5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FLY CAST

Fly fishing is one of those hobbies that’s simple to but incredibly difficult to master.

There are lots of people who get a rod, discover the standard casts, and stop their journey at simply being able to get a fly in the water.

Which’s great, but a lot of anglers are losing out on the benefits that feature refining their fly cast.

Much like shooting a shotgun, practically anybody can cast a fly rod and get away with bad technique.

If you put the time and effort into finding out the more sophisticated methods, you’ll really find an appreciation for the sport and enjoy the benefits so numerous fly fisherman don’t find, like less tangles, sore arms, and missed fish.

Over the years, I’ve found out that there are hard techniques to learn to enhance your fly cast, and then there’s the low-hanging fruit.

There are simple things you can do right now to improve your cast, enhance your fishing, and eventually put more fish in the net.

A Gentle Lift

An essential of any fly cast is the hard stop on the forward and backcast.

Too numerous anglers let that “hard-stop mindset” sneak into the beginning of the cast, ripping the line off of the water and letting every fish within 100 backyards know that you desire to capture them.

By ripping the line off of the water, you’re causing a ruckus, tiring your arm out, and most likely going to over-power your back cast as well (more on that later).

One thing you can start doing is peeling rather than pulling. As you raise the line off of the water, consider peeling a banana instead of whipping your line into the air.

Not only will it be more gentle and less tiring, however you’ll really be utilizing the surface area stress of the water to help pack your fishing pole, utilizing friction to your benefit.

Plus, it simply feels and look’s much better, which is a fantastic indicator of how well your cast is performing. Less ripping, more peeling.

Start on a Roll

Even before you think about peeling the line off of the water, you need to think about how much slack is in your line.

It doesn’t even matter how gentle you are with your lift if you need to straighten out six feet of slack to get there.

If you have too much loose line on the water, you’re most likely going to lose initial power and potentially end up with a tangle at the start.

Even prior to you thinking about peeling the line off of the water, you require to consider just how much slack is in your line.

It doesn’t even matter how gentle you are with your lift if you require to straighten 6 feet of slack.

If you have excessive loose line on the water, you’re more than likely going to lose initial power and potentially wind up with a tangle at the start.

Now, some anglers would tell you to start with less line and false cast a few times to get the line out, but I believe there’s a much better solution.

Start out with a good amount of slack and use that slack to deliver one strong roll cast. As quickly as the line hits the water, utilize the above mentioned “peeling” method to lift your line off of the water.

This does 2 things. It takes every bit of slack out of the line so you can put all of your casting power into your first back cast.

Second, it takes full advantage of the amount of line in the water straight out ahead for optimum tension.

Heavy Load

 

If you’ve been fly casting for any length of time, you have actually probably heard the old “10 and 2” method for your forward and back casts.

Now, this is a great starting point for lots of anglers (I ‘d even tighten it as much as “11 and 1” however that’s simply me) and it assists to picture a strong start and end to your movement.

But there’s a little extra power you can give yourself on the back cast, too.

As you move your arm toward the backcast, offer it a tough stop in the two o’clock position, but then “follow through” and wander back a little bit further, almost like you’re connecting to grab something.

By giving this minor one-two method, you’re providing the line a little bit more time to pack your rod, which will offer you even more power on your forward cast.

This does take a bit of timing in practice, however, you need to make sure you’re not stopping too hard and letting your line go slack.

Think of it as one movement, just with a little bit of a fading extension at the end.

Ease Up a Bit

We’re all guilty of strong-arming our fly line. I think it has something to do with the anticipation of getting your fly in the water or some kind of macho mentality where anglers think that muscle equals power.

Well, it generally does not in fly fishing. In fact, the whole factor we have these fly rods is because they’re created to do the hard work for us.

To put it simply, if your arm is getting tired, then something is going wrong. Take it easy.

One simple way to inform if you’re overpowering your fly cast is if your trailing loop is starting to look more like a full circle.

It must be parallel. Another method is if your fly isn’t unfurling at the full extension of the line.

If it’s ricocheting backwards or landing back and to the side, you’re most likely offering it too much gas. This is one of the most common errors I see.

Let up on the muscle a bit and let the rod do the work.

Slow it Down

Now, there’s nothing incorrect with a fast-action rod in specific situations, but for the most part, anglers require a medium-action or perhaps slow-action rod to put a fly in the best location

Back to the shotgun example for a minute. To me, a fast-action rod is equivalent to shooting a 12 gauge.

It’s merely much easier to hit your target with a less-than-perfect strategy due to the fact that you have a larger spread at longer distances. The exact same holds true with fishing pole.

With a fast-action rod, you can whip the line as tough as you want, break your wrist backward and forward, and you can probably get away with it.

However, with slower-action rods, it’s just not real. You need to utilize the natural responsiveness of the rod, load it appropriately, and offer the line lots of time to unfurl on forward and back casts.

Simply put, if you’re fishing just quick action, you can get away with poor strategy.

If you desire to enhance your cast, try fishing with a slow to medium action rod, even a fiberglass rod or bamboo rod.

As soon as you’re all set to choose up your fishing Ferrari again, you’ll have a cast to match.

There are clearly a million ways to improve your fly cast.

I’ve skipped over the novice things but for the most part not breaking your wrist, keeping a straight line, rhythm and timing but there are things that experienced anglers can work on.

With a few little tweaks, you’ll go from functional to finessed in no time flat.

 

Sources: THEMEATEATER