Casting a Fly Line

John on the Stilly

Learning to cast a fly line is the basis of fly fishing. Being able to cast a fly line doesn't mean that you will catch fish, but not knowing how to cast will make the catching part much more difficult. With that said, you will need to have faith that casting a fly line is easy.

Let's assume you are starting with a decent rod, reel, and line. If this is not the case, then go to the gear section to learn what you need to get started. Having a rod that casts well and a line that matches the rod is very important. Challenging yourself with poor equipment is the last thing you want to do when you are learning how to cast a flyline.

Successfully casting requires you to teach your body how to do something it has never done. This can be challenging, but with the help of a few simple tricks, you can teach yourself in a short amount of time. Surprisingly, you don't even need a fly rod to practice the first two exercises.

Exercise One - Hand and Arm Motion: (This exercise teaches you positioning, arm motions, and timing.)

Artistry by Dana Greear	Artistry by Dana Greear
Figure 1 Starting Position	Figure 2 Stopping Position

1. Grab a pen or a highlighter so that you have something to hold in your hand to simulate a fly rod. Your palm should be sideways and your fingers wrapped around the pen. Your thumb should be on top of the pen pointing away from you and towards the end of the pen.

2. Hold your hand and arm in the starting position as shown in Figure 1. Your shoulder should be relaxed, your arm from your shoulder to your elbow should be vertical, your forearm should be elevated five or ten degrees from horizontal, and your hand should be relaxed, but still holding the pen as described above. This is the Starting Position and if you relate it to the hands of a clock, the pen is pointing at 10:00 O'Clock.

3. Now move your arm to the stopping position as shown in Figure 2. Your shoulder is still fairly relaxed with your arm still at your side, your arm from your shoulder to your elbow is rotated up about 30 degrees from vertical, your forearm is completely vertical, and your wrist has rotated in the opposite direction of your arm. (As your forearm rotates up, your wrist rotates so that the tip of your thumb is pointing away from your shoulder.) This is the Stopping Position and if you relate it to the hands of a clock, the pen is pointing somewhere between 1:00 and 2:00 O'Clock.

   You have just learned positioning. Very easy to do, buy not natural. Using the correct positioning forces the tip of the rod, and the fly line to travel in a straight line (Versus an arc or circle). This makes for an efficient cast with tight loops.

   Artistry by Dana Greear	Artistry by Dana Greear
   Figure 3 Starting Position to Stopping Position	Figure 4 Stopping Position to Starting Position

   Now you must learn how to move your arm between the two positions. You will begin again with your hand and arm back in the starting position.

4. From the starting position, begin by slowly rotating your hand and arm toward the stopping position as shown in Figure 3. Increase the speed of your arm until it comes to an abrupt hault in the stopping position. In other words, the motion should be a slow start, acceleration, abrupt stop. As you are doing the motion, say "Accelerate, Stop" (You can think of this as a dragser running into a brick wall. It sits at the starting line waiting for the light to change. The light turns green, the wheels spin, and the car accelerates, then it hits a brick wall 20 feet away and comes to an abrupt hault.)

5. Repeat the same slow start, acceleration, abrupt hault when moving your arm from the stopping position back to the starting position as shown in Figure 4. As you are doing the motion, say "Accelerate, Stop"

   You have just learned the arm motions which are important for loading the rod. (The tip of the rod will bend in the direction the fly line is traveling when your arm comes to an abrupt stop.) When loaded properly, your rod will do a lot of work for you by shooting the line out of the rod. It's a great feeling when you get it right!

   You are now ready for the final step and the last variable, timing. You will notice that you can move your arm from the starting position to the stopping position fairly slow or really fast.

6. When you make your first couple casts, you will probably start with a fairly short line, so your arm motions can be fairly fast. (Always remember, slow start, acceleration, abrupt stop!) As you make more casts and pull more line out, you will progressively slow the speed of your casting arm.

