Casting accuracy?

[Darth-Baiter]

Yesterday, i found a grove of Tule and it was bunched up against a grove of other green growing stuff.  a "bush" , for lack of a better description.  the tule was bent down and it formed  a tunnel.  my goal was to fire a worm in there.  the hole was the size of a laundry basket.  i was casting from about 25 feet away.  baitcaster.  i would forearm cast it and if it was going high/wide, i'd jam down my thumb and arrest all forward motion, cuss some, reel in quick, and cast again.  i got into a rhythm and was hitting that opening!!  four cast, was four bass.  it  was fun!!  the wind would blow me out of positions and i would either reposition myself or fire at the increasing angle.   i realized i am not that accurate!  i couldnt pitch because if i stood up the wind would push against my body and thrust me into the weeds. 

 

oddly, backhanding a cast i am just as good..maybe better on some days.   i can hit a distance fairly accurately.  dropping that worm inches from the base of tule wasnt a problem.    i think i should be better than i am after a year of fishing.  

 

(spinning reels are fairly accurate for me.)  

 

how good are you?   i'm too busy to sit in my front yard aiming for a bucket.  

 

i cant even begin a discussion about skipping a bait.

[Mobasser]

Ive made a couple of post about casting accuracy in the past. I think it's very important.                                          When the season starts I'm probably seven out of ten. Moving along my accuracy gets better to probably eight out of ten. Some days better. And even after forty years, I still find a way to backlash on occasion.

[Darth-Baiter]

2 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Ive made a couple of post about casting accuracy in the past. I think it's very important.                                          When the season starts I'm probably seven out of ten. Moving along my accuracy gets better to probably eight out of ten. Some days better. And even after forty years, I still find a way to backlash on occasion.

oh..i like the "out of ten" description!!  i say i am a 6 out of ten most days.  

[DaubsNU1]

I remember practicing my pitching and flipping with bait-caster many years ago. Got fairly good at hitting my spots.  I've always been pretty good a hitting spots with overhand and side-arm casts on both spinning and bait-casting.

 

I've gotten pretty good at roll casting this spring. I can roll cast under tree limbs, docks, etc.

 

A quick google search found a video...

 

 

[Jmilburn76]

I have never been very accurate at casting especially now after my stroke. I keep on trying though and get it done enough to catch some fish and Im ok with that.

[Bankbeater]

On some days I can hit a spot the size of a dinner plate from 60 feet away, and on other days I couldn't hit the ground if I was just dropping the bait.

[DitchPanda]

I like the out of ten scale as well. At ice out I'm about 3 out of 10... Now that we are 4+ months into the season I'm dialed..lots of days I'm a solid 8.5-9 out of 10 I'm talking sticking my hook point up a gnats a@# at 50ft. Some days tho you would swear it was my first time handling a rod and reel.

[Woody B]

It depends on the day.  Somedays I'm really accurate.  Some days I'm lucky if I hit the water.   I done my casting into a bucket in my yard 45 to 50 years ago.   

 

 

I think I cast badly when I'm tired.   My funniest recent casting experience?  I was skipping a swim bait under a dock.  The dock was about 18" above the water.  It had posts there were ~4 feet apart.   My first 4 casts hit the posts.  2 on the right, 2 on the left.  I was surprised that I never hit the edge, or the top of the dock.  Finally I skipped it perfectly under the dock and caught a 4 pounder.   I was 25 feet or so from the dock.   

[Big Hands]

I don't know. I think I'll need to hit the lake this afternoon to find out.

[Bird]

Casting accuracy is VERY important and definitely will increase bites.

Fishing with others from a boat who are particular about angles and what bank to go down will help increase accuracy...... from practice.

I much prefer casting from my right but many times the conditions and a bow mount trolling motor, I'm forced to backhand.

Accuracy suffers minimally.

 

 

 

[813basstard]

In my mind: I got the accuracy of a juvenile hawk on a cloudless day in spring. 
 

In reality: A middle aged pelican rolling the dice. 

Seriously, it is important. You catch more fish on the cast than you do on the bait..I’m almost certain of it

 

[Deleted account]

2 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i think i should be better than i am after a year of fishing. 

Someone translate to Boomer for me please...

[JGD]

I was at a seminar probably back in the 80’s and watched Hank Parker pitch a jig in to a small styrofoam cup from about 30’ away while engaging the crowd. Did it over and over and if he missed the opening he still hit the cup. He simply made it look effortless. I’d say that’s pretty dang accurate.

