First let’s take a minute to talk about lines. As most anglers can attest, beautiful casting does not always translate to effective fishing. Distance casting is not for super humans. Almost never. Does that seem weird to you? There are no shortcuts to improving your fly casting. Get started today. Practice. Distance casting is about timing and technique, not power, and with a little practice a hundred feet is perfectly doable. It’s not out in front of you, as you will see. Everyone of the newer lines seems to be over weighted and very front end head heavy. Now let’s talk a bit about the specifics of the cast. 2. So even though a fair number of you will find this tip to be counter-intuitive — and perhaps illegal — if you're a man and you have problems with your casting, do not automatically respond by casting harder and faster. Starter rod was a Fenwick HMG. And of course nymphs and soft hackles work great in this presentation. Went to a med. The older lines you could carry 60 feet and shoot 20 and 20 and get to 100 feet easy. It's easier than you think. The line straightens out fully again and you bring it back for the last back cast but this time you don’t shoot any line (false cast #3). After all, solid casting is the foundation of fly fishing success. The physics of how that works is simple but invisible to the eye. A cast to the other side of a 35ft river (cast at 70deg) would be about 100ft. There is of course no need to take all of the line off the reel because you can’t strip set with your backing. Your comment is neither. I spent years pondering this notion of presentation and its relationship to casting. This is simpler than it sounds. For the sake of discussion let’s just say “long casts” and define that as anything over 70 feet. Practice. Decal is 100%. 3. It's like shooting a basketball documentary with players who can't dribble, or making a cooking show with a chef who doesn't know how to handle a kitchen knife. Learn fly casting techniques from experts. This will help generate enough line speed to shoot lots of line. Just like casting a skagit line on my switch rod. During this anticipation period, thoughts of mayflies, stoneflies, and... 5 things you need to know to improve your casting. It's not a dumb question and it deserves a detailed answer. I’m gonna say BULLSHIT. J, check out this video. And no, I'm not kidding. You have 9′ of line out in front of you to start. Lefty Kreh wrote an important book stating in the title that presentation was “the most important” aspect of fly fishing. Fly casting is about precision and practice. Very few of us throw the perfect loops that we all aspire to, and even fewer anglers boast a full repertoire of casts, starting with basics like the single haul and roll casts, and moving on to double hauls, reach casts, curve casts, bow and arrow casts, puddle casts, etc. Way too many anglers think of the casting stroke as the tic-toc motion of a metronome. I love to cast and can honestly say w/the right fly line on my 8wt I can make a 100′ cast w/the right wind maybe 110′. Casting That Fly 1 ( Basic - For Beginners ) Casting That Fly 2 Advanced 85 range. (Or bass, or pike, or steelhead, or salmon, or bonefish, or tarpon, or whatever else it is that you fish for.) Hurricane Maria killed mangroves months after the storm, Tell Seafood Watch to take wild steelhead off its menu. Learning how to cast with a fly rod takes lots of practice to master, but the basic technique is actually pretty easy to understand. Today was an amazing day for a Spey casting lesson on the Bow River. You pick that up for a back cast and shoot 20′ backward (false cast #1) . Your job in those first two false casts is to make good loops and get the head out of the guides. Once you become comfortable with the casting you can work on shooting line on the first backcast. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. It’s going to take some work but it easier than you think. The 8 really helps, and that’s why I chose the 5wt switch over the 4wt, with a 5 being closer to a conventional 8wt. Shoot twenty feet of line on your back cast and thirty feet on your presentation and you’re there. If, like most casters, you use a thumb on top grip, there is a simple exercise I use to illustrate this idea. Place your thumbs on the side of the rod closest to you. To be a good caster, you need to understand the physics behind casting, or the basic principles of fly casting, so you can make whatever cast you require: into the wind, with high bushes behind you, under an overhanging branch, or whatever. And if that's not enough of a reason, just think how disappointed you'd be if you were forced to participate in a fly fishing movie and all your mistakes were immortalized on YouTube and Vimeo. You may have struggled getting to the point where you could cast forty feet. The front taper, the belly and the rear taper. Hmm… I have to admit: Shooting line on my back cast is really not my strong suit. Because lots of "experts" will tell you that stiff fly rods are better than not-so-stiff rods ... and that's simply not true. That's just the way it works. It shows sonar returns on a circular scale and it shows the feedback in actual-time. Shop today! You’ll get there. The head contains