We’re lucky to have a panel of expert anglers from around the world who have agreed to answer our questions every now and again. In today’s edition of “Ask The Experts”, we focused on casting. Here’s the question we posed to our panel.
“What’s the casting mistake that you see made most often by novice casters?”
We got a wide range of responses from the panel on this one. Have a read!
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“Much of the time I notice that anglers start the cast with their rod tip 2-3 feet off the surface of the water. This puts slack into the cast right away and puts the caster in a situation where he/she is trying to overcome slack throughout the entire cast. It is very tough to get that slack out before you present the fly. Then the fly does not lay out straight, and you don’t have a tight line presentation, therefore lowering your odds of catching a fish.
The distance from the rod tip to the surface of the water before you start the cast is the exact amount of slack that you have in the system. If the angler can start the cast with the rod tip very near the water, or actually slightly in the water, there is no slack in the system, and you start your cast out on the right foot, therefore increasing your odds of catching more fish!”
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“I’d say the single most common mistake is over-acceleration of the rod too early in the casting stroke. This causes the single most common casting issue…the tailing loop. However, most people love to call it the wind knot to avoid accepting responsibility for their casting problem. Remember folks…’Smooth Acceleration!'”
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, the definitive modern book on steelhead fishing.“It would be easy to say, ‘Too much wrist!’ But in reality they don’t know how to incorporate the use of their shoulder. Casting is high to low, not back and forth. This starts at the shoulder joint. Raise your hand over your head and you’ll see what I mean — the shoulder does the work! That’s casting.”
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“A fly in the air catches no fish.”
[Translation: Quit casting so much. Drop it in the water and fish it.]
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Got a question for the experts? Leave a comment or send us an email, and expert advice will be yours.
I have a question about my cast? my flies keep hittting my line on my forward stroke, is this because I have a tailling loop due to to much power in the stroke or is it something else? I never use to have this problem then I bought a 4 wt rod and really started fishing with dry flies alot – and that is when it started, I would really appreciate any help or advice that you could give me. thx
Hi David, thanks for your comment. I’ll recruit an expert to answer your question here!
Hi David,
I would start by slowing things down a bit. Cast it nice and easy! The casting of a 4 wt and small dries is much more of a finesse game than casting 6 wt’s and larger flies for trout and salmon. Most of us who have spent our fly fishing lives with the larger rods and heavier flies have a tendency to work too hard at casting the more delicate rods. Give it a try and I think you will find things starting to fall into place. Also keep an eye on your back cast to help keep things in check.