My son-in-law's boat is a decent sized vessel (36-feet) but has a rather small fishing cockpit which makes back-casting quite difficult. Compounding this lack of space is the fact that there are rod holders which protrude the stored rods back into the cockpit area.

I have seen casters who begin their cast with the rod straight up and have a length of line long enough to hang down to around the reel seat. Then they flip the bait/lure in a rotating arc in making the cast.

Could anyone better describe this method of casting? Or better yet, point me to a video that shows that way of casting.

I can cast fairly well in that small cockpit using spinning gear but, I don't really like fighting a decent size fish on spinning gear. I love fighting a fish using my Avet two-speed reels and even my Avet single speed SX reel.

I have learned that I can cast a bit better from his cockpit when I am using a slower action (more parabolic) rod of 7 to 8 feet. I have a Black Seeker 870 and a Calstar GF800XL which has been cut down to 7-feet and mounted with mini roller guides. Both of these rods cast better than fast tip rods (for me). However, they max out at 25-30#. I also have a Calstar 270-8 which is still lighter than I need with the size of the tuna we are getting recently. We got nine YFT ranging from well above 20# to over 40# on Thursday about 15-20 miles Northwest of Point Loma. I think that I need a 40# rod which is a slower action.

Sidearm casting is something I used to do quite a bit for freshwater bass, using a six foot rod. Might be something that works for you too. However you'll need to have the rod custom built, might also make sense to have it built corktape/deckhand style and add an after market SEI bracket (like the CorkPuppy but with a trigger). With that you have a bit more control and can snap out a cast pretty well. I'm leaning towards suggesting a six foot option. For the blank, a few ways to go and starting out with a seven foot blank cut down at the butt will provide a bit more tip flex to help on the cast even on a faster blank. Other options, 6 1/2' Ahi Assassin jigging rod - parabolic, nano helix blank construction and the length should prove very helpful. That's an off the shelf option, but the design seems to fit your requirements very well. For 40# the model 200 would prove very capable.

RPCrowe might be describing the kind of cast called "flipping" in freshwater, black bass circles. Not quite sure, from his description, but a black bass video on the subject might help.

Sorry I know this is a bit late but there is a very good DVD about casting put out by Inside Sportfishing, the title is "Advanced Casting Techniques With Frank Lo Preste & Randy Toussant".

Check it out as it might save you many hours and several headache's by watching how the pro's do it.