Michael Cevoli
In his prime, Cape Cod surf fisherman Ron Arra would uncork mighty casts that seemed bound for the moon. A former professional athlete, he won five national championships for distance casting between 1983 and 1988.
He tossed a 5¼-ounce lead weight on 12-pound monofilament a Paul Bunyan-esque 758 feet, 4 inches (more than 250 yards) in 1987 in Falmouth, Massachusetts. In 1989, he became the first person to heave a tear-drop sinker across Cape Cod Canal at Pole 100. That monster cast traveled 786 feet. He would repeat the feat three more times that week. Unofficially, he’s tossed a casting weight 850 feet, nearly three football fields.
We stand beside the canal before 6 a.m. on a muggy summer morning as Arra steadily casts large surface plugs that disappear into the fog hanging over the swift, cool waters. Forty years after his first title, the power and signature fluidity that made Arra a champion caster are still evident. “It’s timing, all timing,” says Arra, who is 78 and lives in East Sandwich,…
