Lead with safety: keep the fly and the line away from anyone who could be hit, and teach that before any casting adjustment. Then wind is managed by what you send into it — plane, trajectory, loop and line speed — and by which side of your body carries the line.

Into a head wind or a tail wind, work on the loop. Its fly leg must be straight and the trajectory matched to the delivery — up in back and down in front into a head wind; a flat or slightly lowered back cast followed by an upward forward delivery in a tail wind. Wind punishes a curved fly leg, which is why the guide says very straight fly legs are necessary. Line speed matters too, but speed is not the whole answer: with a cross wind or a wind on the casting arm, plane and side matter more, and driving harder does not move the line away from you.

With the wind on the casting arm, safety governs everything. For a light wind, keep the line on the upwind side of the caster for all or part of the cast; for stronger winds, keep it on the downwind side throughout. Casting off the other shoulder — an off-side cast — keeps the line off the casting arm, and the elliptical, Barnegat Bay and Galway casts are allowed here. That is why the task asks for three methods.

Teach one wind direction at a time, and explain the problem and its safety concerns before you demonstrate.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — Task 22 and the rod-deceleration section on straight fly legs; terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.