ADVANCED FLY CASTING

April 12, 2010

A little story about the word Advanced. Been there, in fact the late Castwell and I taught classes for Delta College in Michigan, a satellite of the University of Michigan. The college suggested we teach two classes to cover the gamut of people who might want to learn to fly fish. So the listings of the classes went out with two sections of Fly Fishing. Beginning and Advanced. The first night of the Beginning class was very disappointing - no one signed up, but not to worry, the advanced class was scheduled for the next night. We were amazed! Fifty-seven people had signed up and shown up for the advanced class.

As we interviewed the folks trying to get some idea of what we had for a class it became very apparent that we had people who were not very experienced fly fishers. Several had never had a fly rod in their hands; in fact they had never even touched one, which was very interesting.

We split the group in two and used the classroom reserved for the Beginning Class for one and the rest remained in the Advanced Class.

This class was a 13 weeks full credit course. It covered fly casting, taught in the big double gym, entomology and fly tying, reading the water as well as a history of fly fishing. We had the use of a television camera to film the students casting. That enabled them to see for themselves what mistakes they were making so they could correct them. It worked very well. By the way, the year this started was 1972. I later learned it probably was the first of that type of class offered at the college level.

We had no idea of the power of the word “advanced”. When we got to know the students well enough to ask them why they signed up for an advanced class the answers were always the same. “I thought I could learn more in an advanced class.” So the word is probably as effective as the word “secret.” You know, as in the Secret Patterns of Top Guides! 

There are some advanced techniques in fly casting. One of them you probably will never have a use for unless you are fishing for big fish somewhere windy. Fishing for Pacific salmon here on the west coast is a time where you can have big fish and most likely wind. Fishing in the wind is tricky itself, right-handed fly fishers ideally want the wind blowing from their left or straight at them. If the wind is from your right side the chances are you are going to wear your fly. A couple of things you can do. Turn your palm out and aim the tip of your rod over your left shoulder. Use the same timing and power; you’re just throwing the cast off to your left. One of our left-handed friends had it figured out as well. He made his false casts to the rocks beyond the beach behind him. When he had the amount of line out he wanted he let go of his back cast putting his fly in the water where he wanted. Yes, it does work.

I hate to mention that anytime you have a wind situation it really is helpful if you can double haul. I’ve mentioned before I almost automatically do the double haul with all of my casting regardless of the size/weight rod I’m using. Using the double haul divides the work between two hands instead of your dominate hand doing all the work. The double haul increases your line speed to the point of allowing you to fish in a windy situation when you might not have been able to do so. I know a lot of folks don’t think the double haul doesn’t do anything good. Unless you’ve been in the situations where you just “had” to have it in order to fish, you can’t appreciate the real value of it. 

One of the most underused casts is the side-arm cast. I hardly ever seen anyone using it in fishing situations and it really is a doozy. If you aren’t using it, give it a little practice and you will see it can get you in and under overhanging branches, and it is another neat method of fishing in wind. The wind is always stronger the higher you cast over the water (overhand cast). So by using the side-arm cast you can place your cast by keeping the fly just off the water until you’re ready to make your presentation. (You’re less likely to line a fish using the side-arm cast as well.)

There is yet another adjunct to the double haul, called the triple haul. Really, it’s not a joke. The use is usually for long casts especially in wind situations. You perform the double haul as usual then as your line rolls out on the forward cast you make another haul with your line hand.  You have to position your line hand by the striping guide again to be ready after the second haul. It actually takes any slack out of the line, speeds up the line and forces the fly line to turn over abruptly helping the fly to land on target. As I said, this is mostly used in wind, especially where the wind might blow the fly off target especially with bigger flies. This take some practice because the natural thing to do would be to lift the rod as in going into just the double haul, it take a little discipline to keep the rod tip aimed at the target. Special situations need special solutions.

One other trick you should have in your bag of tricks. It is the deep water load. When you want to change the direction of where your fly goes. With your fly on the water, aim the tip of your rod at the fly; make a haul with your line hand while lifting the rod up and behind you as a normal back cast. Let the line unfurl and make the cast to the new spot. This presents the fly with no other false casts. This cast is often used fishing bonefish when the fish moves or another fish is in casting range. I have used it with a dry fly when a different fish rises and I don’t want to take precious time to make false casts. If the pickup is forceful the fly will be dry enough to float when you make your presentation. Just make sure you stop the rod high enough above the water to let the fly land softly. (Not counting grasshoppers or Chernobyl ants.)

Somewhere along the line I learned a few casts used by the spey casting folks. The Belgian is a cast following a pickup where there really isn’t much of a back cast. Instead you make an oval motion with the rod tip and drop the fly in the target. I think a lot of fly fishers do that one as an almost nature reaction when they know there is brush or trees which are going to give them trouble. You might play with that one and see if you can make it work for you.

I’m sure you know that stopping the rod is what makes the line go, but you must try this little exercise. When you have your rod all rigged up except for the fly, pull about twenty feet of line out and point the rod straight out at about waist high.  Make a series of little circles with the rod tip and notice what the line does. It forms a series of hoops. Lesson? Whatever the rod tip does the line does.

The very best advanced casting advice I (or anyone) can give you is spend as much time on the water fishing as you possibly can. There is nothing which can match being there and doing it. The more time you spend the more you will see, the more you see the more you will understand, and the more you understand the better fly caster and fly fisher you will become.

It’s just doing it. There is no better teacher than time spent on the water just fishing.

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