Articles With the Tag . . . Fly 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.

The Setup Cast — Fly Fishing Strategies

The setup cast keeps you in control on the river. It allows for repositioning and redirecting the line, leader and fly to the next target. The setup cast gives you a chance to regroup and rethink, too. It keeps you in rhythm by keeping you out of trouble and lending new options to an active angler.

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. . . .

Fly Casting — Five Tips For Better Mending

Nov 18, 2020 | Fly Casting, Tactics

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

Nov 16, 2020 | Fly Casting, Tactics

** 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...

Fly Casting — Acquire Your Target Before the Pickup

Oct 19, 2020 | Fly Casting, Nymphing, Tactics, The Mono Rig

Accuracy. It’s an elementary casting principle, but it’s the hardest thing to deliver. Wild trout are unforgiving. So the errant cast that lands ten inches to the right of a shade line passes without interest. As river anglers, our task is a complicated one, because...

Dry Fly Fishing — The Forehand and Backhand Curve

Aug 2, 2020 | Dry Fly Fishing, Fly Casting, Tactics

Try making a perfectly straight cast. It’s nearly impossible. To do it, the rod tip and rod hand must be in flawless, vertical alignment. So too, the loop coming forward must be perpendicular to the water, or the line will angle to one side or the other. Straight-line...

One Great Fly Casting Tip

Apr 11, 2018 | Dry Fly Fishing, Fly Casting | 2 Comments

I guess I take casting with a fly rod for granted. It’s not that I’m some fantastic caster or I don’t have my struggles, but in truth, I can usually put the fly where I want it. And after all these years watching good and bad casting from other anglers, I believe the difference comes down to one key element — speed.

My own education happened naturally. Over a period of years, fishing day in and day out, I developed a casting technique and style that works for me. But it took time, and not everyone has that luxury. Inevitably, the anglers I meet who struggle to cast a fly, whether working with a dry line, tight line nymphing, whether casting wets or streamers, it comes down to one thing. They aren’t aggressive enough.

The fly rod needs an angler who will take control and be bossy. Good casting requires acceleration between 10:00 and 2:00, with hard, deliberate stops at those points. That’s what I mean by aggressive. The cast should be crisp. It must stop between two positions, and it must stop with purpose. The casting stroke should never be lazy, and it should not be cautious. Otherwise, fly placement and accuracy falls apart.