Basics
Every card below asks a question and links to the working answer — the drills, the numbers, the reasons, and the mistakes that cause the problem in the first place. Search the box (press /), filter by tag, or just scroll: cards run from the fundamentals of the cast outward to watercraft and kit.
New here? Start with What causes a tailing loop, What makes a loop tight and Which fly rod should I buy first. Preparing for a certification? The later cards work through most of the CI performance exam tasks, the teaching method and the fault-correction routine, using the same vocabulary as the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.
Study journal
CI Performance Exam study journal
CI 抛投技能考试 · 中英对照练习本
A bilingual workspace for the twenty-two performance tasks: plan how you will demonstrate and teach each one, tick it off, and keep notes in your own browser.
Open the journal
FFI casting definitions
Every term from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions (2025 Edition) as a card — 96 definitions, tagged by the section they come from.
96 cards
CI written exam practice questions
The 33 Appendix D sample questions, reviewed and corrected, and 60 original practice questions — 93 cards in all, tagged by topic.
93 cards
Fly-fishing glossary
Tackle, tying materials, insects, watercraft and fish handling in English and Chinese — the words the FFI casting definitions do not cover.
254 terms
- What causes a tailing loop, and how do I fix it? A tailing loop is a loop whose top leg crosses the bottom leg. It is almost always caused by dipping the rod tip during the stroke, or by applying power too early. Read the full answer
- What are the four causes of a tailing loop? Every tail comes from a concave rod tip path, and four things put the dip there: a casting arc that is too narrow, inappropriate power application, creep, and creep combined with inappropriate power. Read the full answer
- What makes a loop tight? Loop size is set by how far the rod tip travels in a straight line, and by the angle between the rod leg and the fly leg — not by how hard you push the rod. Read the full answer
- What is the double haul actually doing? The haul adds line speed by pulling the line through the guides while the rod is unloading — the rod supplies the load, the haul supplies the extra speed. Read the full answer
- What is mending, and when do I need it? A mend is a flick of the rod after the cast that repositions the line on the water, so the current does not drag your fly. Read the full answer
- What is drag, and how do I beat it? Drag is the fly being pulled off its drift by the line, leader or a faster current. Beat it with a better angle, a mend, or more slack. Read the full answer
- What is a dead drift? A dead drift is a fly travelling at exactly the speed of the current it is in, with no influence from the line at all. Read the full answer
- What is the difference between a leader and tippet? The leader is the tapered length that turns the fly over; the tippet is the fine end you replace when it shortens — same job, different place in the line. Read the full answer
- How do I read a trout stream? Read water for three things: where the current brings food, where the fish can hold without fighting it, and where they are safe from above. Read the full answer
- What do trout actually eat? Mostly small things, mostly underwater: aquatic insects, crustaceans and worms. Surface feeding is a small fraction of what a trout eats in a day. Read the full answer
- Nymph or dry fly — which should I fish? Fish a dry when you see fish feeding on the surface; fish a nymph the rest of the time, which is most of the time. Read the full answer
- Which knots do I actually need? Three: an improved clinch or Davy knot for the fly, a double surgeon's or blood knot for joins, and a loop connection for the fly line. Read the full answer
- Which fly rod should I buy first? A 9 ft, 5-weight, medium-fast graphite rod. It covers trout rivers, stillwaters and most of what you will learn in your first seasons. Read the full answer
- What rod, line and leader should I bring to the CI exam? A fairly fast 6 or 7 weight, an orange line with a head of at least 42 to 45 ft, a leader of at least 7.5 ft and about an inch of polypropylene yarn, on the smallest, lightest reel you can find. Read the full answer
- How is casting distance measured in the CI exam? From your front toe to the yarn, not from the rod tip — so a 40 ft cast leaves only about 23 ft of fly line out. Read the full answer
- How should I structure a practice session for the CI exam? Warm up, put 15 to 25 percent of every session into basic drills — he gives at least a quarter of his 6 to 8 weekly hours to them — review last week, then take on one new skill in a 45-minute to an-hour session. Read the full answer
- What order should I learn the CI exam tasks in? False casting first, then the presentation tasks, then accuracy, the roll cast and the double haul — with distance last. Read the full answer
- Why do some candidates take years to pass the CI exam? Because they practice whole tasks instead of the pieces each task is made of; a methodical caster should pass in a year to a year and a half. Read the full answer
- How do I answer the examiner's questions in the CI exam? Two or three sentences, then stop: give the one-line cause, set your own parameters on a hypothetical, and never bluff. Read the full answer
- What should I ask the examiner before the teaching tasks? Ask which of the three modes they want — the steps, how you would teach them, or a real lesson — and plan every teaching task to fit inside 45 minutes. Read the full answer
- How ready do I need to be on exam day? Ready enough to pass on a 90 percent day, because three examiners and whatever weather arrives will take the rest. Read the full answer
- How do I find the real fault behind a bad cast? Treat what you see as a symptom, work back to the error that produced it, and if the base or the stance is broken, rebuild that before you touch the stroke. Read the full answer
- When a student shows several faults at once, which one do I fix? The first error in the sequence — the later ones are very likely its consequences — and when faults overlap, the most fundamental one, which in a fast, wide-arc, no-pause cast is the pause. Read the full answer
- In what order do I hand a student the hand, the noodle, the rod and the line? Hand first, then a foam noodle, then a rod with no line, and only then the line itself — because as soon as the line is in their hand, they turn dumb. Read the full answer
- What is the first thing I do in a lesson? Demonstrate the skill and show the target before you explain it, then explain why it matters — a good teacher does not drag a kid to the fountain, a good teacher makes the horse thirsty. Read the full answer
