Terry Edmonds Distance Casting Tips

This entry was posted on 1st February, 2018

With a lot of carp spending their time at long range during the winter and early spring, I’m going to give you my five top tips for improving your casting distance.

Technique

Without a doubt the most important aspect of reaching fish at range is having a solid technique. I cannot stress this enough; you can buy the best rods and reels in the world, but without knowing how to use these tools, it becomes very frustrating.

Casting is a sport in its own right and because of this, more efficient and powerful techniques are evolving all the time.

In a cast we are trying to get the lead to move as quickly as we can; this is achieved by good body movements in the right order. The cast has to be expansive, with appropriate input of power at the right times.

This is an article in itself, which I am going to come on to very soon. But in the meantime, if you need help with your casting, take a look at my Facebook page; I am helping with tips on casting all the time - Terry Edmonds long range angler https://www.facebook.com/TerryEdmondsLongRangeAngler/

 

Line

After sorting out the technique, line will play a massive part in how far you cast. What you are looking for is the supplest line available, with controlled stretch, and strong enough to land the fish safely.

Supple line creates smaller coils, and passes through the guides with less friction; thinner diameters also help with this, and create less air resistance in the cast, so will cast further. Sinking lines are not needed at distance; they are heavier so don’t cast as well, and nearly always at range we are fishing very tight lines, so a heavy lead is not a top requirement.

A few lines that I can thoroughly recommend for casting and long range angling with leaders are Gardner Pro Blend, Gardner Hydroflo and Shimano Technium

Of course, there are places where leaders are banned; this is where we have to look at level line casting (without leaders). In this situation we are looking for the balance between a line strong enough to take the shock of the cast and thin enough to cast a long way. A balance that is hard to achieve.

Also, remember; the weakest part of this set up will be the knot attaching the mainline to the rig, so good strong knots are advised. Grinner or Palomar are favourites of mine.

Line recommendations for this: the excellent Gardner pro blend, but the ESP XT non loaded version has also proved excellent.

If leaders are banned, Fox, except the tapered line version is the best available at this current time.



 

Rods

With a huge array of rods to choose from, this can be a really confusing area. Now, I get to use different rods casting at range every week on my casting tuitions; I have also been working on rod development for many years, so have a really good idea of what is available in the UK and Europe.

For distance fishing the best tool available will always be 13ft rods; fairly powerful, with 50mm guides. This advice will apply to 95% of anglers who take time to learn a half decent technique.

Longer, stiffer rods help with lead speed and allow you to use heavy leads, which is vital at range to combat weather conditions, straighten your line efficiently when using wraps and clips for accuracy, and to allow you to tighten up to the lead without moving the rig, which I think happens a lot without knowing. Especially over clean gravel.

There is also a big myth out there that 13ft rods are harder to cast, and you need to be tall to use one. It’s in fact the opposite: 13ft helps with lead speed and no matter how tall you are, this is the truth.

Rod choice depends on budget, so what I’m going to do is give you my personal recommendations that I want use for long range casting. Remember I’m casting different brands every week, so I’m basing this on my personal experience.

It’s no secret I work for Harrison rods, but I do so because these blanks have cast all the records I have cast in the past, and have been very reliable. There is no doubt they are some of the best blanks in production, and I have no hesitation in recommending them and using them. But I also am not naive enough to believe that they are the only good blank, so I’m going to list a couple of rods that I would consider from the Angling Direct warehouse.

Top end rods: Harrison Aviator 13ft 3.5lb, Harrison Trebuchet light 13ft 3.75, Daiwa X45 infinity and Century c2D; all these rods will cast very long, and are proven distance tools. Casting big distances requires fast, reliable and durable rods.

We also need to be able to apply bait at range in the form of spodding or spombing.

Set up required: whiplash main line in 20 to 30lb and a 50lb braid leader. Power pro has been excellent for me over the years. 13ft powerful spod rod such as the Harrison Trebuchet 13ft or Century c2d 13ft. Always use a midi spomb and a good, reliable big pit or spod reel.

 

Rigs

For long distance rigs we ask a few simple things; effective at hooking, cast well, and don’t tangle.

I’m a big fan of helicopter rigs at range; they are proven to cast further in tests over the field I use. Rarely tangle if used with stiff hook links, and can be used over various lake bed situations.

My go to rigs are stiff hinge, Ronnie rig and the German rig, all utilising stiff fluorocarbon booms. And small hook baits, usually 12 to 14mm.

Lead clip systems are also very good in conjunction with tungsten tubing or leadcore; they maybe don’t cast as far, but there isn’t that much between them. The advantage they have, I have found, is that it’s the most reliable way if you want to drop a lead due to weed or snags etc. I have tried various helicopter systems to lose the lead but have found none I have been 100% happy with especially for reliability in casting.

With helicopter rigs please makes sure it’s a safe system; Korda do readymade helicopter set ups using their excellent safety bead, which in my mind is the safest bead available with helicopter type set ups, and I use it on all my leaders. ESP and Fox also produce readymade leadcore leaders. So there is NO excuse not to use SAFE rigs. If in doubt please do your research on YouTube and other media.

 

Reels

Distance casting requires big pit reels, and I will be honest here and say the casting distance between one brand and another is very small, I have never picked up a reel and it suddenly adds yards over another big pit reel.

Most important feature for distance casting to me is spool shape. We are looking for the smallest spool that holds enough line so the level does not drop too much in the cast, and produces the smallest coils we can get away with. Oversized spools do not help. Lighter reels may feel better but don’t really help distance, and I also prefer a thin front lip on the spool, with a slight forward taper.

In an angling situation, other factors have to be looked at beyond potential casting distance.

We need a smooth clutch to play the fish with, good line lay to prevent frap ups, reliability in all weathers, high retrieve when fishing at range, and I like quick front drags.

My biggest over cast came on a Daiwa Windcast, and I’ve also cast records on Shimano Ultegras; both cast very well, and I’ve caught a lot of fish on them; not the most expensive, but very good reels.

There are many firms now that produce reels built for long-range casting and fishing, but at the moment reels from the Daiwa or Shimano range are the best overall choice.

Daiwa Windcast 5000 or 5500

Shimano Ultegra 10000 up (not the bait runner spool)

Daiwa ISO 5000 up

Shimano Power Aero

All these are reels I would be happy to use, and are at price ranges to suit everybody. If I were buying a full set up, the rod would be the item I would spend most on. Reel-wise, Shimano Ultegra or Daiwa Windcast would do a good job at a great price.