There are not many places on the Gallatin where I’d want to make a true 70-foot cast unless I wanted to reach the opposing bank or a certain area for some reason (and even fewer still where I would make that cast and expect to control drag). The particular place I talk about in the story was a little side-channel that was straight and narrow with little overall current (an unusual spot on the river). I was casting up the length of the channel (actually a good portion of the cast was over rock or along the edge of the water, not directly up the flow itself), and backcast room was not an issue. I just needed to be sure that I got the fly to the top of the pool. With such small/slow water, as long as the fly was far enough up, I was guessing (correctly as it turned out) that the fish would see it at some point in the drift.

I was just using a 9-foot rod for a 5, with my “ED Comp” Sharkskin line (that 120-footer that SA makes for the 5-weight casting games). I usually use the gray Sharkskin for fishing, but grabbed my reel bag without looking and got my two glo-orange, 5-weight competition lines, instead (one sharky, the other the standard, smooth-fishing AST).