- What is structured practice, and when do I stop drilling? Build the cast the way a car is built — one step at a time, every step checked — using structured practice one and two, and if a skill is not landing in three or four minutes, switch to something else. Read the full answer
- What is praise, prompt, leave? Praise what is already good, give one prompt phrased as what to do, then leave so the student can practice it — and never name the error. Read the full answer
- How do I teach a pause a beginner can actually hit? Have them stop at the end of the back cast and count 'one' out loud before they come forward, with two noodle gates to stop at. Read the full answer
- Should I teach visual, auditory and tactile learners differently? No — the learning-styles model is not supported by research; say it, let them see it and have them do it all at once, which he calls say–see–do. Read the full answer
- How do I use video to coach a student's casting? Film against a dark background with the line in the light, frame only the half of the cast you are diagnosing, and scrub one-hundredth of a second at a time to measure the arc, the drift and the tail. Read the full answer
- Why does the examiner want my rod tip down at the start? Because a high rod tip means you pick the line up with slack in it, and with 50 or 60 feet out that slack cannot be cleared before the cast is over. Read the full answer
- What are the three moves that make a wide front loop? Wide on both the forward and back casts: stop, rotate the wrist until the rod is about 20° off horizontal, then bounce straight back up — and rotate before you translate. Read the full answer
- How wide does the front loop have to be? At least about three feet wider than the narrow loops you started with — his example opens a 3.5 ft loop to 7 ft — and only a full arc down to 20° off horizontal gets you there. Read the full answer
- What does the examiner actually want in Task 3? One deliberate tail, caused by a too-small arc or by too much power, explained with the cause you actually used — and never two causes stacked on one cast. Read the full answer
- What makes a reach mend clean? A slow forward cast on a level trajectory, stopping the rod before you reach — stop, reach, then drop. Read the full answer
- How do I slip line during a reach mend? Strip about 8 feet, hold it in the index finger of the rod hand, and release it as you stop and reach — the fly lands at 40 ft without draping line over the fish. Read the full answer
- What are the pieces of the pickup and lay-down? A smooth lift at a constant angle that stops as the nail knot clears the water, at least six false casts, then any delivery cast you choose. Read the full answer
- What is the most common pickup-and-laydown fault, and what do I teach before it? Going too far back and breaking the wrist on the back cast — so teach the grass drill and the paintbrush drill first, for smooth acceleration. Read the full answer
- Why do I have to accelerate more as the casting plane drops? Because gravity sags the line as the rod goes flatter, and a loop that dips and ticks the ground is a rules violation — so each step down from 12 o'clock to 3 costs you more line speed. Read the full answer
- How do I cast a slack-line presentation that still catches fish? Stop, drop the rod and follow the line down so the slack piles up behind the fly, not at the rod tip: the fish sees the fly before it sees any line, and drifts drag-free until the current eats the slack. Read the full answer
- What changes when I cast faster? Three things: a little more rod bend, so a slightly bigger casting arc; more force and acceleration; and a shorter pause — and the loop should stay the same size at every speed. Read the full answer
- What are the requirements for the three roll casts? Task 9: a static D loop that leaves the ground at your feet or just in front, a head-high or lower elliptical loop, and a fully aerial delivery — and yes, you may use an anchor. Task 10 repeats it off-side; Task 11 adds the pickup, the delivery and an explanation. Read the full answer
- How do I get a narrow roll-cast loop? Come forward mostly in translation and save the rotation for the end, then flick just the rod tip: the stroke, not the strength, is what tightens the loop. Read the full answer
- How do I practise the roll casts? Drill the pickup until it is a fishing move rather than a rescue, and rehearse the exam habit — a clean pickup, a couple of false casts, lay it down — instead of gambling on a cast. Read the full answer
- Do examiners score my loops or my targets on the accuracy task? Examiners grade the loop as hard as the landing — some trade leeway for close targets, many give none — so build the loop before you ever aim at the cone. Read the full answer
- How do I extend my accuracy cast from 20 to 45 ft without losing the loop? Hold the trajectory you already have until the loops repeat, then change trajectory, feed the line three times and put it into one hand — 30 to 45 ft is the same routine. Read the full answer
- How do I keep my off-shoulder accuracy cast tracking at the cone? Stand about three feet laterally outside the cone with your right leg forward, and run the rod tip up and down an imaginary wall rising straight off the tape. Read the full answer
- When should the haul start and stop, and how long should it be? The finish is what counts: the haul stops as the rod hand stops, and it is an equal 18 inch haul on the forward and the back cast. Read the full answer
- What is the false-cast formula for a 75 ft cast? Two false casts at 50 ft, a third that shoots 10 to 12 ft to 62 to 65 ft, no shoot on the back cast, then a fourth that shoots — you can shoot about half of what you carry. Read the full answer
- How do you structure a teaching task so the examiner can score it? Ask which of three modes the examiner wants, set up in 15 to 20 seconds, show the finished cast, then teach it step by step and hand the student the rod — all inside five and a half minutes. Read the full answer
- How do you recognise and correct a fault systematically? Read the loop, then the rod, then the body, rule out what the cast is not, then fix the earliest error in two or three sentences and hand over the rod. Read the full answer
- How do you teach the roll cast? Build a static D loop, name the anchor where the line leaves the grass, then walk the six steps and have the student teach them back. Read the full answer
- How do you teach the double haul? Only after a one-handed cast to 45 or 50 ft and the grass drill: haul short as the rod passes the blue cone, return the hand at once, and build it from hand-only drills with eyes closed. Read the full answer
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