Teaching on HookedLee

When you are demonstrating a cast, where should the observer stand relative to you and the sun?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Put the observer beside you and slightly behind, on your non-casting-arm side, clear of the rod plane — and with the sun behind their shoulder.

Directly behind you the cast is nearly edge-on: the loop collapses into a line and the observer cannot see its width or the shape of the fly leg, which is what the demonstration is for. From the side, the nose, both legs and the loop shape are visible at once — and that is also where you stand when the student casts.

Then check the light the way the guide says to check a course: background first. The observer must not look into the sun, and the sun should light the line against a plain background, because dark trees and bright sky both swallow a fly line. If the light is wrong, move the pair of you, not just the observer.

The guide gives no fixed position; it gives the test one has to pass. A demonstration has to be easy to see, and the style must be something the student can understand, repeat and retain.

Source

The CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) does not prescribe a position; this answer follows from its demonstration and course-setting guidance. Terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.

What is the biggest risk in your instructional approach when teaching a beginner?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Overload. The risk is giving a beginner more than they can act on, so they practise faults instead of one clean repetition. Task 16 is blunt about it: avoid over-explaining, keep things simple, and do not overload a beginning caster with technical terminology.

The mechanism is in the guide’s Structured Practice section. Teaching a skill holistically “is a good way to delay or even prevent learning”: the student repeats the whole cast with several faults, you point out the errors again and again, and little improves. The object of structured practice is to “eliminate faults as we build the skill” — one step, checked, then the next. Praise, Prompt, Leave makes the same point for group teaching: correct one error at a time, in plain declarative sentences.

The guard is sequence, not volume. Cover one or two topics per lesson, let each step build on the last, and leave time for independent practice, because a beginner who is watched every second cannot feel what they are doing.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — Task 16, the teaching principles, and Appendix B (Structured Practice, Praise Prompt Leave).

What teaching tools would you use to demonstrate rod tip path to a beginner?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep it on the grass, in slow motion, against a tape measure. The guide’s Horizontal Casting Drill is the tool set: tape stretched to 70 ft, cones at 28, 35 and 42 ft, your casting arm even with the 35 ft cone, and the rod tip sliding from the 42 ft cone to the 28 ft cone while your line hand progressively bends the rod. The student sees the straight-line rod tip path, the rod bend and the casting arc in one motion.

Then show the errors on the same tape, still slowly. Cones at about 46 and 24 ft give a domed tip path and a wide loop; cones at 40 and 30 ft, with the tip dipped below the tape, give a concave rod tip path and a tailing loop. Only a CAVE man throws a tailing loop.

Reinforce with static and dynamic aids: the rod tip on the grass, line laid out to show the loop, a pool noodle for the stop, and pantomime so the student feels the stroke with an empty hand. Task 16 notes that ground demonstrations in slow motion are very effective.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — Appendix A, the Horizontal Casting Drill, and Task 16; terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions (Rod Tip Path).

When would the PULD (Pickup and Laydown) cast be used?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The PULD is both a fishing cast and a teaching cast, and the exam wants both answers.

On the water it presents the fly and makes small changes of direction: it picks the line up off the water and lays it back down on the same fish or the same lie, without a false-casting sequence. The guide’s PULD lesson plan gives its purpose as simply presenting the fly to a fish or slightly changing the direction of the cast.

As a teaching cast, Task 17 calls it a basic fly fishing cast, a foundation for other casts, and an efficient way to learn how to begin and end them. Every overhead cast uses the elements the guide lists for the PULD: initial line organisation, initial rod tip position, the lift, backward acceleration to a stop, a pause, forward acceleration to a stop, and lowering the rod tip to the water following the line down. Teach the PULD first and every later overhead cast is a variation of it.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — Task 17 and the Appendix C PULD lesson plan; terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.

Where should an instructor stand to best identify poor tracking?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Get on the caster–target line: close behind or close in front of the caster, not off to the side. Tracking is the lateral path of the rod tip, and a side view looks along that error — a rod tip swinging left or right appears to travel straight. Task 19 says it plainly: tracking, hooking and casting across the anchor are difficult to see in a side view from the caster, so move around for a view close to in front of or behind the caster.

What you are looking for is a rod tip that curves sideways, producing loops that leave the plane. Move safely while you do it: from behind you are looking up the back cast, and from the front the delivery comes at you, so stay out of the plane of the line and watch the tip against the target line, not just where the line lands.

If you still cannot see it, ask the student to cast again; Task 19 allows that within reason. The fix to teach is keeping the reel in one plane and pointing at the target through the whole casting cycle.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — Task 19; terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions (Tracking).

Define Gammel's Five Essentials and integrate each into the Task 21 adjustment from 30 ft to 50 ft.

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Straight-line rod tip path. The tip travels a straight line through the stroke, so the fly leg is straight and the loop narrow. Unchanged from 30 to 50 ft: it results from the other four.
The casting arc varies with the length of line past the rod tip. At 50 ft the rod bends more, so the arc — the angle change of the rod butt during the casting stroke — must widen to keep the tip path straight. That is Task 21’s required change.
Proper force, applied smoothly. More line needs more force, or the same force over a longer distance; lengthen the stroke rather than overpowering the cast.
Slack line kept to an absolute minimum. Start every stroke with the line as straight as you can; slack costs more at 50 ft.
Pause varies with the line outside the tip and the line speed. The 50 ft loop takes longer to unroll, so the pause lengthens to let it straighten before the next stroke.

Alongside the five, keep line and intended rod tip path aligned with the target (the 180-degree principle), and haul as the carry reaches 50 ft.

Source

From the CI Study Guide (2025) (PDF) — the Five Essentials and Task 21; terms from the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.

What is the most important concept to convey in teaching Task 22 when casting with wind?

example@example.com (HookedLee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The concept is that wind is managed by two things you control: the loop you send into it, and which side of your body the line travels on.

Into a head wind or a tail wind, focus on the loop being thrown into the wind. Its fly leg must be straight and line speed increased, with 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 when casting in wind.

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 the cast. 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.