Fly Line for kayak fishing river smallies

[PJ2 0]

Just a thought Joe: I fish alot from my yak as well. mine is a sit in 10' I use a 5wt 7' for fresh and a 8wt 9' for salt. I find in certain situations its best for me to not do an overhead casting technique i tend to use a side casting technique instead. I tend to get more line out that way with less false casts.

[josephcsylvia 0]

Just a thought Joe: I fish alot from my yak as well. mine is a sit in 10' I use a 5wt 7' for fresh and a 8wt 9' for salt. I find in certain situations its best for me to not do an overhead casting technique i tend to use a side casting technique instead. I tend to get more line out that way with less false casts.

I havnt tried a side cast but it makes a lot of sense given the seated position thanks

[mikechell 0]

Just a thought Joe: I fish alot from my yak as well. mine is a sit in 10' I use a 5wt 7' for fresh and a 8wt 9' for salt. I find in certain situations its best for me to not do an overhead casting technique i tend to use a side casting technique instead. I tend to get more line out that way with less false casts.

PJ ... if someone's line is hitting the water behind them on on over head cast (line is approximately rod length above the water), why would side hand casting be better (line is considerably less than rod length above the water)?

You're working the line closer to the water during the entire back cast and forward cast, so it has to drop less distance before hitting.

 

I side cast to get my fly under over hangs or docks, but I don't think I'd be able to get more distance that way.

[FIN-ITE 34 0]

It's more of a 3/4 side cast. I fish from a sit-in kayak for pike on the river all the time and the "side arm" works much better, especially keeping the 6/0 hooks out of the back of your head.

As far as lines go, I have been using a 9wt Rio Outbound Short on a 9' 8wt Beulah and am able to throw 12 inch pike flies without difficulty. However after two hard seasons, I have destroyed that line and I have replaced it with the Rio Pike/Musky line in 9wt. Both lines have a very short aggressive head that make for loading the rod fast and with a very short amount of line out of the rod tip. That really cuts down on the number of false casts required to shoot line.

[mikechell 0]

... especially keeping the 6/0 hooks out of the back of your head.

I DO understand that reason !!!

[PJ2 0]

 

Just a thought Joe: I fish alot from my yak as well. mine is a sit in 10' I use a 5wt 7' for fresh and a 8wt 9' for salt. I find in certain situations its best for me to not do an overhead casting technique i tend to use a side casting technique instead. I tend to get more line out that way with less false casts.

PJ ... if someone's line is hitting the water behind them on on over head cast (line is approximately rod length above the water), why would side hand casting be better (line is considerably less than rod length above the water)?

You're working the line closer to the water during the entire back cast and forward cast, so it has to drop less distance before hitting.

 

I side cast to get my fly under over hangs or docks, but I don't think I'd be able to get more distance that way.

 

Fin-Ite described it better than I did. Its really a 3/4 side cast. when I fish in my yak I dont really need to have a ton of line out from me. I probably have out 30 to 40 ft max. I try to sneak up as close as possible because the flypole I mostly use is a 7'.

I do pratice casting sitting on my butt, in a field. and I gotta tell you, it helps when I"m on the water as all practice tends to.