← Master the Cast: fly casting in seven lessons

Introduction

Introduction

Fly casting is the most important skill in fly-fishing. It is perhaps the only skill you cannot do without. A successful fly-fisher need not know how to dress flies, tie knots, rig equipment, or even how to find fish. (You can hire a guide for that.) But a successful fly-fisher must be able to present a fly to a fish. Despite the importance of the cast, the average fly-fisher gives less thought to it than to purchasing a pair of sunglasses. In fact, many maintain that fly-fishers need no casting instruction at all. And this is probably true for those willing to confine themselves to the easiest fisheries, where you can do almost everything wrong and still catch fish. But taking a dozen trout from a small stream doesn’t mean you’ll be able to take even one from a spring creek. Catching a thou- sand bluegills on a blind cast doesn’t mean you’ll be successful sight fishing for bonefish. Casting into a school of breaking striped bass is as different from presenting a fly to a cruising tarpon as shooting soda cans off a fence post is different from shooting skeet. If you fly fish long enough and truly embrace the challenge, rather than the fantasy, of the game, you will eventually find yourself in a situation where the casting requirements exceed your abilities. Turn- ing to your guide for direction at this point would be futile. For even if you were paired with the best casting instructor in the world, you would not develop the skills quickly enough to rise to the challenge of a difficult fishery in the space of a single afternoon—or even a full week. The skills of fly casting, like the skills of any physical game, must be built incrementally over time with practice. The time to concern yourself with learning to fly cast is the very first time you pick up the rod. As surprising as it may seem, relatively few fly-fishers ever attempt to learn how to cast a fly rod—at least not in any formal or method- ical way. Having myself spent nearly twenty years with a fly rod be- fore I began to learn anything about casting, I believe you could spend

a lifetime, without any form of instruction, and learn almost nothing. Your learning to fly cast in a vacuum well enough to perform adroitly in a difficult fishery is analogous to your learning to play the piano solely by ear well enough to play passable Mozart: perhaps one in 10,000 could do it. Of those fly-fishers who do solicit casting instruction, only the rank beginner seeks to learn the fundamentals. Experienced fly-fishers tend to take a different view of things. Even with only a single season under his belt, the typical angler views himself as having somehow moved beyond the fundamentals of fly casting—whether or not he has ever been exposed to them. Without question, your having a firm grasp of the fundamentals is prerequisite to everything you’ll ever learn to do with a fly rod. The angler who attempts to learn such techniques as hauling before she has refined such basic skills as loading the rod is like the basketball player who attempts to learn how to slam-dunk before she has become very good at dribbling the ball: each has put the cart before the horse, and neither will get very far. I’m convinced that seven lessons can comprise all of the critical concepts and core skills of fly casting. Once you possess an intimate working knowledge of these fundamentals—as opposed to simply being acquainted with them—you will have laid a foundation that will bear the weight of all subsequent fly-casting skills. Once you have a truly solid grasp of the fundamentals, you will then be able to gain the command of the rod that you desire. This book does not address the game of catching fish with a fly rod; many books in print already do that, some of them quite well. Nor does this book address the entirety of fly casting (a virtually inexhaustible subject). Instead, this book focuses on what I consider the most important aspect of learning to fly cast: building a solid basic stroke. My goal with this book is to help you build a solid, accurate, efficient, versatile, and dependable basic stroke, a stroke you can rely on to deliver your fly to its target consistently, under all conditions and in all fisheries, whether you fish farm ponds, lakes, rivers, surf, or tropical flats. Master the Cast is divided into two parts. Part 1 presents an overview of fly-casting mechanics—both fly-rod mechanics and rodarm mechanics. Part 2 presents seven fly-casting lessons, beginning with the roll cast and ending with off-vertical casting from an open stance. Each lesson carefully builds on what you’ve learned in the previous lesson. I’ve also included an “advanced lesson” on hauling. Although this final chapter takes the book beyond the bounds of the fundamentals (and is arguably the least important part of the book in regard to developing a basic stroke), hauling is perhaps the most intriguing

