NOW ABOUT YOUR CASTING - Ladyfisher - March 29, 2010

[Jax]

I must say I agree with Casting Practice and at Seventyfour I still practice at least once a week. Like LadyFisher says Not juat seeing how far I can cast but Practicing all types of casts. Reach Mend, Puddle, Zig Zag [Wiggle] and Curves. Makes for good fun.

I am also a firm believer that "The Top Ten Percent" get that way because Casting is Second Nature to them and, they can consentrate 100% on fishing.

[Steven McGarthwaite]

Casting Practice help improves a fly anglers fishing time on the water, but what really helps the most is the correct handle size and shape that best fits your hand.

I struggled for over the first five years, when I first took-up fly fishing. I took lessons, I practice, and I just could not feel the fly line or the fly rod while casting. It was only when I was building my first fly rod, that I decided to find out what my hand grip size was, and which handle design best match my hand shape.

It was only then that I discovered how to control my casting motion, and I could feel the fly rod and fly line as I cast.

PS: I wrote an article on my findings for FAOL, hoping that this might help others that have a similar problem when casting. ~Parnelli

PS: Looking back at the article, it was one of my earliest attempts at writing for FAOL, but what I discovered and did, could help others....

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...customgrip.php

[hungNtree]

Thanks Steve, that sounds exactly like what the Doug Swisher videos call a slack line cast. He teaches it to throw a large lazy open loop on the front cast and then drop your rod tip. The line just piles up in front of you for a good drag free float. I'd never heard the term puddle cast though, thanks a bunch.

[Steve Molcsan]

The main difference between the slack line cast and puddle is that the puddle cast allows your fly to remain at the target
for a bit longer where the slack line allows for a longer drift but takes the fly away from the target quicker.
Puddle is great for a slow static feeder or gulper on fast water near the bank.


Steve

[fishingnewsman]

Good article and to the point. Study, practice, and perfect, is the phrase my students hear from me more than anything else, be it fly casting, fly tying, or just plain angling. I agree completely with your statement about the fly casting certification program. I took lessons from two certified instructors (the second was better than the first) and still didn't get it. Then I a friend (uncertified), who later encouraged me to teach casting, taught me to cast.

Some things I have found helpful: Have the caster stop focusing on distance, and concentrate on proper form. Have the caster learn to cast while seated in a chair, on one knee, and sitting flat on the ground. Once the caster has learned to cast 60 feet or more effectively in all positions, I have them repeat the process with their non dominant hand. I have found learning to cast with ones non dominant hand make casting flaws more evident to the angler.

[T.Goodwin]

Very much enjoyed the read. Couldn’t agree more about practicing. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned, and that I find very helpful, is practicing casting flaws. Tailing loops are a good example. Learn to cast a tailing loop at will and then correct it at will. This allows you to feel the difference between a good cast and a poor one. Once you have this feel you can get really crazy. Try to put the tail at different points in the loop. Try to get only the leader to tail. Then go to the other end of the spectrum and get the loop to tail as soon as it passes the rod tip. I find this extremely instructive. It’s kind of fun too.

Also, the comments about casting instruction have got me thinking. Now it’s possible, likely even, that I am misunderstanding the notion of a standard method of casting instruction. I think the standardization piece should go only so far as the basic elements of casting, like the 5 Essentials for example. How an instructor goes about communicating those essential elements should ultimately depend on the student. Every student is different and I don’t think one single, or standard, method is best for all of them.

I’m a much better instructor now than I was eight or nine years ago when I began working fly fishing schools. This isn’t because I learned some single, most effective way of teaching someone to cast. It’s because I worked with hundreds of students over the years and learned to discern more quickly a student’s learning style and could zero in on the techniques, word cues, etc. that would ultimately allow me to get things to click with that student.

Every student is different. A good instructor has filled his quiver with many, many different teaching techniques, phrases, etc. and can quickly adapt the instruction to fit that particular student.

[Steve Molcsan]

Some good stuff Mr. Fishing newsman and Mr.Goodwin

I think it's also nice to learn to throw a large loop front and back
as well as small tight ones and change of direction casts,,
all at ones hearts desire..

I certainty am not an instructor but, I see my Son practicing these ways
and he has turned out to be a pretty good caster...
A tailing loop at will, I would bet he could...

Steve

[TyroneFly]

I have casting ponds a few miles away from where I live and also whenever we visit my wife aunt and uncle in San Francisco I make it a point to go to the casting ponds in Golden Gate Park. The folks at each of these ponds are more than happy to help. A second pair of eyes really help to pin-point bad technique and show you how to improve. If you have casting ponds near you I suggest you take advantage of the talent that hangs out there.

[flyguy66]

Wow. This article and discussion of it have turned out to be one of the best treatments of "how to improve your casting" I've read in a long time. I have to agree with T. Goodwin about the instructor program stuff. The FFF CICP emphasizes the difference between style and substance. Substance is uniform throughout and is not compromised. It consists of the the five basic elements of all good straight-line casts, six fundamentals for diagnosing casting errors, and some basic definitions of terms (for the sake of communicating concepts uniformly). Style is pretty much everything else. LOL But a couple of examples would be the choice of stance and grip of the caster, or even the teaching method of the instructor. This is proper because if you get a student who wants to improve his/her accuracy for small stream fishing with light weight, slow action rods in short range situations, you want to be able to teach things like the forefinger grip, the aerialized roll cast, the sidearm roll cast, etc. Stance and grip preferences are likely to be different for these applications than from the next student you get who wants to improve his accuracy at distances in excess of 50' in windy conditions with 8-12wt saltwater gear who fishes from the bow of a flats boat. But the fundamental elements (the Five Essentials) for both students do not change. In my experience, this is the way the FFF program teaches it. And from everything I have ever experienced, read, seen, and heard, no fly casting expert contradicts that. It's about the only thing they all agree on.

So I don't know how you could standardize things beyond that, Deanna. But you are a very wise woman who has been around the block more than once when it comes to teaching people to fly fish. So I would love to read your thoughts on this subject!

[kglissmeyer]

Deanna, finally read your treatise and was very pleased. Thank you for your delicate expertise. My hip and ankle may be in rough shape, but my casting skills remain at their peak because I try to get on the water at least once a week if not more. This doesn't mean I'm a skilled caster, just that my skills are at their current peak.

While in Alaska a couple of years ago the guide kept encouraging me to double haul that floating line. I tried and tried, but it just wasn't working. Come to find out the 8wt I was using required a 10wt WF floater to load it correctly. Once the right line was on the rod a sweet double-haul was very easy to attain. Sometimes our stroke may be off due to other factors than our skills - something to pay attention to.

Thanks again for the great article.

Kelly.