting caught in the guides? Twisted line?
[signature]

[RonPaulFan]

I've been watching some YouTube videos and still need to find a good one that really shows and tells how to develop the technique. I've seen a lot that doesn't tell me much and particularly with omission of the results being the question: How far did that cast? I saw some ideas to try for next time. Perhaps my strength had me accelerate fast from the start which would load the rod and get it to slack off before the cast is completed, so I think I need to accelerate slowly at the start and put peak power into the cast leading up to the end of the cast.

If anyone finds a good tutorial link, please post it.

Ronald
[signature]

[davetclown]

I say practice with a lighter weight and build your self up to heaver weights.

I fish with the heavy weights on the st clare river and I do have to get out aways. with one ounce I am getting out 200 feet. I do have to be careful because that first step of the end of the board walk is 20 down at a good 7 mile an our current. Depending on where on the river I am, I need any where form one ounce to seven pound sinkers. Try holding up a rod with seven pound hanging on the end of it.. lol

I have never used a surf casting rod, I do know they have extra long handles, I do know to get your maximum cast you need to be holding on to the end of the rod, this dose put the reel at some distance from you.. this means you will need to pull the line down the rod to where you are holding and hang on to the line with one finger. Let go of the line when you are at about 10 oclock. "1 oclock being behind you."

once you get used to pulling the line down the handle and letting
go a few times you will start to get out some distance. You just need to get up a good whipping action from your rod.

I am using trolling rods, their handles are only half the lenth of a casting rod. I get away with using pvc tubes when I cast out on lake michigan. I made mine tube 4 feet in lenth so I can fish out chest deap.[cool]

I know on the coast a lot of people will wade out and cast and walk back stripping line out as they go.

Your reel and eyes also plays alot in how far you are casting. I found that the spinning reels cast a lot further on heavy line than will the barrel or bait casting reels do. You may want to look up distance casting for your particular reel..

Keep us up on your progress, if I come across a book or littuture on the subject, I will be sure to pass it along.
[signature]

[davetclown]

[ but the seller tells me people routinely cast two hundred yards and that's ordinary and not top athletes setting records which is much further by a lot.

Ronald )[/quote]

Tournament casting is a sport in its own right, with the world record held by Danny Moeskops casting a distance of 286.63 meters (313.46 yards).[url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_fishing#cite_note-1"][size 2][[/size][/url]

Look up pendulum cast on youtube to see some videos

these books may help

[li]Arra,R, Garfield, C and Bryant,N (2001) The Ultimate Guide to Surfcasting. The Lyons Press. [/li][li]Ristori, Al (2008)The Complete Book of Surf Fishing. Skyhorse Publishing. [/li][li]Rosko, Milt (2004) The Surfcaster's Guide to Baits, Rigs & Lures. Burford Books. [/li][li]Weeks, Jeffrey (2011) Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas. Createspace. [/li]
[signature]

[RonPaulFan]

Thanks, Dave for both of your thoughtful replies. I will watch more videos and search for pendulum casting to watch and I will practice more and likely a little this evening at the local pond to try a few things differently.

I think I might understand more of what is going wrong.

For comparison purposes, I should state that I do cast a wide range of normal rods very well. Your suggestion to work my way up in lure weight has already been done on my large collection of rods where I've found optimizing the lure weight to the lure weight it's designed to cast makes casting very effective, so I select the best rod for the lure weight and push the range with practice time to get a feel for what the rod can do.

I figure a one ounce lure is too much outside the 3 - 7 ounce lure weight range of my new monster rod and won't sufficiently load the rod to achieve the performance that it is designed to produce.

After, poor casting with the huge 23 foot surf casting rod, I cast a one ounce lure about 200 feet effortlessly with my 7 foot 6 inch rod that I've fished a lot. In the few days after that, I've thought about that contrast a lot and think I understand what is wrong.

Strength is not an issue. I'm an athlete. Once I learn the technique, my strength will enable me to make long casts. I also intend to use my endurance for cast and retrieve lure fishing with swim bait which is not the usual use for surf casting rods which are usually used to cast out bait and then wait. Jon told me that would wear anyone out, but I'm up to the challenge and tend to make fishing athletic anyway with my quick coverage of a lot of shore and long hikes.

I'm into karate and long distance bicycle racing and recent out of the blue rowing where I had to row my fly fishing pontoon boat back against a strong headwind which took hours of very powerful rowing when I haven't used it for many years prior to that showed me that my fitness is high because I had no muscle soreness at all the next days. I don't mean to brag and I only state this to definitively blame my poor casting of only this one rod on not yet discovering and achieving the proper technique for this rod. I watch videos and read books, but it's just not registering for me to the motions and feel I still need to achieve.

Since I have quite a collection of rods, going from one to the next is often only a small change and my technique naturally adapts. But, nothing I have comes anywhere close to this monster rod and my technique for it has to be so different that it isn't just naturally adapting that comes with practice.

My current thinking is that I need to put less power into the start of the cast to be able to continue with uniform acceleration.

When I put everything into the start of the cast, I suppose the inertia of the lure allows it to catch up following the rod tip to produce less line tension and the rod doesn't load up with a good bend. This theory corresponds with my experience that the harder I try, the shorter the cast.

I'll go try starting my cast slow and uniformly accelerating now.

Ronald : )
[signature]