flycasting from a tube

[fishboy2]

hey guys and gals, i was jut wondering wht the easiest way to cast from a tube. i have a donut type. i have noticed that on my cast the j-loop seems to go down and i am concerened about my tubes saftey, not to mention the back of my head,lol. thanks for the advice
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[DH_tubinjoe]

cast at a little bit of an angle. its worth a try!




joe
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[fishboy2]

ill do that, i was thinking just now, that mabye a side cast, but i am not too accurate that way
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[DH_tubinjoe]

hey where are you from?


joe
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[fishboy2]

utah
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[TubeDude]

[cool]Fly fishing from a float tube is simultaneously easier and harder. As you have discovered, you are low in the water and that makes your rod tip a few feet lower than if you were standing up. Of course, this translates to your cast dropping lower too.

Your "loop" needs to be higher and tighter when casting from on the water, or you will find your backcast hitting the water,,,or you. In short, you need to work on your casting fundamentals to make sure you don't create problems for yourself with poor habits.

This can be helped by making crisp backcasts, proper timing for the forward stroke and concentrating on throwing your loop up into the air. If you allow your rod to travel too far back on the backcast...and too far forward on the froward stroke...your loop will follow the rod tip and you cannot expect as much distance.

The good news is that fishing from a float tube should not require that you make long casts. Proper positioning of your tube, to where the fish are feeding, will allow you to get away with shorter and more accureate casts. But, most float tubers...and most fly fishermen as a rule...seem to think that unless they are making world record distance casts that they are not true fly flingers. In most cases, you will catch more fish and have fewer problems if you will use your tube to position yourself and then focus on presentation, rather than distance.

You also got some good advice on the "side arm" casting. This can be especially effective when you are close to rising fish and want to reduce the chance of spooking them by waving your rod too high. It will further reduce the distance of your casts, because you are dropping your loop still lower, but it can help prevent getting a fly in yuor anatomy or your gear.

Some dedicated fly fishermen...with big budgets...go to longer 10 foot fly rods to give them just a little extra height. Others learn to cast well with their arms raised higher over their heads. Most of us use a higher reach for fly fishing from tubes, but that can be fatiguing, and usually results in poor casting technique. If we don't keep our elbows anchored at our sides...on concentrate on only moving the rod tip back and forth from "10 o'clock to 2 o'clock"...we start dropping the back casts lower and that messes up the whole thing.

Sorry, FB2, there is no great secret to making longer casts from a float tube. Just practice good technique and take advantage of the float tube being able to get you closer to your targets.

Hope you guys have a good trip to Pelican this weekend. This is going up while you are probably on the way or already on the water. Let us know if you get your dad converted to a fly rod.
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[fishboy2]

awwww dang it , hey tube dude that last post was me.
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[EmuScud]

The only thing I would add to TD's suggestions is how abruptly you stop the rod on the back cast. If I feel the need to throw a ton of line out, I'll make sure my hand on the backcast accelerates and then stops at "1:00"(instead of 2 o'clock). The "stop" is like what would happen if your hand suddenly ran into a wall. The accelerate/hard-stop method puts tremendous speed on your line. Speed=fly not hitting water on the backcast.

The 1:00 stop will throw the line higher in your backcast. When I am teaching people to cast with a flyrod, their natural tendency is to lay the rod parallel to the ground on the backcast, but they think they have stopped the rod at 2 o'clock.

Get your dad to video you casting at a park or your front lawn. That has been my best teacher to this point. I haven't been able to hide my technique, or lack thereof, from the camera yet. Make sure the shot is wide enough to get the line in as well, that way you can see how different techniques will create different loops in the line.

Catch a few for me!!!!

ES
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