Fly Casting

It looks poetic, graceful, very cool and maybe a little bit of magic...that's FLY CASTING.

Over there is a hungry fish, in your hand is a great imitation of a mayfly, crab or sculpin.  The trick is to get the fly to the fish in a way that the fly can immediately be fished like the natural.  Now that doesn't sound all too hard, however, there are usually trees, bushes, rocks, guides, dogs, yourself and other anglers which seem much easier to catch than the fish.  Of course, its often windy, and if you are fishing in moving water, there are currents that will swing and drag your fly around like a water-skier.

There are dozens of different casts you can use to overcome these complications.  Learning and employing them is half the fun of this sport.

Two basic casts are the "overhead" cast and the "roll-cast".  Most other casts are a modification of these two.  Additional movements of the line, after the cast, are called "mends".  These are either "aerial mends" - made when the line is still in the air, or "on water mends."

The casting motion has 3 parts:

      The first is long and slow, its purpose is to take out any slack, to start the line moving and to begin loading or bending the rod.  If the line is in the water or on the ground, the first part is a lift.  

     The second part of the casting motion is short and fast.  It has been described as a flick, snap, whump, pop.  When you combine these two you have a cast that "accelerates" or goes from slow to fast.  It is this continuous acceleration that loads the rod and creates the energy for the cast. 

     The final part is the STOP.   Right after the Pop or Snap - Stop - also known as speed up and stop.  Try  starting the cast with a loose grip and then squeeze the grip right at the end.

By moving your hand to make this casting stroke you will first cause there to be tension on the tip of the rod from the weight of the fly line.  Then, as you accelerate this tension will cause the rod to bend (it will bend more depending on how much line/weight you are casting, the flex/action of your rod and the amount of power/speed you use).  So now the line is moving and the rod is bent.  Stopping your hand stops the rod.  It first unloads to a straight position.  At this point the fly line is going faster than the rod tip and the line passes the tip forming a loop.  We now have to wait for the loop to unroll before we start the next cast.  This wait is called the "Pause".   The wait is short for a short cast and longer as we cast more line.  While we are waiting, we need to refrain from starting to move the rod in the direction of the next cast.  This anticipation of the next cast is called 'Creep'.  What it really does is shorten the amount of distance you have to make that next cast.  The common reaction then, is to hit it early to make up for the loss.  Abrupt acceleration (as opposed to smooth, continuous acceleration) will cause the rod tip to dip down and then back up - this causes the infamous "tailing loop."   To avoid "creeping" consider "drifting".  The "Drift" is a movement of the rod tip in the direction of the unrolling line - it will fix that cause of "tailing loops" and will make the cast smoother.

Next, we'll talk about specific casts...