Casting Distance has often come up in a variety of venues pertaining to rod constructuion. My own experiences with rod layout, spine and guide spacing/size has caused me to conclude that casting distance is affected rather minimally one way or the other. And as my eyesight / reaction time has slipped with the years, the maximum distance casts I can get out of my rods very rarely result in a hooked fish. Were the 'Castings Gods' to appear to me and give me the option of : A. .... Great Accuracy with my casts ( especially fly rod ) or B. Great Distance, I would choose A! Other thoughts welcome!

Casting distance pertaining to bass fishing, with casting and spinning rigs, can mean the difference in cashing a check or not in certain situations.

However, accuracy can do the same.

Maybe the "casting gods" could make the A/B choice situation specific?

Personally I would go for distance, given the majority of my fishing situations. I can work on becoming more accurate - a rod isn't going to let me bounce a senko off a tree and let it slide down without some practice anyway.

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You can always back up a bit if you're able to cast farther than necessary, but if the fish are out of your casting reach, well...

But these two are not mutually exclusive. You can and should have both. Generally, a rod will give you just as much casting accuracy as you're capable of. Your lure lands where you throw it.

............

To me casting comes first. learn how to cast (long or short, high or low). Get that down then comes the accuracy. Depending on the situation the type of casting needed to get your lure were it is intended to go. You use a verity of styles of casting (over , under, side, flipping ect). So get those down then try to improve on your accuracy

Good Wraps Bob

For me;
Casting distance has been a mater of good rod construction.
Accuracy has been a mater of good amounts of practice!

Steve you answered his question much better than I did. What it comes down to is know your rod and make it work to the best of your ability. like everything else in this practice it comes by trial and error and more practice

Good Wraps Bob

You only need to cast as far as the fish are from you. I'm the same as you (advanced in years) but my fishing has gotten better as I become older, wiser, and stealthier. IMHO distance is for ego, accuracy is for catching fish.

Jim

Stonefly Custom Fly Rods
20 Vaquero Rd
Santa Fe NM 87508

www.stoneflyrods.com

To build on what others have said. Distance is important so you can always cast as far as you want. As Tom said, you can always cast shorter....and if you can cast a bait a long ways easily, it will take no effort to cast short.

As far as accuracy goes I see two factors that effect it. First and foremost is practice.....no rod blank, guide system, grip material, etc. is going to give you the ability to skip a jig 30' under a dock.....BUT selecting the proper blank for the lure weight will make it easier to learn. I think that matching lure weight to the rod's ability to easily cast the lure is the best thing you can do to aid accuracy.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

"You only need to cast as far as the fish are from you. I'm the same as you (advanced in years) but my fishing has gotten better as I become older, wiser, and stealthier. IMHO distance is for ego, accuracy is for catching fish. "

ME TOO ! I never have a problem getting to my target, it's getting the bait as close to the target as I want it to be. That takes practice and the correct equipment and correct set up. Therefore, Accuracy is more important to me.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Like Jay says accuracy is paramount in casting whether it be fishing for steelhead or Bass. You must know your equipment to get accurate at your casting. You have to under stand how your rod well work under certain conditions, the same goes for your reel. If you change ether one, you have a new set of parameters to consider.

Good Wraps Bob

I think it depends on where you fish and what you are fishing for.

Extreme examples of this are flipping, where you need to get a gnarly looking something within an inch or two of a target (some folks may also remember the old "skittering a perch belly" technique as well, still effective I might add!), and longcasting in the ocean surf where you need to get your lure 160 plus yards out to even reach the fish.

As for my fifty-something eyes, I figure on a distance cast I'm not likely to miss the ocean, therefore put every fiber into getting it out there just as far as I can..... :)

Whit

If you are ocean fishing I can definitely see where distance is most important.
I Bass fish fresh water. I am always trying to sneak up on a Bass and lay the bait exactly where it needs to be , and do it on the first cast. If you have to cast a half dozen times to get the lure on target you will most likely run the Bass off, depending on water conditions and fishing pressure. Although I have made them mad enough to come back and hit the bait anyway. If you are casting or pitching a worm or jig to his lair, (which is what I do mostly) you need to be very accurate and very gentle, hopefully he will take it on the first cast. Thats why accuracy is most important to me.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Question is then if you can't cast how can you become accurate? I am talking about casting less than 50 feet or just a hair more.

