Flats Tip… Line Management Whilst Wading
Many anglers have too much line trailing out behind them when wading the flats. in doing so they are of the belief it provides a quicker response time so getting the fly to the fish quicker. They are also unaware of the negative effect this has on presentation.
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If you have your line trailing way behind you then when it comes time to deliver the fly you will be burdened with the considerable drag the line creates when you are trying to cast it out. Ironically it negatively impacts the mid range casts even more. Imagine you do not spot a fish until it is close at say 25 feet. Time is of the essence so you want to get the fly there as quickly as possible before it sees you. Now however, you find yourself fighting the drag of the line and even at this shorter distance you are spending far too much time trying to counter this drag to enable a good presentation to the fish.
In addition to the increased drag, the line tends to twist when being dragged behind you. That creates friction with itself and again, more drag. In addition to that the more line you have out the higher the chance you will pick up some weed or other flotsam that in turn adds to your woes !! If you fish and wade the Caribbean these days from April to November then you know how much more sargasso weed there is out there these days.
Even if you wish to make a presentation at your maximum range then you will find yourself having to make twice as many false casts to counteract the drag and get the fly out ahead of you. Your challenge now is getting the line out of the rod tip. If you want to shoot line ( and you should ) you find it does not go as far as you expect it to go.
So the answer to negate these unneeded challenges is to have much less line out and spend a few extra seconds stripping it from your reel and placing at your feet before making your presentation. With the line now at your feet you are no longer fighting the drag of line behind you and therefore your presentation is not only as quick or quicker but is under far more control.
One trick to minimize line twist with the line you do drab behind yoy is to have as wide a loop of line behind you as is possible. You can do this by having the line trail from your reel and then you hold the line as close to the first line guide as possible creating a wide gap between where you hold the line in your finger and where it exits the reel.. Then stick the rod butt into your hip with the rod at 90 degrees to the direction you are walking. When you are tired from that side them pirouette backwards so you basically spin behind you 180 degrees switch hands and now you can do the same from the other side. This keeps the line in a wider bow and therefore does not twist.
So now you plan to have less line out there then you need to accept that the strategy is that when you see a fish you will strip sufficient line as efficiently as you can and dump next to you and then start to false cast.
If you use both hands to strip ie you pull line off the reel with the stripping hand while at the same time push the reel away from you then you can get 5 feet of line out per strip. I just timed it and I could easily do 6 strips in 5 seconds so now I have 30 feet plus my original 30 feet in 5 seconds AND the business end of my line that will make the final false cast and delivery will be executed with little to no drag, twist or flotsam. 10 foot leader on and I am able to cast 70 feet very quickly and under control.
Any loss in time will be easily, if not exceeded in the better presentations you will make. Especially on calm days and especially with bigger smarter fish !!
One other tip to untwist your line. If it’s got unmanageable and you do have a bad case of twisted line then take the fly off, get most of your fly line out of your rod tip then walk briskly back the way you came so you don’t spook and fish ahead of you for 50 yards trailing the line behind you. This will slowly untwist your line and then turn around and return back to whence you came. Tie you fly back on and by this time you will be back where you left off but with an untwisted line.