CI written exam practice questions · a card
As the casting distance increases, what happens to the length of the haul?
The haul gets longer as the carried line gets longer — haul length grows with distance, and the forward and back hauls should stay the same length as each other.
As the distance increases, so does the haul: your hauls should get longer as the length of line you are carrying gets longer.
The reason is that the haul supplies line speed, and a longer carry needs more of it. At distance, hauling is permitted and encouraged because it adds quite a bit of line speed when done properly, and it can also reduce the work done by the rod hand, narrow the casting arc and shorten stroke length compared with an unhauled cast of the same distance.
Two things keep the longer haul useful:
- Keep it symmetrical. The back cast and forward cast hauls should be the same length, avoiding short forward cast hauls; watch your hauling hand while casting, and video it.
- Grow it with the carry. Introduce hauling as the line gets longer — the guide suggests introducing it as the line gets to 50 ft — and let haul length grow with the carried line.
Source
From Task 15 and Task 14 in the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF); terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions (Hauling). See also Task 14, double haul.