all of the weight needed to load the a fly rod which matches the given line weight. You’ll be casting the whole line before you know it. The opposing hand is the weight of the line. The article is meant to be helpful and positive. Even in saltwater an accurate forty-foot cast is more important than a long bomb. You will need all of the skills we talked about earlier to do this but it’s very doable. So if you're a man ... well, bummer. You now have one back cast and one forward cast in which to put out another fifty feet of line. That doesn't mean that you will read this article and instantly be able to do it. Recent estate purchase. The most important thing is that you effectively shoot line on both your forward and back casts. I like to fish with my 9′ 4 weight so I practice with that rod . Practice your casting. FLY LINE RATINGS. I live in San Francisco and can go to the casting ponds which have markers for every 5 feet. 80 feet with a 4 wt is dynamite. Captcha loading...In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript. The last false cast straightens out and you accelerate forward to a stop and shoot pretty much whatever amount of line your line speed will give you. I talk about short shots but also the ready position. There is also a lot to be said for the confidence you gain from mastering the long cast. I honestly don't know why anyone would make a fly fishing film with anglers who have not yet mastered the most basic element of our sport. The head has three parts. I would add that casting a full line on grass a true 100′ consistently is a worthy goal. Thanks for your support! I hit about 80 . Great summary on distance casting with a single-hand rod. Fly Casting Faults and Fixes Tweet ; Pin 14259; Share 854; Subscribe; One of the greatest aspects of fly-fishing is the simple joy of casting. Oh, and practice. Both are important and your number for accuracy and consistency is what’s important. Just don’t. It's a treat to watch a great caster like John Juracek, or Pete Kutzer, or Pat McCabe throw those perfect, effortless loops, and there's also a tremendous amount of satisfaction in heading to the river and holding up your end regardless of whether the fish decide to bite. Examples of proper fly casting techniques as well as common fly casting errors. It is made for shooting, not carrying line. Makes a lot of sense to reset and load the rod properly It has a split display screen mode, so you might view completely different sonar returns aspect-by-side or have sonar on one side and navigation on the opposite. This is the first one to master. It’s easier than you think. Previously we discussed what fly fishing is and the differences in spin fishing and fly fishing but here is a brief review.. It may also tack a false cast or two for you to get things rolling. Watching them flail away made me wonder if the reason we see so little casting in fly fishing films and videos is because the anglers simply aren't up to it. Don’t let me catch you marking your line with a sharpie. Although I won’t likely “fish”100 feet of fly line, practicing the 100 foot cast will certainly improve my timing . I’m guessing it was not used. Hitting 100′ in perfect conditions is much less important than being able to consistently hit 60-70′ in a 10-15mph wind and be accurate inside about a 3′ radius with no more than 2-3 false casts. Straighter – Tracking is the usual issue, that’s a straight line path of the rod tip in 2 dimensions. I do not mark distance on my lines. Twenty five years later nothing much has changed. I know this will come as a shock to some of you, but it's true nonetheless. You can learn more about the school at SchoolOfTrout.com. John Juracek leads the fly casting instruction for School of Trout students on the Henry’s Fork (photo: Todd Tanner). Streamers are said to be most effective when fished as close to swinging across the river, 90deg from the flow. Sock is in good shape as well. You can do this. Pieces assemble nicely and have a nice pop when separated. And once you have all of your essential fly fishing gear together, learning the fly casting basics is your next step. But once a caster has acquired that level of skill, I will often make the statement that they should learn to “cast a hundred feet”. Just want to make sure I got this right before I go home and practice on the lawn… In fact, really good fly casting is akin to poetry in motion. Some of you may be wondering why you can't skip practice entirely and go straight to fishing. That doesn’t mean that you will read this article and instantly be able to do it. Don't take that chance. For me, this is my target with a shooting head & mono running line. Your job is to bend the rod, it’s the release of that bend that throws the line. Practice. That’s my goal here with G&G. You should already have nine feet of line out of the rod tip when you begin casting. I watched a fly fishing film the other day and I was struck less by the size of the trout, and by the gorgeous scenery, and by the anglers — who were young, attractive and flashing great big toothy smiles — than I was by something that seems to fly under the radar on a pretty regular basis nowadays. The next sixty is going to be much easier! Too bad I only get to the salt 