Capt. George Tunison

Everyone’s heard of overhead casting, fly casting, surfcasting, skip casting, roll casting, even spey casting, but when do you use pendulum casting?

First, just how important is it to be able to make really long casts? Very! You see tailing reds far in front of the boat but getting closer will spook them. You’re fishing for super nervous fish with keen eyesight in skinny, tropical, clear water. Big pods of bait are being crushed by giant predators from below but the action will probably be over by the time you motor over to it.

More reasons for long distance casting could be that you can’t find your fish in your normal hotspots, so you’ve decided to put on a long distance search lure like a heavy spoon and cover lots of water hoping to find a customer or, you need to get out beyond the breakers when surf fishing or, maybe you’re trying to break a distance casting record.

Pendulum casting is a distance casting technique used primarily by surf or beach casters trying to get their baits far off the beach using a long surf rod and a weight or sinker. It’s also the main casting technique used to compete in world record, distance casting championships, using spinning or conventional tackle.

After watching YOU TUBE videos and mastering this casting form then feeling you want to wade right in and try for a world distance record, how far should you be able to cast to be a serious contender? Maybe half a football field? A whole football field? Sorry, you’re going to have to up your game and polish your technique quite a bit to play on this level. From what I can gather, the current, official, world record for spinning/conventional tackle is a cast that covered more than three football fields.

In a sanctioned UK Surfcasting Federation event held in 2004 Danny Moeskops launched his 5.29 oz. weighted line an incredible 915.22 feet to capture the current, official, world record. Not to be outdone, in a non-sanctioned event, Jason Willicombe made a long distance cast measured at 933 feet!

Fly rod maker and 34-time winner of the American Casting Association Championships, Steve Rajeff, at the time working for G. Loomis, the famous high end fly rod company and one time golf club shaft manufacturer, put on a distance driving and casting event with PGA star Fred Couples. Couples drove the ball 999 feet followed by Rajeff making a 1,011-foot cast.

For the golfers, the official Guinness World Distance Record is held by a 515-yard shot by then 64-year-old Mike Austin. Golfer Carl Cooper drove the ball 787 yards, but that included a long bounce assist from a concrete sidewalk.

Rajeff, master Loomis fly rod designer and caster, also currently holds the American fly rod distance record of 243 feet for a single handed fly rod and regular fly line. How many fly anglers reading this can get just 90 feet of fly line in the air?

Even if you’re not trying to break a distance record, being able to cast far definitely has some advantages in everyday angling. Other times, short casts and pinpoint accuracy are more important so setting up your equipment for specific jobs makes sense.

To get maximum distance, think longer, medium action rods, and lighter braided line. My redfish spoon rods are 8 and 8.5 feet long equipped with 15-pound test braided line. With these outfits I can throw a spoon or topwater plug a country mile and cover lots more water in a day’s outing. The no stretch braid allows long distance hook sets impossible with monofilament, and the long flexible action rod helps keep the fish on the line.

Still plenty of redfish to go around and our trout get turned on by the cooling weather. Offshore kingfish are ready to eat your trolled lures.

Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or captgeorget3@aol.com.