How many actual types of casts do you actually use in your fly fishing?

be it river or stillwater as some will differ depending where you fish.

for example do you ever use a pile cast? or a reach cast? a snapT or snap C?

Are these casts usefull to learn or more for demonstration purposes in your opinion?

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Kevin

I don't think that you can have too many casts in your armoury. There will come a time when they will all be of use. For the most part I'm sure that most of us use a general overhead cast with a bit of a haul put in occasionally to get a little bit of extra distance. Personaly I rarely have to put out more than say 20 yards to catch trout on my waters. But there have been times when I have been glad to put it all out and then some when the trout are being awkward. The fancy casts that you see at a demonstration don't generaly come into the average anglers scope however some of them, such as the casts that you mention (although I've never heard of a snap c or t), will get you to the fish that other anglers can't reach. I enjoy learning new casts when I see them.............you never know..................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

I guess the other thing is that, if you can learn these various casts, you are likely to be able to improvise according to specific situations (whilst under the pressure of covering a fish without spooking it!). I can remember instances of using snake roll casts whilst fishing from a drifting boat in order to quickly change direction to cover a moving fish. This would be impossible (given the length of line you often have out on the water) if you were to try to "pick up and lay down" with a big change in direction. I've also seen guys using snap T casts with shooting heads to chuck a long line from underneath overhanging branches.

Overhead and roll casts only for me so far, but looking for more options to deal with overhanging foliage. I have been known to drift a fly downstream under low branches, feeding out line as I go. Hardly a cast but it works.

I have managed to get by with just two casts in my first year of fly fishing.An overhead cast on stillwaters and a sideways cast on a little brook I fish(lots of trees).

Next year I would like to learn some new casts and will probably book an instructor before the rivers open.It would be a great way to impress my mates by throwing a few roll casts etc.

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Theres more to fishing than just fish.

Roll into over head most of the time as I'm usually on a boat. Side cast but often use a Belgian/Dutch cast?? A sort of side back cast, over head forward cast if it's blustery.

I sometimes use what I'd like to think of as a switch/ single spey to change direction or cast across the wind but I'm pretty useless and it's 50/50 whether or not it works or I get a fly stuck to my back.

Have a look at underhand and overhand casts. Same as a normal overhead cast but in the horizontal plane..................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

It depends. It's really hard, I think, to define what makes a distinctive cast? Is a double haul just an overhead cast? What about casting in a stack mend?

I'm not a good fly caster, I just pick up different casting technique when I have to in order to apply them to fishing conditions. So, with reasonable success, I can:

- Overhead cast with a single or double haul
- Cast with a mend and a stack mend
- Roll cast
- Chuck and duck. I just had to throw that one in there.
- Perform a really crude version of a single and double spey. No, really.

Grouse

it pays to have a few unortherdox cast,s in the amoury, learn as many as you can you will need them at some stage of your fishing life

So you've seen me speycast, then? Look, I'm trying, OK?

Grouse