subject in all of fly casting, and no book would be complete without addressing it. The appendix contains additional elements you will find useful in your fly-fishing education. The glossary collects all the terms that appear in boldface in the text, offering a concise definition for each, as well as a page number that directs you to the first full description of the term in text. You’ll also find a list of books and videos that can help you build on your casting and fishing skills. Just before the in- dex, the section on troubleshooting will point you right to the pages in the text dealing with solutions to common casting problems. This could be construed as a beginner’s book in that it assumes no previous fly-fishing or fly-casting experience. However, to dismiss this as a book intended only for beginners is to misunderstand it com- pletely. For the concepts and techniques detailed in these lessons— and the depth at which they’re examined—are of the utmost impor- tance for all fly-fishers—beginner to advanced, freshwater or saltwater. No matter what you may think “advanced fly casting” en- tails, make no mistake: it is from the devilish details that make up the basic stroke that truly masterful fly casting emerges. No fly-fisher can hope to master the fly rod without first mastering the basic stroke. In some ways, no fly-fisher ever really moves beyond the fundamen- tals. Just as all fly-casting authorities and instructors likely will agree with some of what I have written (for example, no authority I know of disputes the necessity of loading the rod), virtually all are certain to disagree on other points. Although I’m loath to proclaim that there is only one correct way to do anything, I’m convinced there are more, and less, efficient ways—more, and less, accurate ways—to ex- ecute a fly cast. This book does not propose to deal in theory; nor does it wax philosophic about such lofty and esoteric subjects as “the art of fly casting” (that tired expression). Rather, this book gives you a set of fly-casting mechanics that have been put to the test and have proved their worth on a wide variety of fisheries throughout the world. As a student of fly casting, you eventually must decide for yourself what you will, and will not, make a part of your game. And even if your game ultimately parts ways with the basic discipline de- tailed in this book, it still will have been an excellent place for you to have begun; for at the end of the day, all good fly casters are much more alike than they are different. Realistically, nobody is going to learn how to cast a fly rod only by reading a book on the subject. Keeping that in mind, beginning fly-fishers can use this book to give themselves a solid background in the language, concepts, mechanics, and techniques of fly casting. Because it draws on the ideas of a number of fly-casting authorities, this book is a good introduction to the existing body of fly-casting lit-

erature. It is also a valuable supplement to good personal instruction and to fly-casting videos. Experienced fly-fishers can use this book to troubleshoot various parts of their cast and to help them reach a higher level of proficiency and understanding. Instructors of fly casting can gain insight into the problems most commonly faced by flycasting students and use the book to structure their own lessons, clinics, or seminars. In short, there’s something here for every fly-fisher.

A Word on Equipment

To begin to learn how to fly cast, I strongly recommend you use an 1 8 ⁄ 2 - or 9-foot rod that is balanced with a 5- or 6-weight floating weight-forward or triangle taper fly line. (If you wish to use a 5weight rod and overline it by one size with a 6-weight line, this may help you in the early stages to better feel the rod load.) The fly line should be rigged with a 9-foot tapered monofilament leader, to the end of which is tied a small tuft of fluorescent package yarn. As you attempt the lawn-casting exercises in lesson 7, you may wish to use a bit heavier outfit, such as an 8- or 9-weight rod, which will allow you to handle a longer line a bit easier. As you read this book, you’ll note that I refrain from all other discussion about equipment, except where absolutely necessary. In general, too many fly-fishers devote too much attention to equipment; in particular, they devote needless attention to fly rods. Most of the fly rods on the market today are excellent casting tools, and virtually any rod on the market is good enough for you to use to develop the fundamentals. For those curious, however, about the rods and lines we used for the casting sequences: For most of the shots we used a Marryat 1 Packer, 8 ⁄2-foot, 4-piece rod rated for a 5-weight line. The other rod we used (primarily for the long-cast sequences in lesson 7) was a Marryat Evolution, 9-foot, three-piece rod rated for an 8-weight line. I’m constantly being asked about what rods I prefer. The truth is, I believe there are many excellent rods on the market. Obviously I like the rods we used, and I think they worked well for what we wanted to show, but any number of rods would have worked just as well. The line we used for both rods was the Cortland 333-HT, fluorescent yellow, which I chose primarily because of its contrast with the surroundings. To emphasize the loading of the rod in the photos, I lined the 5-weight rod with a 6-weight line (but in hindsight, I think this was unnecessary). I balanced the 8-weight rod with an 8-weight line.