Dan O’Neill is back again this week with a feature rich edition of The River Whispers…
“Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” and seek knowledge from others”
This edition I speak about the roll cast and some ways in which we can utilize it. Our expert this week is Chris Barry from Go fishing Ireland and he speaks to us about his set up for targeting pike. We take a quick look at Rudd on the fly and my set up. Our competition winner is Brogan Brennan Quilty for his fantastic catch, well done Brogan, your prize is on its way.
The Roll cast
Let’s take a break from the overhead cast now and the pickup and lay down. The roll cast is a fun cast and is fun to teach.
What is a roll cast?
A roll cast is a forward cast with no back cast. The rod is loaded by something called the D-Loop. As our line lay out in front of us (about 30ft), we slowly raise the rod to the key position (1 o clock, phone to the ear).Take a look at your line laying in front of you and imagine it as a train track, this line represents the right side of the train track you now want to lay the left side, now make a forward cast to lay down the left side of the train track parallel to the right side of the train track, no backcast,aim to lay the fly line to the left side of your line that’s already on the water. Perform your smooth acceleration forward and remember start slow finish fast, stopping the rod at about 10am.You have now performed a roll cast. Keep practicing and aim for tighter loops and open loops, learn to see what happens when you stop the rod at different points.
Why would I want to learn a roll cast?
There are many reasons why it’s good to know and have a good roll cast. The reason people are most familiar with is when your fishing with a high bank behind you or trees/scrub so a back cast would be impossible. The roll cast is the foundation for all of the Spey casts so when we move on to single handed Spey techniques having a good roll cast is a huge benefit.
It will also help us when we are raising sink tips or some of the small to medium pike flies when getting ready to recast.
There are some other reasons to but as we are beginning let’s just take a look at reasons we are going to come across over the next few weeks.
In the coming episodes we will be looking at fishing with polyleaders, sink tips and sinking lines so having a good roll cast will put us ahead for those lessons.
Winner of the river whispers competition
Well done to Brogun Brennan Quilty on his fabulous pike. I look forward to seeing more from this young angler. Your prize is on its way.
Youth Competition entry
Please send your catch pictures to [email protected] for a chance to win a yeti cup for your fishing adventures. Closing date for entries is 18-12-24
Go fishing…
Courses
Dan will be running many courses in 2025… I like to keep my courses from 1-4 anglers so they get the most out of the course and I get to spend the right amount of time with each person. This makes it more affordable too as the course cost can be split 4 ways. If you don’t have a full group don’t worry just mention to me that you would like to join a group and I will make up the numbers.
The course dates for the “Getting ready for the trout season” course are listed below.
If you are interested send me an email at [email protected] and I will send you on the course content.
Getting ready for trout season
- 11th January
- 18th January
- 25th January
Pike and Perch on the fly
- 12th January
- 19th January
- 26th January
Casting clinics
- 11th and 12th January
- 18th and 19th January
- 25th and 26th January
