Wild claims of casting distance!!!

[Saltheart]

Take a walk along a typical beach. Where its just sand with possible bowls , bars troughs , etc you usually do well in close. Now you come to a rocky point. Suddenly you will do better if you can work the entire length that that rocky points extends into the water. They are sometimes in close but sometimes off the tip , far out there. Now you come to an outflow of a river or something like a breachway. You can simply drift lure , bait etc out into the outflow. Now suppost you have a place like The Canal. Every inch of that , length and width , could hold a fish. In that case the longer you can cast , the more potential you have. You may not need to cast as far as you can every time but having the potential to do so is a valuable asset.

Now lets go back to the nearly feautureless beach. Its no longer June , its late August into Sept and into the fall. Now in addition to fish just hangng in close feeding , you have many many pods of fiosh coming by , surface feeding so you can see them , but far out. I can remember hundreds of times when I could see Albies too far out in late august/sept , then big schools of stripers just 50 yards past where I could reach. Now I know there are guys around who can cast that extra 50 yards. They would have gotten fish.

So while stripers may be in close a lot , there are places , structure , times of year , stages of tide where even in the same general places , the ability to cast far is a good skill to have.

[ReelinRod]

And down here in New Joisey during this spring migration the majority of stripers passing close to shore are not moving in and out of the cuts and actively feeding in the bowls & sloughs. They are following moving forage fish running outside of the bar (mostly adult bunker) and really just streaming right by me on their trek to you guys up North.

I don't bother targeting the bowls this time of year. If there aren't actively feeding fish I'll look for a cut in the bar or a spot where the bar is close and I can stagger baits from 150yards or more back in. I get the fish that would never come into the slough / bowl in front of me and I catch ones that do want to come in, before they even get into the bowl (and I'll have a bait in the bowl / slough just in case I miss one) . . .

Does anyone really think the fish are residing in the bowls & sloughs for a majority of a tide? Perhaps they are being teleported inside the bar just for your guys pleasure LOL. No, they are coming in from OUTSIDE the bar on the rise and leaving on the ebb (actually more frequently).

Come mid-June when the (smaller) body of more resident fish set up here and they focus on non-swimming forage (clams / calico crabs, because the fish forage has pretty much moved through here to you) the holes are where to be. Plugging once the fish forage has moved on is a bang your head on the wall diehard or purist tactic at this point.

You guys have the luxury of fishing barses that have been fished the same way for decades if not centuries which act like fish conveyors that can be learned by a blind man in a year or so . . . You have a season long supply of ample forage for the fish to concentrate on (and to concentrate the fish). Honestly, it seems the biggest challenge and determinant for a successful tide for you guys is getting to "your spot" before someone else does.

So, I wouldn't be bragging that casting skills are not needed which means for all intents and purposes a 8 year old kid with mono wrapped around a soup can has as much chance as anyone to catch a fish (especially if he's on "your" rock) . . .

To be honest, I would never be satisfied just catching the small minority of fish that swim by me within 200 feet or so . . . And if I were, I would never be so bold as to argue that trying to catch the ones farther out is a waste of time or to make the embarrassing argument that doing so means I have a hang-up about the size of my johnson .

You guys have it good up there, perhaps TOO good for your OWN good . . .

[2na]

There is a time and place for the long cast. In the spring I use light tackle for big fish because they are in close, but as June rolls in they seem to move out (as the seals move in) and the long cast is necessary (doesn't mean I put the small rods away though, if the fish are at your feet then the big rod is cumbersome). Makai pushes 150 yards and I've seen others cast as far or further; there is a guy with a 13' Zzplex who gets it out that distance (150) easily and he doesn't even use close to proper technique. I don't think 200 yards is out of the question or should be laughed at out of hand.

There is something peaceful and relaxing about a serious practiced long cast groove.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by ReelinRod

They are following moving forage fish running outside of the bar (mostly adult bunker) and really just streaming right by me on their trek to you guys up North.

.
You guys have the luxury of fishing barses that have been fished the same way for decades if not centuries which act like fish conveyors that can be learned by a blind man in a year or so . . . You have a season long supply of ample forage for the fish to concentrate on (and to concentrate the fish). Honestly, it seems the biggest challenge and determinant for a successful tide for you guys is getting to "your spot" before someone else does.

So, I wouldn't be bragging that casting skills are not needed which means for all intents and purposes a 8 year old kid with mo
no wrapped around a soup can has as much chance as anyone to catch a fish (especially if he's on "your" rock) . . .

You guys have it good up there, perhaps TOO good for your OWN good . . .

I wish what you were saying is true. The predominate feeling is that north of Montauk has been declining for several years. You will be hard pressed to find anyone up here who has been at it more than a decade or so who will say it is too good. We do keep hearing from some other Jersey guys about how the stocks are so great. I talked to Delaware guys a couple of weeks ago that had their best season ever last year. Not hearing that up here.

That aside, there are definitely times and places where casting counts and I think almost everyone here would acknowledge that. I don't know if there is more to this and... people are/you think people are... directing comments at you, but some long standing facts of fishing include:
a) people pound their chests about casting/catching etc.; people get irritated at perceived chest pounding.
b) casts are beyond the strike zone as often as they are short of the strike zone.
I don't think it is anything you should take personally.