Good Wraps Bob

LOL! For the ultimate accuracy, get one of those 50 feet long European match rods. Yes 50 feet and they cost up to $5000. Crazy. No reels, so you just tie a line at the tip and drop the lure/fly/whatever right wherever you want it. Now that's pinpoint accuracy. On my current travel, I picked up a 16, 17, 20 and a 31 footer to try when I get back. Gonna be interesting.

Mo

Hey try casting a roe of eggs across and up stream on a moving river and let it drift down stream without loosing your roe, while fishing for skiddish Steelhead. I know the 50 foot case was crazy. How about a 30 feet cast under some brush. That takes accuracy and casting ability. So what comes first Knowing how to cast or knowing how to put a lure in a cup at 15 feet. We all know how or how something should be done. but doing it correctly every time takes practice

Good Wraps Bob

For many Bass fishing situations I would agree that accuracy is more important. But on the lakes that Alex and I fish most of the time distance is king. Fishing deep structure either with Carolina Rigs or deep diving crankbaits you need the longest possible casts, both to get the bait down and to keep it in the strike zone longer. Fishing schooling fish requires long casts since you never know exactly where they are going to come up and an extra 10 feet can make all the difference.

I used to fish topwater walking baits with a 6 foot 6 inch rod since it was easier to get good walking action, but I forced myself to learn how to get good action with a 7 foot rod to get more casting distance. I may try an even longer rod in the future.

I have never spent much time fishing deep crankbaits, but this year I wanted to focus on learning that technique so I built a deep cranking rod - 8 foot popping blank, 4 Alconites on top, carbon grips. Last weekend I fished a tournament on Douglas Lake in TN and drew a boater who has fished almost nothing else but deep crankbaits for the last 20 years. Almost every cast my bait went 15 or more feet further than his did, this got my crankbait deeper and kept it in the strike zone longer.

We all got wrapped up in our casting and accuracy abilities, casting heavy hardware or bait , It appears Steve is a fly fisherman Now that brings in a whole different situations of casting ! ARE WE Double Holing, Roll or Sde casting, is there any wind what weight line and tippet are you using. FLY GUYS chime in

Good Wraps Bob

When I fly-fish, accuracy is the prime goal.
Spin fishing in a big reservoir-I vote for distance.
As it relates to fly-shing, there is a definite trade-off between accuracy and distance, when constructing a rod. For instance, a 9 foot rod will outcast a similar rod in an 8 foot length. The 8 footer, on the other hand, is significantly more accurate, especially when working in close. At least, this has been my non-empirical experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2009 12:10AM by George Forster.

When I'm really serious about catching fish, the only times I am happy with my casting distance is when I'm on one of my two big rivers and my cast sails exactly how far I wanted it to. That is because I think that's where the fish might be at the moment. Sometimes I catch fish. On the smaller lakes, I often find myself stopping a short cast in midflight when I see that it is heading to a point that is a foot or two outside of where I want it to go. That is because I think that's where the fish might not be at the moment. Sometimes I catch fish.

When I just want to be fishing while teaching the wife and kids, unwrapping a sandwich, cracking a beer and blindly heaving something out into the water, sometimes I catch fish.

I have never asked nor been asked, (including the bass pros I build for), "How were the results of your skills"?

I've only asked and been asked, (including the bass pros I build for), "Had any luck?"



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2009 01:33AM by Mick McComesky.

Interesting discussion! I bass fish with both casting and spinning tackle with line from 6 to 25 pound test. My answer is that it depends! I have tested a spinning outfit in my yard and with 8 pound line and a heavy weight (around 5/8 to 3/4 ounce) I could throw over 80 yards (yes I measured it) this was with a fiberglass 6' rod. Could I have set the hook at that distance, well no of course. I then took an assortmant of 7' rods with various lines and found that 40 yard is a confortable "long' cast using 3/8 - 1/2 ounce weights, can I set the hook at that distance? Well that is where it depends on line, rod power and bait type. All this was before the swimbait bacame popular! So for me distance counts only where I need it and can actually hook fish at that distance. And yes I fish a lot of crankbaits including the big "DD" sized baits. I concluded that most if not all my combos will throw as far as I need and most farther! And even at extreme distance if you cannot get close to your target then you probably will not catch much.