1 week a year. Therefore, if catching fish is your primary objective (which we have a feeling it might be), tailoring your practice time to simulate situations you’re likely to encounter while actually fishing is imperative to being successful on the water. Making a long cast requires good technique and there’s no downside to being a better caster. but I’m not consistent . That said, there are times when a long cast will add to your catch. When teaching fly casting, I emphasize casting accurately to short and intermediate distances, that is, less than fifty feet. At this point you are committed. It turns out that most women have a rare and wondrous skill. So let’s break down those three false casts. Carl McNeil took that thought a step further in his excellent video Casts that Catch Fish when he stated that it didn’t matter what fly you used, it was the presentation. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Tip speed comes from late rotation, don’t prematurely burn up any of your casting arc (creep) – save the rotation for the very end. Men tend to be at a serious disadvantage when it comes to casting. I'm going to wrap things up with a simple observation birthed from more than 30 years of fly fishing experience and thousands of hours on the water. It’s far more important to master these than to cast any given distance. Secondly, let’s not get hung up on the number. It should look like this \\\\\\\/. Most anglers, including myself, have a tendency to carry too much line when making long casts. Well said & qualified advice. Now I wouldn't bring this up if there wasn't a rock-solid correlation between our ability to throw a nice line and our ability to get it done on the water. I think that is pretty damn good for 5’7″ 65 years old! You still need to understand how to hold, and move, the rod. When you are ready to start the back cast for what will be your presentation cast you should have about fifty feet of line out of the guides. Just off the top of my head, I can tell you that your casting will improve if you practice, and your fishing will also improve, and you'll likely catch more, and bigger, trout. Shocking, another fly angler saying “bullshit,” the most common word in fly fishing. One of the most important is that false casting gives you more opportunity to make mistakes. the original nrx grey blank and blue whippings quite sort after these days with a following for those wanting to be different but have top gear. This is a saltwater technique so if you are not fishing saltwater don’t stress on it. It’s not a dumb question and it deserves a detailed answer. If this works for me, then yes, there is a use for a 100ft cast. If you can get a handle on these you can cast a full fly line. Thanks Louis! 60′ of 12 wt. It’s the rod that casts the line, not your arm. Men, however ... nope, we don't listen. Clock positions are not as important in fly casting as the timing and application of power to and from those positions. If you like a long belly line try the RIO Technical Tarpon taper. Historically, the Snake River basin was the largest salmon producer in the Columbia River system, once home to salmon runs numbering in the millions. When you are casing at distances under forty feet you do not have access to the full weight of the head. I hope this helps! Creep, moving your rod before the line straightens, is a killer of good loops. The angle of your cast should already be dead on your target. Solid advice. 85′ to his front corner and I can throw right past it! When you cast the rod bends, compressing the path of the tip. In order to make a tight, energized loop, your rod tip must travel in a straight line. In response to my review of the T&T Solar a reader asked, "This may be a dumb question, but how do you get 100′ of line out on a cast?" You will have to excuse me here, but if I don’t make a few qualifying statements I’ll be called everything but the son of God in the comments section. In the process of teaching fly casting, certain faults of technique show up regularly among my students. Its is VERY hard to cast 100+ feet. Even... As winter slowly crawls along, most fly fishers are thinking ahead to warmer days on the water. Don’t worry about that either. Remember to focus on your line handling skills. your explanation makes a lot of sense to me and I think carrying too much line is a mistake I’ve made recently on my longer casts. Most fly fishermen would like to become better casters. If you are not an engineer by nature, it is enough to know that the motion is a push forward and a pull back, not the waving of a wand. Practice. It is thin and supple compared to the thicker, heavier head. It’s made for just what you’re talking about. Just focus on the fundamentals and don’t try to power it out there. Wayne, you have no idea how happy that makes me. I primarily fish on a small Lake, 1 miles of shoreline on a 3-1/3 acres. Another round of great tips. On my Nautilus G8 that five feet of line left on the reel. You have to strip the line back in to the head. If you cast the whole 100′ fly line out that doesn’t mean you just cast 100′. Maybe the times have changed, but I just can't imagine an icon like Warren Miller producing a great ski film with skiers who struggle to make decent turns. I have taken to underlining some of my rods because of this. I would think upgrading the rod, I could easily see 100 feet with little effort. I’ve been following U two for awhile now and w/the tips and vids I can say Chard and the other young man who wanted to jump on a Hammerhead and w/lots of practice has done more for my cast than anything else I’ve followed so thanks. Fly casting is no exception. Remember this when driving the rod forward with your thumb. You can’t catch fish in weeds or trees. Not much need for a boat, unless you need to hit the deep holes.A casts of about 90′ is a must. