Basics · a card
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.
Task 13 mirrors task 12: loops first, targets last. Only your stance and rod angle change.
What the instructor says
- Stand laterally outside the cone. About three feet out, right leg forward, rod parallel to the tape; with the rod in front, the tip sits three feet off the tape. Run the tip up and down an imaginary wall rising straight from the tape, and the cast tracks.
- Rod on the shoulder. Distinctly over it, not in front, where the cast goes shaky; thumb on top keeps the arm from climbing, and no examiner seems to care which grip you use.
- Tape turned 70 degrees. When the wind hits your casting shoulder, re-tape 70 degrees right so each loop blows clear of itself without making lateral accuracy hard.
- One o’clock at 45. At 20 it is the dominant-shoulder placement, 11:30 to 10; at 45 the back goes only to one o’clock because the trajectory is slightly downward, and the loops must be thin.
Putting it to work
- Drill off-shoulder loops every day.
- Run the 30 to 45 extension about 40 times before putting the task together.
Source
From the FFI CI walkthrough series by Dayle Mazzarella (Chapter 3 — FFI Casting Instructor Certification Tasks, Fly Fishing Coach International), lesson 11, 00:01:55. See the video library and the task pages for the exam wording; terms follow the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.