Anyone Else Yard Fish?

[blongfishing]

I do this a lot!! I find myself usually doing this in the winter when I can't fish.

[hatrix]

I don't cast in my yard. But about the cats thing. My uncle had a spincast I think it is really called like a zebco 404 type. It had a little cloth bag of catknip tied on it and we would cast it across the house and reel in my cousins cats when I was little. I was actually tons of fun when you are like 8 or 9. They put up a good fight.

[SirSnookalot]

Having a pond about 100' from my door and a canal around 125 yds my answer is no.  When I have a rod in my hand I'm fishing.

[Brian Brazier]

Yep, all the time, my neighbors think I am crazy. I have a large greenbelt behined my house where I usually practice. One day I was testing out my casting distance, tied on a 3/8oz practice weight, and let it fly. I got 50yrds a few times, decided to go down to 1/4oz thats when the wind picked up. This wouldnt have been a problem, but there are high tension power lines that run parallel to where I was casting, sure enough I launched one, and a huge gust of wind carried it around the line closest to me. I know mono shouldnt be cinductive, but these are like 51,000 volt lines, and the power is carried on the outsice of the line, I was a little worried, but I would have been dead before I knew what hit me. So I dropped my rod, and grabbed a knife with a thick rubber handle, and cut the line. Unfortunately the weight wrapped around the line, so it didnt just fall down and the pigtail that you tie the fishing line to was touching the power line and making an arc. I had to call Bonneville Power and have them come out and fix it, they showed up with 3 trucks, all the lights on and it took 2hrs to get it down becuase they had to call and shut them down, and fillout a bunch of paperwork, but they got it down in one tug with their safe stick. So for now I am practicing out front, and of course every neighbor that comes by has the same joke, "you catch anything".

[Rhino68W]

I yard fish for sure! And I live in a very busy apartment complex. People drive by and stare at me like im crazy haha.

[bassguytom]

I do whenever I spool up with new line or when I get a new reel.

[WdyCrankbait]

My name is WdyCrankbait, and I yard fish.

 

Yep, when I am trying to dial in a reel before wasted time on the water.

[CDMeyer]

I practice flippin' this way, taught myself to not have to switched the rod in my hands when I flip

[DogBone_384]

No can do - I live on a peninsula, in the city.  House lots are small, but the ocean is 300 yards down the street.... I guess I can practice there.

[CDobber]

I have only done it a couple of times and caught all sorts of flack from the wife when I did.  If/when I do get into fly fishing though, I will likely practice that in the backyard a fair amount to get the timing down.

[starcraft1]

This all started when I was taught (was being taught) how to flip. I had to stand on a 5 gal. bucket and flip into 9" pie plates. Once I got to where I was hitting the plates on a reg. basis they were fulled with water. I got a lot of strange looks back then. I'm glad I kept it up.

[ZRT-42]

I have, doing a lot more now because I'm trying to get way better with my baitcaster.

[TorqueConverter]

Last time I went yard fishing I got brand new DT16 stuck in tree.

[Bluebasser86]

I don't yard fish but I do puppy fish. I have a short piece of knotted rope on a 5' 6" MH pistol grip Lew's rod with a 6600 Abu and 30lb mono that I roll cast around the house while our goofy golden retriever bounds through the house after it then plays tug-o-war with me until I can wiggle it loose from her. She gets excited every time I pick that rod up. 

[Grizzn N Bassin]

i do all winter for the most part but after the winter had this year me and my uncle are going to give ice fishing a solid go 

[SirSnookalot]

No can do - I live on a peninsula, in the city.  House lots are small, but the ocean is 300 yards down the street.... I guess I can practice there.

I'd love that.

[Bankbeater]

I stand on the deck and target my wife's empty flower pots.  They are heavy enough that they won't tip over even if I do manage to hit one.

[StormEasy]

When i got my first baitcaster, i practiced out in the yard for about a good month before i wanted to risk embarrassment on the water, and did the same thing again when i got a fly rod this summer.

[Kevin Beachy]

Cats make great subjects to fish for while practicing (without a hook of course) Have to do something when we can't go fishing.

They are very nasty when they jump from there hiding spot and attack your hookified lure and then you get the fun of having to pull it out of there mouth before they swallow it!!! Happened 2 times to me.

[geo g]

I always work the yard after lubing the reels. You have to love those old Abu reels, bullet proof and strong as a winch. I still use one all the time and load it 65 lb. braid.

[FirstnameLastname]

Anybody who says they don't do this is a lair. Every time I get a new rod or reel, I test in my yard. Just so I can get a feel for my equipment before it is truly tested.

[gramps50]

That's where I learned to use a bait caster, much easer to get the hang of it in the yard with a practice plug. Great place to practice. Why waste time on the water learning or honing these skills.

[Jd_Phillips_Fishin]

When I learned to fly fish, they told me to practice casting in the yard, without a hook.  I was doing this one day, and I tried to pull forward from the backcast, but it was stuck.  My sister's cat had snagged the end of the line and had it pinned to the ground.

 

If you cut the hook off a marabou jig, it makes a great cat toy.  I had one kitten who would play with one for hours, while I would pitch and cast to him in my living room and yard.  Afterwards, I would have to hide my fishing gear in the closet (it was a small apartment) or he would get into it.  I woke up in the middle of the night one time to this "Thok, thok, thok, thok," sound.  I had left the rod in a corner of the living room, and the line wrapped around the tip, to keep the jig in place.  Angus had climbed my desk and could just reach it, and he was swatting the jig against the wall, trying to dislodge it.

 

What do you use to keep from snagging on the grass?  Lead weights don't cast the same as most lures.  Cutting the hook off of a cheap jig is another option, or removing the hooks from a crankbait.  I know they make practice plugs, but that seems like an unnecessary expense. 

just get a beat up worm and an old weight that doesnt have any paint left on it

[LApanic]

Oh yeah, once a week at least for 20-30.  Mainly standing on a bucket and pitching to small flower pots, treelined, etc. Ive got a few practice weights and roll cast from the ground and bucket.  Right now fine tuning my soft landing of a creature baits at 40yds and soon to get on the walking path and start learning to skip.  Standing on a bucket you definitely get looks, but really don't care, lol

[Senko lover]

All the time. 
My neighbors laugh at me when they see me casting out in my front yard ("Tryin' to catch a grass carp?") every time I forget to cast in the back yard. What's wrong with practicing in my yard? Would I say "tryin' for a hole in one?" if I saw them practicing a golf swing? No. I always take my newly-purchased combos out in the yard to get a feel for them and then I hone my skills by casting, flipping, and pitching with them all the time after that. 

It's a fishing thing.