flyandfloatfishing.com - Fly Fishing Casting Tips

Fly Fishing Casting Fundamentals

By Brett McCrae

Many fly fishermen never become very good casters, which inevitably hurts their overall success on the stream. Handling different casting situations requiring accuracy and distance and coping with less than ideal conditions cannot be accomplished without understanding basic casting principles. The following tips and comments on fly casting will provide you some insight and will help you to practice effectively.

1. In order to move your line efficiently through the air on both forward and back casts, you must remove the slack prior to beginning the cast. If the casting stroke is used to simply pick up slack, then no power or force will be exerted into the fly line, and thus, no actual casting will occur.

2. On both back and forward casts, fly anglers should always accelerate the rod to a stop. This means constantly increasing your speed until you stop the rod in the proper position. Constantly increasing your speed throughout the casting stroke loads the rod better than any other speed will. A constant speed casting stroke either doesn't load the rod or allows the rod tip to unload prior to the end of the cast which prevents the stroke from achieving any power.

3. How your rod tip travels during the casting stroke defines how your line will travel through the air and where your fly will land. Think of the path of the rod as a semi-circle—wherever the rod tip stops the line will travel off as a line along that particular tangent point of the circle. Directional ideas apply here as well. Straight motions equal straight casting and straight lines. Likewise, wavy or curved motions will result in similar casts.

4. Both the forward and back casts should look identical. Fly fisherman should keep an eye on their back cast from time to time to make sure that both parts of the cast look similar. Some publications push the idea that in fly fishing “80% of casting problems occur in the back cast”. Being aware of the action of the back cast will allow a fly fisherman to avoid many of these problems.

5. Tailing loops: A tailing loop is caused by the end of the fly line running into the rest of the line on the cast and can occur on both the forward and back casts. Anglers experiencing tailing loops will experience their fly line falling back on itself through the cast, often resulting in failed casts, or worse, messy tangles. The reasons behind these loops are many, although the two most common are anglers attempting to apply too much power to the cast, or casting in directions other than a straight line.

6. Open loops: An open loop is caused by the fly line traveling in a very “open” and wide fashion. As opposed to a “tight” loop, anglers who experience open loops will be unable to cast for distance or for accuracy. Open loops are primarily caused by anglers overextending the casting stroke—breaking the wrist and lowering the fly rod too far on either the forward or back casts.

7. Timing is of absolutely paramount importance in fly fishing. Every good fly caster goes through an identical rhythm and count on each and every one of his or her casts. This timing will vary with situations and distances, but should remain the same within those different situations. Power, distance, and accuracy are impossible to obtain without first having the correct timing in the casting stroke.

8. Many fly anglers, both beginners and experienced casters, often change their casting stroke when they deliver the fly to their intended target. The rod stopping point, body positioning, and timing should remain the same in both false casting and the final “delivery” cast.

9. Many fly fisherman, particularly those with experience in other forms of fishing, often do not “aim” at the correct place when they cast a fly fishing rod. The perfect fly fishing cast extends outwards, the loop unfolds, and the fly and leader are turned over at the end of the cast—the cast will then fall to the water. Anglers should pick a point on the water where they wish to deliver their fly, and then aim in the air about eye level above that spot to achieve a successful cast.

10. Properly gripping the fly rod is also very important when casting. The ideal grip consists of the four fingers wrapped around the cork, and most importantly, the thumb pointing up towards the tip of the rod, also resting on, but not around, the cork. This thumb position allows anglers to subtly adjust direction and especially power in the cast. A little extra thumb pressure at the end of the cast will help to load the rod and accelerate the line—this can help anglers turn over weighted presentations or flies, or can be of assistance when casting into the wind.

11. Last, but certainly not least, anglers need to be aware that any movement or motion directed on the butt of the rod (the pivot point) will be greatly magnified at the tip. For example, an angler moving his or her fly rod only a couple inches at the butt will see a resulting movement of around yard at the end of their fly fishing rod. The lesson to be learned from this is when trying to fix casting problems or adjust to conditions, subtle and gradual adjustments are much preferable to drastic ones.

Each fly fisherman will develop his or her own casting style. As long as these styles coincide with the laws of physics and a little bit of common sense, individuals will have no trouble at all becoming proficient casters and successful fly fisherman.

-Brett McCrae

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