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Why is that 'bending' aspect important? I can hit 100′ if all the stars align correctly but they rarely do on the flats. Although, I admit I have done the latter when a LBM launched on a popper stuck on a limb, as my fishing partner exclaimed, “I quit!..anybody that can catch fish in a tree is too good for me.”, Your email address will not be published. Any high school coach will tell you, it’s fundamentals that score points, not heroics. How to fly cast. I agree that casting a 3wt up to a 6wt is not easy and down right impossible with cheap line and a low end Rod. Still working on building line speed and timing with my double haul. No way around that! Rather than write at length about the double haul here, I’ll provide you links to some articles with everything you need to know. Again, don’t get worked up about the numbers. Face it, the distance record on a 6wt is like 110 or 120′. Hold the butt section of the rod in front of you with both hands. Learn to cast effectively. Because it sure did to me. I'm not going to go into all the details of good casting — you can learn more here — but you should keep in mind that the line tends to follow the rod tip, and that good casts typically start at the shoulder rather than the elbow or the wrist. My point is more that most folks who are trying to make long cast are trying too hard and that’s a lot of their problem. Your casting hand should now be in a normal grip position. I strip my line of until there are about 5 bands of fly line left on the reel. I’m still working on it every chance I get, I live on a bay and I have waded measured the distance between mine and the neighbors dock. There are a few things you will have to master before distance is an issue of concern. If you are a steelheader up to your waist or on the flats with a head wind, being able to cast a long line with a single handed fly rod is a skill you can achieve if your addicted to fly fishing for sea run. Fly Casting Basics and Where to Start. No other way to make it work. But good casting is its own reward. The more effort you have to put into bending your rod, the more effort you have to put into your casting. Casting a fly rod isn't quite as difficult as swinging a golf club or hitting a baseball, but it does require that you understand the basic mechanics. First, and likely most important, you don’t have to make a long cast to catch fish. line. Can we also see a video of you guys when casting tips are posted? Line was “made in China.” I was lucky to get 50′. Yet there they were ... two folks decked out in the latest gear, and smiling into the camera, and casting like they had absolutely no clue. Fast and free shipping free returns cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. I’ve done it a couple times on my 6 wt. Once the full head is out of the guides, your rod will load much more efficiently and your line will shoot much farther, carried by the weight of the head. With shooting head. Fly rods need to bend in order to work correctly. So when things go wrong — for example, when our form falls apart — we don't turn to people who know how to cast. To cast for distance you will need a well energized line. My granddad fished with a vest, my dad used a vest, and I used my dad’s vest until it met an untimely end thanks to a barbed-wire fence. There are a lot of reasons you should make your presentation with as few false casts as possible. G. Loomis NRX 9 foot, 12 weight Saltwater Fly Rod, No Reserve . You will not be able to steer the cast by the running line. Let's talk about it. Other than that, everything is under 70′ and accurate which I think is more important anyway. This reeks havoc in the majority of fly casts. It takes a little time, and it requires a bit of effort, but it's an investment in your angling that will literally pay dividends for the rest of your life. Thanks for the tip about only false-casting with the head-section. Very clear and concise. I started August 2016. Faster – see point 1. I do have sharpie marks on my line and I like them for an indicator on how much to strip out on deck so I’m keepin’ those :). I can make that cast with a greater degree of accuracy and consistency. It’s crucial that the timing of your cast is spot on. Required fields are marked *. How to cast a fly fishing rod. These new lines will not let you do that. Fly Casting. 24 comments / Posted on April 13, 2015 / by Louis Cahill. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you learned those mechanics from a book, a video, a friend, a guide, or an actual fly fishing icon like John Juracek or Andy Puyans.