Articles With the Tag . . . casting

VIDEO: The Lagging Curve Cast — Dead Drifts for Days (Fly Casting Skills)

The Lagging Curve is a beautiful way to provide slack to a dry fly, and it’s my favorite way to get perfect dead drifts to a dry fly in rivers. I fish a lagging curve at just about any angle, using both a forehand and backhand cast, and it provides slack to a dry fly for days.

The lagging curve is really the opposite of what most people mean by a curve cast. This is an underpowered curve and not a power curve.

The leader design matters a lot, and so does the casting stroke. I cover it all in the video . . .

Stop Looking at Your Backcast

Admiring your casting loops makes you less accurate while also removing your focus from the water and your target. It’s a beginner’s habit that anyone can break in a couple hours, And it’s worth it.

What Hand Should Turn the Fly Reel?

In the short term, reeling with the casting hand might lose fish. But in the long term, it encourages poor line maintenance principles.

In this article I give a lot of thought to the various inefficiencies and handicaps that hurt when reeling with the casting hand . . .

The Corner Cast — Rounding the Corner Might Be Better Than a Roll Cast (with VIDEO)

Rounding the corner with a Corner Cast often outperforms a Roll Cast. It’s faster, more efficient and easier. But remember, it requires great casting from, with good line speed and crisp stops. That’s where good fly casting always begins. So develop a good baseline and everything else will follow. . . .

The Pros and Cons of a Longer Fly Rod

The Pros and Cons of a Longer Fly Rod

The fly fishing industry changes and grows. Advancing techniques and angler trends encourage companies to adapt and build new gear that suits those needs. Improvements in materials, like high modulus graphite, allow for the building of fly rods that were not possible...

Fly Casting — Five Tips For Better Mending

Fly Casting — Five Tips For Better Mending

Mending is a bit of a lost art in fly fishing. I meet fewer and fewer people with much skill for it. And in some ways, that’s just fine. I strongly prefer setting up the angles and  curves of my line and leader in the air, rather than mending after the line touches. I...

Fly Casting — Shoot Line on the Pickup

Fly Casting — Shoot Line on the Pickup

** NOTE ** This is a companion to the article titled, “Fly Casting: Shoot Line on the Backcast." These are related concepts, but separate skills. I like to finish my forward cast with a solid stop. The rod flexes and a tight loop surges to the target. With enough...

Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #28 — Ten and Two

Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #28 — Ten and Two

I’ll admit it. I came to the fly rod by way of Brad Pitt. When I heard Robert Redford’s overwhelming and compelling voice-over, it was too much to resist. Because one afternoon in 1992, while browsing the VHS titles at the local rental joint, I was drawn in by the...

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