7. You are now casting a long (imaginary) line. Your arm motion is fairly slow and you are ready for your final forward cast. (You didn't know this, but you've been holding the reel end of the line in the hand that isn't doing the casting.) On your final forward cast, you will let go of the line as your arm passes 10"OClock and drop your casting arm all the way down to 9:00 O'Clock.

   Congratulations! You have just made your first imaginary cast with a fly rod! In the final steps you practiced timing. This means you changed the speed of the casting stroke based on the amount of fly line you were casting. With a short line, a faster casting stroke keeps the line off the ground. With a long line, a slower casting stroke allows your fly line to straighten out and load the rod before starting the casting stroke in the opposite direction.

Exercise Two - Stick and Yarn: (This exercise improves your positioning, arm motions.)

For this exercise you will attach a piece of bright colored yarn to the butt end of the fly rod. Attach the yarn to the guide closest to the grip, then thread the yarn through the remaining guides of the butt section. The yarn should be long enough that you have about five feet of yarn hanging from the last guide.

1. This is a short exercise that consists of practicing the arm motion exercises steps 4 through 7 above while holding on to the butt end of the rod as described in step 1.

2. While performing the casting stroke, watch the yarn. It should be traveling in a straight line when your arm is moving between the starting and stopping position. It should also straighten out when your arm stops in the stopping position, and again when it stops in the starting position.

   Note: If the yarn is not doing what it is supposed to, go through steps 1 through 7 again and watch your hand and arm motions. If this still doesn't work, have a friend read through the steps and watch while you go through the motions.

Exercise Three - The Fly Rod: (This exercise allows you to feel the fly rod without having to hastle with the line.)

This is a short exercise that consists of practicing the arm motion exercises steps 4 through 7 above while holding an assembled fly rod as described in step 1. For this exercise, the reel may be attached, but the line should not be threaded through the guides yet.

Exercise Four - Casting a Fly Line: (The Real Deal - This exercise teaches you how to tie knots without using your hands!)

One of the best ways to learn to cast a fly line is to practice in a large grassy area on a calm day so you don't have to deal with effects of wind and water. Now follow these steps and you will be on your way to a successful day of casting:

1. Attach the reel to the rod, pull out about four feet of line and fold it in half. Grab the line where it is folded and thread it through the guides. (If you line slips out of your fingers while threading it, it will form a big loop where it was folded and stay in the guides. If you don't fold it, it will slip back through all the guides and you will be starting over.

2. If you haven't already done so, attach a short leader to the end of the fly line, and tie a piece of yarn to the end of the leader. You should start with a fairly stiff piece of leader (8 lb test) so you don't have to deal with knots in the leader while you are learning to cast.

3. Grab the rod so your hand is on top of the rod with your thumb pointing toward the tip of the rod and the reel is on the bottom of the rod.

4. Strip a couple feet of fly line off the reel and shake the rod tip from side to side to force the line through the guides. Continue to do this until you have about twenty feet of line on the ground in front of you. Take care not to shake the rod too hard as you don't want knots in the line before you get started.

5. Now walk backwards to straighten the line out in front of you.

6. You are finally ready to make your first cast! Now just follow steps 4 through 7 above. When the line ends up in a pile, strip it in with the hand that is not holding the rod and start over. (To strip in line, grab the line just behind the first guide and pull it toward you. Drop it so it falls to the ground and repeat this until you have pulled enough line in.) Now, each time you make a forward cast, let out a little line at the end of the cast to increase the amount of line you are casting.

Things to watch out for:

When making your backcast (Moving your arm from the starting position to the stopping position.), your natural tendency is to rotate your wrist in the same direction that you are rotating your arm. When this happens, your thumb ends up pointing at your shoulder. This is called breaking your wrist. Avoid doing this as it will result in your rod tip traveling in an arc instead of a straight line. Your fly line will form large inefficient loops and will probably hit the ground behind you without going very far in either direction. This is the number one mistake that will screw up your cast.

Make sure your arm stops and the end of evey backcast and forward cast. If your arm and rod doesn't come to an abrupt stop, the line will not straighten out, and you will not load the rod. A fly rod is an excellent tool, don't waiste it!

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