The Roll Cast

[Leon Roskilly]

During the week I had a red-letter day on my local syndicate water.

 

Too windy to use my new unfished 3/4 wt rod to any effect, I managed a new pb of a 7.5lb rainbow on the 6/7wt rod

 

And, spotting a fish in the margins I did get to christen the new rod with a 2.5 brownie to a size 22 midge :)

 

But after another rainbow of around 4lb on the 6/7 wt, I stopped fishing, mainly because of the wind.

 

The water is a farm-reservoir with high sloping banks, and even fishing from the platforms (now high off the water because of the 'drought'), there is a mound behind which means an element of 'tower-casting', even on non-windy days (of which there seem few at this unprotected location).

 

On that day, there was nowhere to fish without the strongly gusting wind coming over my right shoulder, and when I wasn't removing the fly from the netttles behind me, it was whacking me in the back and tangling with my waistcoat and hat.

 

So, happy at my catch nevertheless, I was off home.

 

 

 

But of course whenever a day has been full of difficulty, or full of success (or both), it means (at least for me), an uncontrollable urge to get back for some more.

 

So, the following day, with the wind still gusting strongly (though not so much over the right shoulder) I restricted myself to just the 6/7 wt rod, and resolved to fish close in, rather than give the wind the opportunity to tangle me quite so much.

 

A rising fish to my right had me roll-casting over the top of it (I normally roll-cast when fishing around obstructions that make a back-cast impossible or too risky, or when I don't need to get out more than a few rod lengths).

 

I then tried roll-casting further out, and the strong wind picked up the cast and carried it a good distance with a straight line.

 

Not quite as far as false casting would have taken me on a good day, but not far off either.

 

And so I continued roll-casting with the aid of the wind, landed a couple of good fish and went home happy knowing that a strong gusting wind doesn't have to mean tangles with vegetation and clothing, and I can still get a fair distance too.