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← Master the Cast: fly casting in seven lessons

Lesson 6 — Drift and follow-through

Drift and

Follow-Through

Follow-Through

If there’s a single fly-casting technique that separates ordinary cast- ers from extraordinary casters, it is the mastery of drift and follow- through. Drift and follow-through are a repositioning of the rod after the casting stroke. You’ll use them either to reposition the rod to set you up to make a longer casting stroke (that is, a wider casting arc), or you’ll use them to make a cast that’s in a different plane than was the previous cast. Drift occurs after the back-cast stroke. As the length of line you hold outside the rod tip increases, you’ll need to increase the length of your casting stroke. After you stop the rod on the back cast, and the loop of line is unrolling behind you, your rod hand moves back- ward and upward slightly. This movement of your rod hand reposi- tions the rod tip so you can bring the rod through a wider casting arc on the forward stroke. Accelerating the rod through a wider arc causes the rod to load deeper, allowing you to handle a longer line more easily. Follow-through is a repositioning of the rod after the forward cast. A couple of inches of follow-through with your rod hand sets you up to make a slightly longer back-cast stroke. Drift and follow-through give the rod hand an elliptical path dur- ing the casting sequence (see illustration page 91). Rod drift is back- ward and upward; follow-through is forward and downward. After you stop the rod on your delivery stroke, you’ll follow through with the rod tip down to the water. Remember that drift and follow-through occur outside the cast- ing stroke itself and are done without force. The rod must stop, and the loop of line must be unrolling, before you can drift or follow through. If you run either drift or follow-through together with the casting stroke, you’ll more than likely open the loop and destroy your

This shows the rod hand at the end of the back-cast stroke.

After you stop the rod on the back cast, and the loop of line is unrolling behind you, your rod hand drifts backward and upward slightly.

The drift move repositions the rod tip so you can bring the rod through a wider arc on the forward stroke. This allows you to handle a longer line more easily.

After you stop the rod on the for- ward stroke, your rod hand will fol- low through forward and downward. A couple of inches of follow-through with your rod hand sets you up to make a slightly longer back-cast stroke.

Drift and follow-through give the rod hand an elliptical path during the 4casting sequence. Position 1 shows the end of the back-cast stroke, and position 2 shows the end of the drift move. Position 3 shows the end of the forward stroke, and position 4 shows the follow-through.

cast. This is a common problem with fly-fishers who are first learn- ing to drift and follow through. Another classic problem among beginners, as well as with experi- enced casters, is reverse drift (also called creep or sometimes bounce). Reverse drift is exactly the opposite of what good rod drift should be. With reverse drift, while the back cast is unrolling, the caster repositions his rod hand forward rather than backward. This constricts the width of the casting arc and will prevent you from making a long cast well. Reverse drift often results in a tailing loop (discussed in lesson 2 and discussed in Rod-Arm Mechanics). Many fly-fishers are plagued with reverse drift (also called creep or bounce). While the back cast is unroll- ing, the caster repositions his rod hand forward rather than backward. This con- stricts the width of the casting arc and will prevent you from making a long cast well.

Reverse drift sometimes appears as an anticipation of the forward cast. That is, the caster seems to get anxious and begins his forward stroke well before the back cast has had a chance to unroll. Other times, reverse drift takes the form of a forward jump or recoil of the rod tip (“bounce”) after the rod stops on the back cast. Whatever the case, you must eliminate reverse drift from your cast and learn proper rod drift if you hope ever to become a good fly caster. The amount of time it takes for your cast to unroll is called drift time. From the instant the rod unloads to the moment the line straightens is the total time you have to reposition the rod for the next stroke. Obviously, drift time will vary according to the length of line you have outside the rod tip, as well as the speed of the unrolling cast. Many fly-fishers, when first learning to drift, believe they have very little time to make the drift and rush through the movements, ruining the cast. Before you even attempt to add a drift move to your casting sequence, I suggest that you first make several back casts using only your rod hand (the fly line trapped under your middle finger). Simply let the back cast unroll completely and fall to the ground. Focus on how long it actually takes for the back cast to unroll. It’s probably a lot more time than you had thought. As your basic casting stroke improves with practice, it will seem that you have all the time in the world to drift. As your rod-arm mechanics progress, you can use drift to change planes during the cast. You can pick line off the water in the off-vertical plane, and as the line is unrolling behind you on the back cast, your forearm pivots to cant the rod for an off-shoulder delivery. This might be useful if you were casting in a wind that was coming in from the rod-hand side of your body. Both the off-vertical pick-up and off-shoulder delivery keep the fly well away from your body. You can also use the same technique to make changes in direction. Rather than false casting and rotating your upper body to gradually change direction, you could use an off-shoulder delivery to angle the forward cast to your left side. This would be more efficient than false casting and is every bit as effective. Once you learn to utilize drift time to change planes during the casting sequence, you can use virtually any combination of casts. When fishing, you’ll constantly be faced with obstacles—whether it’s wind, trees in your way, or a host of other things. The more versatile you become with the fly rod, and the more casts you have in your arsenal, the more options you’ll have for overcoming these obstacles. Drift and follow-through also serve several other very important functions in fly casting. Remember in lesson 3 we talked about perfect timing in fly casting being a thing of feeling. For reasons that remain mysterious, drift and follow-through help you to feel the cast unroll and enhance your feeling of being connected to the fly line.

