Published: 2013. November 14. | Source: Gergely Talabér | News

Fish can be caught in the easiest way at that place where they are. But what happens if they are far away from the shore? Fishing at an area farther than 100 meter is not a simple task to perform precisely. Obviously, best solutions would be to use a fishing boat or a remote controlled boat, however they are forbidden to be utilized in many lakes. Therefore, in such cases we can only rely on our rod, reel and some useful accessories enabling us fishing at a longer range from the bank without any problem.

Accessories facilitating long range casting.

Basically, the rod is the first thing that determines the distance we can perform angling at. The longer the rod, the farther the cast, but it’s important that it should fit to the angler. One can cast the rig to a longer range with a rod of 3.60 meter than with a stick of 3.90 meter, thus you should not insist on the length of the rod.

Essentials: rod and large spool

On the other hand, flexibility of the rod body is an important factor: this stores the kynetic energy that shoots out the rig to the right direction. With a rod poor in quality, appropriate direction and distance cannot be reached precisely. Rings on the rod have to be large enough to ensure free run of the line easily. Luckily, most of the boilie rods out in the market meet this requirement.

Key to success: 0.25 mm mainline and 0.18 mm multifilament shockleader

Let’s talk about the reel a little. The larger the diameter of the spool, the longer you can cast! Line laying pattern of the reel should be flat, smooth and balanced because this defines how the line runs off the reel spool. Line should not be heavy! A low diameter line is lighter, flies better and feathers the rig less when casting. There’s no need to worry about breaking the line, even if using a 0.22-0.23 one. This means some meters of stretching in case of a monofilament, that’s why the long nylon acts as a power gum. There’s no carp in the world that can tear this rig, but be careful in a snaggy water!

Braided line is an important part of the rig to reach those distant fish-holding lies.

Now I’m going to discuss the most important component of long range fishing: the braided shockleader. We need it because of its strength and resistance to abraison. This is the only kind of line that will not be strained due to powerful casts performed. We can use heavier monofilaments, but it will be malformed at that point where it breaks on the top guide during the cast - the shockleader in this case will be stretched first, then main line will be broken. Choose a multifilament of 0.15-0.18 mm in diameter for this purpose, this will be strong enough to support extreme casts. It is highly recommended to use a finger protector!

Useful accessory.

Finger is well protected from painful cuts.

What type of rig shall we use for long casts? According to my experience, options can be: in-line anti tangle feeding cage and in-line lead. You can perform casting for distance with a clipped lead, but the drag of the clips should be taken into account in this case. Our aim is to find the best solution, isn’t it? I think advantages and disadvantages are straightforward, nevertheless it’s worth to review them.

One of my favourite rigs: cage of 40 grams with a 10 cm braided leader of 0.10 mm.

Most of the carp anglers use feeding cage for balling in, it’s not a question to use this method, they are right! 25 grams of feeding cages can be casted very well, they weight 70-80 grams when filled with material - they should not be a problem for an average rod with 3 lbr casting power. Choose a 40-45 grams of cage in a stormy wind, put less feed in it (only up to the level of the ribs). This will keep the direction and the distance of the cast, even in extreme conditions!

Don’t you think they are flying as expected?

Using an in-line lead is a less popular solution. The rig can be casted to an even longer range with its help, since this lead has smaller drag at the same weight. Disadvantage of this is that feeding is not possible to be performed with it, so consider another solution for groundbaiting. Best choice is to use a lead of 80-110 grams, it has approximately the same weight as our fully filled feeding cage. You should consider that the lead can sink into the soft silt in a muddy bottom.

Pretty simple and well functioning accessory.

It’s worth being aware of the features of the bottom and choose an appropriate lead and leader according to this. If you are not using a feeding cage for groundbaiting, then the material has to be ‘delivered’ somehow to the place where you perform angling. There are a lot of feeding tackles available for this purpose, one of them is the bait rocket. I think this is the best choice in this situation. The only disadvantage of this is that it cannot be casted to an extreme distance, but works quite well with short and medium range fishing.

After filling it easily, it can fly to the feeding place right away.

It is suitable to use when feeding is performed with particle baits, boilies and pellets. Just fill it with the feeding material, then it can be casted to its place right away! There is polystyrene in the head of the rocket, this makes it turning to its back and ejects the mix when hitting the water. As these rockets can be heavy in weight when they are filled, try to use a strong spomb-rod (if possible) of 5 lbr to cast it appropriately.

It’s not so complicated, worked well for David against Goliath.

Create an orange-sized ball of feed and fill the catapult basket with it…

...this way.

Last, but not least, I rarely use the catapult basket technique. I like this efficient feeding method, unfortunately without enough practice and experience, I cannot use the catapult basket accurately, but a few nicely performed cast can be convincing, of course. Catapult basket has to be connected to the end of the shockleader - just like the bait rocket. The only difference in using this tackle compared to throwing in a normal rig is that only the feeding material in the basket will fly out and reach its target, but not the rig itself. Catapult basked will fall into the water a few meters away in front of you, therefore it is not too much effort to have it again in the bank. The closer the weight of the balls to each other, the more accurate the cast you can perform. As it turned out, catapult basket is best for firing out feeding materials, binded particles and pellets. It’s not a pig in a poke! Groundbaiting with a catapult basket requires a lot of practice, but you can be a master of balling in to unbelievable distances!

It’s not difficult to connect the bait rocket to the shockleader…

...just like the catapult basket.

Nevertheless, performing long casts has to be practised! Angling at a 100-120 meter distance can be accurate only by applying appropriate techniques. It’s worth spending time on this! Fish can move far away from the coastline (or to deeper areas) in many water - instead of staying near the bank where most anglers are fishing. They are staying there, they are hunting for food there, they can be caught there. Actually, they bite braver there! That’s why it can be rewarding fishing at longer range in a long-term period!

Gergely Talabér