#3.3 Learn to Cast a Fly Rod

Learn to Cast a Fly Rod part 3 of 3

You are casting like a pro!

Thanks again for coming back for yet another session of "learn to cast a fly rod", or beginner fly fishing. By now you have hopefully read through the 2 prior parts I have posted. By now you should be able to comfortably get 20 ft. of fly line in the air, make 2 or 3 false casts, and lay the line back down on the ground in front of you.

If you are not able to do this right now, that’s okay, just keep practicing the drills I gave you in the last 2 posts on “learning how to cast a fly rod”. You will be able to cast like a Ninja in no time at all.

Great Days ahead

Now that you can cast with ease, the next question will be “How do I cast farther”? Not to fear we give you the last piece of the “learning to cast” puzzle next.

In my last post I gave you a few key terms that we learned from the snappy artwork. If you recall we showed you a picture of the “control hand”. I said it would be important to learn and now I will show you how it all comes together.

By this time, you should be able to lay out 20 or so ft. of line on the ground in front of you. With a brisk movement, pick up that line, make 2 or 3 false casts, make some nice loops, then stop the rod, and get the line to lay back on the ground in a nice strait line in front of you. Can you do it? Good job, you put in some time learning.

Now on to the last part of the lesson is learning to “advance line or shoot line”. This is term we use for letting out line, so you can reach targets that are farther away from you without walking toward it.

Let’s get to it:

A quick talk before we start, we have to get an idea of how this is going to work. First start with your rod in your casting hand, (picture #1) okay put the line under the finger of your control hand. Good so far? Now without letting go of the line reach behind your grip and in front of the reel and pull about 3 or 4 feet off of the reel. If you have done it correctly you will still have a line under your finger but a loop behind your hand and in front of the reel.

Grip, Grip, Grip!

Your hand should look like the second picture in this fine artwork. If your hand looks like the drawing then good job, if not practice a few times until you get the feel of the line pulling off of the reel and not out of your hand.

Now to the fun part. I will warn you this will take a few times to get the hang of this. You are going to pull the 3 or 4 ft. of line from the reel. Next you will begin your cast as you have been doing. (Up-backward-stop-forward-stop etc.).

Now here’s the tricky part, as you move your rod forward, the line flying forward in a smooth line past your face, when you stop the rod in its forward position, this will be the moment you will let go of the loop under your index finger, (don’t let go of the rod)

If you have done it correctly, the 3 or 4 ft. of line under your finger should simply just shoot out of the rod tip? Did it work? If not simply pull the 3 or 4 feet back in and place it back under your index finger and try again.

I will admit there will be a learning curve to get the timing just right. Too early and the line will flop in a pile over your head, too late and the line will just crash on the ground. Practice and play around with it, learn the timing and the exact moment to let go of the line. Soon you will be able to pull 10 ft. of line out and get it to shoot out, then 15 and so on. Until that day when you can stand in one spot, peel off 50 ft. of line and blast it out, (yes if done correctly you will hear the twang like the picture)

If you watch videos of distance casting, these people will pull out about 75 to 100 ft. of line off the reel and with a couple of really (I mean really, really good) false casts, the can shoot out to distances well over 100ft. (no kidding look up some videos).

Summary:

Let’s do a quick inventory of the skills we have learned so far. By now we can lay out some line, pick up the line and get it to fly like an angle on the wing. You are comfortable with the line under your fingers of the control hand, you can stop the rod and drop the line I s beautiful straight line.

You are able to look at your loops and tell if they are open, closed or tailing, and you are able to make small adjustments to the power and timing to fix them.

Now you have learned the last skill (just kidding there will be many more skills) however, being able to stand comfortably, make a few false casts and then effortlessly shoot out line so you can reach targets farther and farther away.

I hope this three-part lesson was not to boring, and you have not fallen asleep with a rod in your hand. Currently there is about 3.5 million +/- videos on the web teaching you how to cast a fly rod, but if some of this information will help answer some of the countless questions on the same topic, then my job here is done.

Tight lines and have fun learning your new skill.

Cheers

Gary “LaMachine”

As Always feel free to hit me up with any questions or comments you may have