You can use drift to change planes during the cast. You can pick line off the water in the off-vertical plane (1), and as the line is unrolling on the back cast (2), your forearm pivots to cant the rod for an off-shoulder delivery (3). In a sense, drift and follow-through “turn up the volume” and allow you to better “listen” to the rod. When you become more aware of the fly line’s gradually increasing pressure against the rod tip, and can better feel the tug as the fly line straightens completely, you can more precisely time each of your casts. Your ability to feel the increasing pres- sure of the fly line against the rod tip is one of the most important skills you’ll ever develop as a fly caster. The better you incorporate drift and follow-through into your casting sequence, the better able you are to feel the subtle interactions between rod and line and the minute differences in timing, and the better fly caster you’ll be. The better my casting became, the more “connected” I felt to the fly line; the more “connected” I felt to the fly line, the better my casting became. Drift and follow-through also act as shock absorbers for the force of the unrolling cast. Fly casting done without drift or follow-through has a hard, mechanical edge to it. There’s no sense of flow, and it’s not very pretty. Drift and follow-through smooth everything out and connect each of the casts as if the entire sequence were one fluid

motion. Because of this, drift and follow-through are not skills you will use only for longer casts; indeed, they will become as much a part of every casting sequence as will loading the rod. In my discussion on the closed stance at the end of part 1, I instructed you to stand with the foot corresponding to your rod hand about half a step back. In addition to giving you better balance, this will allow you to shift your weight from your front to your rear foot, and vice versa, during the casting sequence. Shifting your weight during the casting sequence—to the rear foot during the back-cast stroke and into drift time, and to the front foot during the forward stroke and into follow-through time—will, in itself, reposition your rod hand slightly. This may be all the drift and follow-through you need for shorter casts, but for longer casts you are going to have to reposition your rod hand during drift time. When you get proficient at practicing drift and follow-through with just your rod hand at first, with the line trapped under your middle finger, you can add your line hand. At the beginning, you’ll move your line hand in unison with your rod hand throughout each stroke, drift, and follow-through. As you progress, and your sense of maintaining tension on the fly line develops, you can hold your line hand lower if you wish, at about waist level. This is where my line hand is when I fish. When you first attempt to learn them, drift and follow-through will no doubt be a very conscious, mechanical repositioning of the rod. That’s OK at first, but after you work with them a while, they will become more fluid. I think of drift and follow-through as a sort of “relaxing” in the direction of the unrolling cast. As a fly-casting instructor, I’m a staunch advocate of breaking the casting sequence down into its smallest possible increments in order to learn a new technique or to troubleshoot. When you’re first learning to drift, you almost certainly will find it helpful to practice only your back cast and drift. That is, don’t even make a forward cast; simply make your back cast and drift and then let your back cast straighten and fall to the ground. Once you get a good sense of the feeling of the back-cast stroke, drift, drift time, and the feeling of the unrolling fly line—and their relationship to each other—you can then add a forward cast to the sequence. When you first add a forward cast, you can follow through with the rod tip completely to the water. At this point, you’ll essentially be making a pick-up-and-lay-down cast that incorporates a drift move between strokes. When you get proficient at this, you can move on to a false-casting sequence that includes drift and follow-through. That is, rather than following through to the water with your rod tip, you’ll follow through only a couple of inches, keeping the line airborne and readying yourself for your next back-cast stroke. Another good way to work on the individual steps of drift and

follow-through is to incorporate them into the lawn-casting exer- cise from lesson 2. Although you can work on this using a short line of 12 feet or less, you’ll see that as the line lengthens, you’ll need to use drift and follow-through to set yourself up for a longer casting stroke to turn the longer line over. Once they become a natural part of your casting sequence, drift and follow-through will give your casting a gracefulness that it wouldn’t otherwise have. Without drift and follow-through, even a solid set of fly-casting mechanics still looks fairly mechanical. A solid casting stroke that’s been polished with drift and follow-through transcends the mere mechanics of fly casting.