A good cast can only be made with a good beginning, and a good beginning means a good pickup. The simplest pickup is the one made with a standard overhead cast. The movement begins with the rod tip low to the water (below the horizontal). As the rod tip is smoothly raised to about the 11:00 o'clock position, the line is lifted (picked up) from the water's surface; at this point, the backcast is executed. The pickup and backcast are a continuous movement: a smooth, moderately slow lift that turns into a rapidly accelerating cast which ends in an abrupt stop. Practicing the smooth lift of the line (pickup) on the lawn or on the still waters of a casting pond is a sure fire way to improve your casting.

But when fishing upstream on fast moving water, it's necessary to lift the rod to take up the slack created as the line drifts back down. At the end of the drift, the rod is at the 11:00 position, and there's no room left to make the standard pickup. In this instance, a specialized pickup is needed. One that works well and is easily executed is the roll cast pickup.

When the rod reaches the 11:00 position, the caster smoothly moves the rod back to 1:00 and immediately makes a forward roll cast. The movement from 11:00 to 1:00 does not toss the line in the air; it merely slides the line downstream over the surface. The forward roll cast should be aimed about six feet above the water. The line will extend in the air, rather than on the water (as it would with a normal roll cast). When the line is extended to the front (and before it falls to the water), the angler makes a normal, overhead backcast followed by a normal, overhead, forward cast. If false casts are needed to dry the fly or extend line, the overhead casting can simply be continued.

While this is a very effective pickup, it does have one shortcoming: the line extends forward a minimum of two times (once on the roll pickup and once for the regular cast). If false casts are used to dry the fly, then the line will extend forward several more times. Not only is this more time consuming than if the line extended only once, but it creates more chances that the fish will be frightened by the moving line.

So, I use a corkscrew pickup. When the rod reaches the 11:00 position, sweep the tip down and around so that the tip describes a half circle; this semi-circle can be made either to the left or to the right. When the tip reaches the bottom end of the arc, immediately lift the rod and make a normal, overhead back cast. The semi-circular motion and the following lift and cast are made as one continuous movement. The half-circle motion throws a corkscrew into the line and lifts it cleanly from the water.

The size of the semi-circle that you need to make depends not on line length, but on the speed at which you make the pickup. If the half circle is described slowly, then it has to be large. If it's made fast, then it can be quite small. With a bit of practice you will readily be able to make the pickup with any size corkscrew.

Knowing how to make various sized movements for this pickup is important to angling. A very large, slow semi-circle lifts the lift gently and will not shake the water out of the fly. This is the best movement when using a nymph or other sunken fly. On the other hand, if the corkscrew pickup is done with a fast, small, semi-circular motion, the tip of the line snaps around just as the backcast is begun and pops all the water out of the fly. This eliminates the need to false cast to dry the fly. Not only is this good for type "A" personalities, but it means more efficient angling.

In addition to allowing variations in the speed at which the line can be lifted, the corkscrew pickup allows you to immediately make a backcast without having to first throw the line forward (as must be done with the roll cast pickup). With the corkscrew pickup, the entire casting movement takes only half the time required for the roll cast pickup.

As an example, I use this fast movement variation when fishing a dry fly on a constant line length. Let's say that I'm casting to a fish that is rising about 25 feet upstream from me. I make the cast, let it drift about six feet, make a corkscrew pickup, and immediately place the fly back upstream. A person using a roll cast pickup would just be making the backcast when my dried fly landed on the water. This means I get more drifts over the fish in any specified length of time. More drifts mean more chances of a take. And more chances of a take ultimately means more fish caught.

While most anglers associate specialized pickups with stream fishing, lake fishing can also require specifically designed techniques for lifting the line. In stillwaters, the most important pickups to know are those associated with lifting the line out of aquatic weeds or out of lake-side plants. When you cast across vegetation such as grasses or rushes that stick up above the ground or water, the line settles in among the stems of the plants and is very difficult to get out with a standard pickup. In fact, 99.9 percent of the time, the line gets trapped under a leaf or stem, and a standard pickup drags the fly into the vegetation where it catches firmly.

The wiggle pickup will allow you to smoothly lift the line in such places. Starting with the rod tip low, wiggle it back and forth about a foot in either direction and simultaneously lift the rod toward the 11:00 position. Continue the wiggle as you lift. The wiggling motion will shake the line free of clutching vegetation, and the lift will pick it up out of the weeds. As soon as the line clears the tops of the plants, make a normal backcast.

Fishing across floating-leaf plants, such as lily pads or pond weed, can produce a different set of problems. If the line gets down under the edge of one of these floating leaves, then the wiggle pickup often forces it further back under. In this instance, I use the hump pickup. Instead of wiggling the rod side to side, wiggle it up and down. Immediately after starting these vertical movements of the tip, begin lifting the rod. Keep the up and down movements going as you lift. The line dances up and down on the water (like successive "snakes" in a garden hose) and come cleanly free of entrapping vegetation.

Pickups are an important part of the fly fishers working casts. With a little practice you can add these valuable lifts to your bag of tricks and make your angling easier and more fun.

Previous Page

[ Outdoors Network Library | Lefty Kreh's Library ]

Premium Level Information