Basics · a card
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.
You still cast 40 feet; you just do not cast a 40-foot line at the fish. The slipped line pays out as the rod stops.
What the instructor says
- The 8-foot recipe. Strip off enough line to touch your toes — 8 feet — and hold it in the index finger of the rod hand, not the other hand.
- Release on the reach. Let it go as you stop and reach: 48 feet are available, the rod takes 8 back, and 40 feet reaches the 40-foot cone.
- Distance is not the reason. A 50-foot line over a fish lands on it and spooks it, and hooks the bushes behind a bank fish; cast short and slip line to it.
- Use a short line. The best reach mend is at 20 and 30 feet; an 8-foot rod at 75 feet makes almost no angle.
Putting it to work
- Drill stop-reach-drop 15 times a minute, then ten casts in a row at a cone.
- Do not fear for your loops: only getting really close wrecks muscle memory.
Source
From the FFI CI walkthrough series by Dayle Mazzarella (Chapter 3 — FFI Casting Instructor Certification Tasks, Fly Fishing Coach International), lesson 5, 00:14:19. See the video library and the task pages for the exam wording; terms follow the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.