 

 John 

[GreenPig]

I'm pretty accurate most of the time, it just takes me a little time to develop my rhythm. If I change rigs, the rhythm must be developed again..... Now on a New Moon night with a black buzzbait, all my cast are amazingly accurate that don't land in the bushes.

[gim]

Certain situations when I fish require precision casting accuracy. A small river I fish has targets about the size of a dinner plate while we float with the current. When I’m fishing around docks, accuracy is important too.  Sometimes there is just one or two openings in a mat of lily pads where a frog needs to land.

 

In other instances, accuracy is not as important. Quite often I am just trying to cover water down a shoreline or weed line to find active fish, so precision casting is not required.

 

I’m far more accurate with a bait caster than a spinning setup too because I have more control over the line.

[12poundbass]

It’s all about practice, developing the muscle memory. My golf coach in high school said, “perfect practice makes perfect”. You can practice all you want but if you keep doing it wrong you develop bad muscle memory. 
 

The other thing I realized a couple years ago is having the right rod. I used to use whatever rod and didn’t care about action or power. I started to upgrade my rods and match the proper rod to the technique and that makes a world of difference in accuracy. 

[king fisher]

My casting accuracy is 10 out of 10.  I can hit dead on 10 out of 10 of the only snags along a mostly snag free bank. Some are sticks so small, that most people wouldn't even notice them, but I can hit them and snag my lure from up to 30 yards away.  I also must be better than most at distance, because I can loose lures higher up in a tree than any of the other peoples lures I see lost in the same tree.

[GRiver]

I’m ok

Like green pig every time I changes rigs, it seems like I’ve got to learned again, and I get better as the days goes. 
 

[TnRiver46]

When I was a kid, I walked all through the house underhand casting a spinner bait at everything. One time my brother was whining that we were too loud and to close the door to his room. I was sitting on the couch and flipped a spinner bait at his door knob over and over until it wrapped around and I pulled the door shut . We also set up 5 gallon buckets and hula hoops all over the place in the yard and casted into them . I won’t win any casting contests but I might come in 3rd………

 

practice practice practice

 

the ironic part is in adulthood I can’t catch much with a spinner bait and most of my bigger fish come on arrant casts???

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, JGD said:

I was at a seminar probably back in the 80’s and watched Hank Parker pitch a jig in to a small styrofoam cup from about 30’ away while engaging the crowd. Did it over and over and if he missed the opening he still hit the cup. He simply made it look effortless. I’d say that’s pretty dang accurate.

 

 John 

 

When I was 8 or 9 I started using a baitcaster and this was how I practiced. I think it was a small coffee can and it was about 50’ from the sidewalk to the telephone pole at the end of the yard. I would pitch a jig for hours on end. If I didn’t have the can I’d just pitch to the base of the telephone pole. I had grand ambitions of being a B.A.S.S. Casting kids champion. 
 

 

I’d say I’m pretty good for casting, and definitely pitching. I can’t backhand cast very well so I’ll pitch backhand and roll cast forehand. Fishing the backseat with my dad (who is also right handed and likes to fish out of the left side of the boat) I’ll just pitch all day, even big treble hook baits like a plopper. Anything out to 20-25 yards is no problem.  If I’m on my own I’m usually hitting 9/10 on the first cast within a foot of where I want to be from 25 yards and in. Every now and then you have one of those really good days where you’re dropping it in a couple inches away on every cast with no plop. And then there are those days where you can’t buy a good cast.

 

skipping though, let’s just not go there yet. 

[Bluebasser86]

Man, there's a great gif that I can't use here, basically sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe not so good. 

[Glenn]

Perhaps of interest...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRB]

When I fished regularly accuracy was a given, look at the target at hit it was automatic. 

The roll or loop cast is perfect for the op’s situation. The lure stay low to the water reducing wind issues and very accurate.

Skip cast would put the lure further inside a small overhang target, easy with spinning tackle.

Time on the and practice, practice.

Tom

[scaleface]

Take spinnerbaits as an example . Ive been saying that the most important aspect of the lure is not the blades or the color but the weight .Get the weight dialed in to the rod and it will make any angler a better caster immediately . When the rod flexes just enough and unloads properly the roll casts and underhand tosses  become effortless and precision casting is the result . 

[MickD]

One thing that I've found that helps casting accuracy is to cast, when possible, with the arc of the rod directly vertical.  What this does is takes the lateral or direction errors almost out of the equation and the distance can be adjusted during the cast by thumbing a BC or touching the line going off the reel on a spinner.

 

If your timing is off a little with sidearm casts you introduce a direction error.  With the overhead motion timing errors don't matter as much.  They might affect distance, but not direction.