Casting when fly-fishing differs from conventional casting mainly in the sense that, there is no real 'weight' on the end of the line, as bass fishermen use by attaching a lure, or bait fishermen with a sinker. The fly-line is the weight, but the action of the rod as imparted by you, will propel the line forward.
I wont cover all the minute details of how to cast, simply because I'm not qualified to teach people, it's very important that, when starting out, to get a professional to teach you. The right action will be taught to you from cast 1 then. I myself had to iron out my casting flaws much later in my fly-fishing career, because i taught myself and in doing so, had many little bad casting habits.
Some tips that even experienced fly-fishermen will find useful in perfecting style, was taught to me by Jonathan Boulton from Mavungana Fly-fishing.
-Stand with feet spaced comfortably apart, do not use the shooting-stance as it has the tendency to make you move your shoulders and upper body too much when casting.
-Imagine the forward stroke as if you are hitting a hammer into the wall, or flicking paint onto a canvas, a solid forward stroke with a slight flick of the wrist as the cast ends.
-Imagine a pathway that you create for your rod from your first cast, do not alter the direction of your cast, and keep the rod in that little pathway until your final cast.
-Solid, powerful back-cast, allowing the line to unfurl behind you, imagine there is a wall behind you, this will prove useful when having to cast when there is long grass behind you.
-Always try and cast in tight loops, this will improve your accuracy and casting action, a possible exception is when fishing a really long leader with 2-3 flies, which may get tangled, cast with bigger loops in that situation.
-It may be fine when casting a light 3-5 weight rod when you're mainly casting with the wrist, but once you get onto heavier rods with pumping wind, you need to use your arm and elbow more. Imagine trying to throw a tennis ball over a building using only your wrist, it wont go very far.
-Remember to have a smooth action when casting, allowing for longer pauses as more line is being cast, do not have a robotic action, but remember to have a positive stop at 10am and 2pm.
Remember, perfect your technique before you move on to trying for distance with double hauling.
For me an imortant tip.......Having only been fly fishing for about 4 years, I sometimes cast my line in a heap onto the water. The reason, it turns out was that I was aiming my final forward cast too high. Aim the final forward cast at the horizon of the water and problem was solved.
ReplyDelete