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Introduction:

No matter how much money you have spent on a fly rod, a reel and line, ultimately they will do you no good if you are unable to cast. Furthermore, the greatest flies in the world will not make up for poor casting fundamentals. In this post I will not be addressing casting variations such as a "Roll Cast" or a "Bow and Arrow Cast." Rather, this post is designed to give you some information on the basics of casting, and to hopefully give you a better idea on what you should be doing next time you go out on the water. This one is lengthier than the majority of my posts, but there is a lot of information when it comes to casting. 

Pulling Out Fly Line 

The first thing you need to understand when casting is how to pull line out and effectively manage it. As you begin your cast, mentally pick out a target in the water you are trying to hit. This may be a landmark such as a rock or log, or it may be more general such as the middle of the pool. Regardless of your target, you then need to pull out a small amount of line. Before even beginning your cast, it is usually beneficial to make sure your fly line has been pulled all the way through the eyes of the rod. A simple mistake some people make is they pull a lot of fly line out of their reel, but they do not pull the line through the eyes. This leads to a mess of excessive line at their feet, and they become frustrated when the line is not shooting out like they expect. 

Once you have pulled the line through the eyes, and pulled a couple feet of line out of the reel, you will then begin to go into your false cast (which will be addressed next). As you false cast, have the excess fly line in one hand, and the rod in your other. With each false cast, begin to feed a small amount of line into the rod. This can be done by loosening your grip on the line, and then tightening it back down. You will see that the momentum of your false casting will shoot the line out forward. Once you have achieved the desire amount of line out, hold the remaining line firm, as you complete your cast. This will ensure too much does not come out. 

False Casting

False casting is one of the most notable parts of fly fishing. False casting is what grabs many peoples attention to fly fishing in the first place and it is vital to achieving distance in your casts. Before you even begin a false cast, ALWAYS look behind you and above you for any potential snags such as tall grass or tree limbs. Once you understand where your potential hazards are, begin your false casts accordingly. 

The old standard with fly casting is "10 and 2". This simply says that during your false casts, the fly line in front of you should be 10:00 on a clock, and the fly line behind you should be 2:00 on a clock. This is a good rule to have as you begin your casting, but is a rule that many do not follow. As you become more comfortable in your casting, you will find a natural "slot" where you cast your best. For some it will be staying high at 12:00, and others will dip down into a 9:00 to 3:00 motion. Me personally, the majority of my casts are somewhere between 10-2 and 9-3. 

The amount of times you false cast is dependent on how much line you are attempting to get out, and how much room you have around you. You should never continually false cast for the fun of it, because you run the risk of spooking fish, as well as tangling up your flies. Once you have the amount of fly line out you wish to have, and you have the line in rhythm, complete your cast. 

Speed 

The speed in which you false cast will be dependent on several factors. There will be times where you want the flies to sink immediately, so you may cast with a little more speed in order to get a better "plop" into the water. Other times you will go very slow and steady as you attempt to fool a rising trout on a dry fly. If you ever find yourself in a moving drift boat, you will also learn that you speed up as you attempt to hit a narrow window that you only have a moment to hit. However, the standard speed in which you cast varies from person to person. The important rule to remember is to keep your back and forth CONSTANT and EVEN. What this means is that as your fly line shoots forward at 10:00, you must wait until your line has completely left the 2:00 position. If 75% of your fly line is at the 10:00 position and then you go back to the 2:00 position, there is a strong possibility your line will tangle. This is because it is unable to catch up to itself during your false cast. Always make sure that your fly line has completed it's loop, before you begin another. The best way to get this motion down, is to stand in the yard with your rod/reel/line and cast with no flies on the end. As you are practicing your casting, anytime you hear a loud crack or "pop", it means your timing was off. The goal is to false cast over and over without ever making the line pop, and without having your line kink up in front of you. This is done by keeping steady momentum, and allowing the fly line/rod to do the work for you. 

Distance: 

This one is fairly self-explanatory, but always understand that however much line you have in front of you, you need that much space behind you as well. For example, if you are standing on a bank attempting to make a 50 foot cast, ideally you need at least 20-30 feet behind you for your false cast.  Remember as well that as you pull line out for your cast, that means you are covering more and more distance behind you. Even though you may not hit a branch on your first couple false casts, you may hit a branch on your fifth one as you pull line out. 

Weight: 

The final thing I'm going to address is weight. Weight plays a critical role in casting, as many times it dictates how far you can cast, and how accurate you will be. As a general thing, the majority of people cast better with a small amount of weight, such as split shot or a bead head. This is because you are able to manipulate the weight, in order to get the fly to travel where you want it to. It also causes the fly to be more resistant to any wind, and not influence your cast so much. Additionally, the added weight aids in shooting your fly line forward as you complete your cast. When casting something such as a dry fly or an unweighted nymph, you are having to rely solely on the fly line to produce the weight for your cast. Situations like this is where line control becomes critical, because it is the only thing influencing your cast. The big thing with weight is to adjust your casting to accommodate for weight, or a lack of weight. Anytime you change the weight on your flies, make a couple short casts to give yourself a moment to adjust, rather than attempting to cast the new weight as far as you can. 

Conclusion: 

In closing, learning how to cast is best done outside rather than on a screen. You can sit on your phone or computer and read about how a cast should look, and you can mentally go through all the steps of successfully casting. However, ultimately there is no better way to improve your casting than going outside and casting in the yard. You can even take it a step further and place various targets in your yard and try and hit them. One cheap target that simulates a feeding pocket is a hulu-hoop. If you can successfully move a hula-hoop around your yard and land your flies in it consistently, it will prepare you for most casts you will encounter on the water. When doing this, I recommend tying on a cheap fly that you do not care about, and cutting off the hook. This will give you the weight of a fly, an exact object to aim with, and it will prevent you from getting hung up in grass or bushes around you. So I hope this post has been a help to you, and you were able to find something in it that will ultimately make you a better fly fisher. Until next time, keep your fly out of the trees for me.