Fly Casting Blog: How to Cast HEAVY Flies - i.e. Clousers

[Further North]

 

 

[bulldog1935]

left out the part about getting hit in the head with the badly hinging weighted fly. 

Heavy weighted flies are fly fishermen gone obstinate. 

Smarter to use the same weighted fly on BFS. 

 

Or even better, skip the heavy flies and fish Teeny T-series lines, which are spliced sinking shooting heads - the straightest line from rod tip to hook point. 

All you need is chain bead to keel your cats whisker hook-up. 

 

Here's my friend Randy at work, who doesn't fish weighted flies, either. 

 

Randy only fly fishes for tiger muskie, unless he goes offshore for tuna - again, where a weighted fly would be pointless. 

[flyfisher]

I don't use a ton of heavily weighted flies nad never really liked clousers to be honest but I do agree with the smooth almost circular cast when throwing weighted flies.  I learned that quick when I started flu fishing and only had a 4 wt and used it for everything.

[Further North]

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

left out the part about getting hit in the head with the badly hinging weighted fly. 

Heavy weighted flies are fly fishermen gone obstinate. 

Smarter to use the same weighted fly on BFS. 

 

Or even better, skip the heavy flies and fish Teeny T-series lines, which are spliced sinking shooting heads - the straightest line from rod tip to hook point. 

All you need is chain bead to keel your cats whisker hook-up. 

I don't fish weighted flies much at all, but sometimes musky flies get pretty heavy in their own right, based on materials.

There's a few exceptions:  You can't beat a lightly weighted fly of some sort to mimic a critter darting along the bottom.

Lot's of fly anglers talk about "hinging"...but I never see it. 

I generally fish weighted lines of some sort - usually technique specific, and dependent on water depth and current strength...I don't want a 6 ips line when I'm fishing a foot of water, I'll spend too much time getting it free of bottom obstructions.

27 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

I don't use a ton of heavily weighted flies nad never really liked clousers to be honest but I do agree with the smooth almost circular cast when throwing weighted flies.  I learned that quick when I started flu fishing and only had a 4 wt and used it for everything.

Same here - that continuous tension cast works great for any big streamer.

[TOXIC]

When I fly fished the Shenandoah river for smallies in current, I used a lot of beaded nymphs to get the fly at least to the middle of the water column.  I did throw them on an 8wt Scott Brightwater though so I had the backbone to get them out there.

[Further North]

25 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I did throw them on an 8wt Scott Brightwater though so I had the backbone to get them out there.

An 8 wt. is about as light as I go these days, with an exception now and then for small streamers on a 7 wt., or something like an Ol' Mr. Wiggly on a 6 wt.

In my (admittedly distorted) world, it's 8, 10, and 12 wt. rods most of the time.

FWIW, that rod Gunnar is using is probably a 10 wt., though there's a chance it's an 8.

[TOXIC]

I also have a 5 wt Sage but I don’t throw it nearly as much. I would if I fished the small mountain trout streams around me.  

[Further North]

41 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I also have a 5 wt Sage but I don’t throw it nearly as much. I would if I fished the small mountain trout streams around me.  

I have a couple of 5 sweet 5 wt. rods as well...I can't recall the last time I've fished with them...but I'm not much of a trout angler.