I’ve spent a lot of time casting at things.
I’ve used an Echo MPR from the couch to work on mechanics, taught my kids to cast in the backyard, and spent plenty of afternoons throwing at a floating carp dummy named Karl during carp schools. I’ve cast at hula hoops, buckets, and just about anything else that could serve as a target. Backyard casting practice isn’t a new concept.
The Honeyhole kit includes a set of scoring rings and a telescoping practice rod paired with a basic reel. The rod collapses down small enough to store easily in a closet, garage, or vehicle. The entire package retails for $199.99. At first glance that feels expensive until you look at what standalone practice rods cost. Most fall in the $50 to $70 range before you add any sort of target system or game component.
I brought Honeyhole to my parents’ cabin during a family weekend. The cabin is still under construction, so most of the day was spent building cabinets, setting steps, and installing hardware. By the end of the day everyone was ready for a break that didn’t involve another cordless drill.
The group included my kids, one parent who is actively learning to fly fish, another carrying several decades of bad casting habits, and my wife, who is an excellent caster, even though she thinks she is not.
The instructions live online, which became an issue because cell service at the cabin is nonexistent. Setup is simple. The wood base attaches together with Allen screws, and you’ll want to keep track of the included tool. The rings and posts slip together with silicone connectors. I set up the rings from memory and managed to get both the spacing and scoring wrong. Nobody noticed until later.
The game worked anyway.
Put out the rings, establish a casting distance, assign some points, and start playing.
The standard setup places the caster roughly 15 feet from the targets. Distance isn’t really the challenge. Accuracy is.
The practice rod has a very moderate action, and that turned out to be one of the most useful aspects of the system. You can’t overpower it. You have to wait for it to load and let the rod do the work. Rush the backcast and the fly lands short. Break your wrist and the line piles up. Drop the rod tip and the loop falls apart.
The feedback is immediate.
The parent with decades of bad habits kept trying to force the cast. The harder they pushed, the worse the result became. After a few rounds they started slowing down and letting the rod load. The casts immediately improved.
For the beginner, the process worked from the opposite direction. There wasn’t a guide standing beside them talking about tracking, timing, or rod tip path. There was simply a target and a score. Better mechanics developed naturally because better mechanics produced better results.
As someone who spends a fair amount of time teaching fly casting, I could see applications beyond backyard entertainment. The short distance makes it easy to isolate specific skills. Accuracy improves. Timing improves. The rod also works for introducing the basics of a double-haul because the slower action makes it easier to feel what the haul is contributing to the cast.
Honeyhole includes three game formats: Duel, S.K.U.N.K., and Up the Creek.
Duel is a straightforward race to 21 points. Up the Creek requires players to hit targets in sequence. S.K.U.N.K. ended up being the most interesting. It works much like H.O.R.S.E. One player calls a shot and everyone else has to duplicate it.
That format quickly separated anglers who could make a decent cast from anglers who could make a specific cast on demand. The challenge gets difficult fast once someone starts calling shots with intention.
The rings also work with a standard fly rod. After the cabin trip, I set them up in the front yard and started using them with my regular fishing outfits. At 15 feet they make a good presentation exercise. Move them back to 30 or 40 feet and they become an accuracy course that starts to resemble real fishing distances.
Since that first weekend, we’ve had several rematches in the front yard.
The kids still want to play. The adults still want to play. The experienced anglers get just as competitive as the beginners once points are involved.
Most of the time, casting practice eventually becomes a solitary activity. Honeyhole gives people a reason to keep picking up the rod. Nobody feels like they’re practicing. Everyone is having fun.
