Casting, It's Not as Complicated as you Think!
In my many years as a fly fishing guide and instructor it has become apparent new anglers are commonly intimidated by fly casting. In their minds it is some overwhelming monster of a task. The truth is, although it is nothing we can ever truly master, fly casting is fairly simple. There are 2 principles that pretty much govern fly casting. The first is building speed to a stop and the second is straight rod travel.
The majority of mistakes in fly casting can be traced back to some variation of either of these. The world famous "wind knot" is nothing more than a cover for what should be called a bad cast knot. "Wind knots" are just the cop out for saying I deviated from one of the basic principles and it ended poorly.
Let's dig into a little starting with the first principle of building speed to a stop. Imagine you are holding a hammer. Your goal is to hammer a nail into a piece of wood with one stoke. You start the swing slow, building speed and hit the nail at full speed, driving the nail into the wood, the hammer stopping hard against the board. Can you drive the nail into the wood reversing the process, aka starting fast and ending with the hammer slowly hitting the nail? No, of course not! Fly fishing is no different. As the rod builds speed the weight of the fly line bends the rod, loading energy into the graphite. That energy is released when you stop the rod, just like the nail being driven into the wood, your line is propelled forward when the rod stops and releases the stored energy. Build speed to a stop!
The second principle is rod travel. If the rod travels in a straight line, the fly line will follow the rod. If your rod travels in a half circle, like the windshield wiper blade on your car, your fly line will follow. Straight rod travel creates a powerful, directional cast. Circular motions create rounded, soft casts and breaking the straight line will often lead to tangles. Check out the video for further details but your rod should travel in a straight line to get the most out the cast.
