The Basic Principles of Fly Casting              By Creek Creature

Fly-casting isn’t hard to learn and can be learned in no time really. But the catch is, (no pun intended) it will take some time to perfect the technique. Many anglers take their fly-casting beyond getting a fly to water to an art form. The good thing is, if you learn the basics principles of fly-casting you’re ready to catch trout anywhere you can find them.

To get started, find an area in your yard or drive way or wherever you have a good bit of room to cast. Take your fly rod and let out around 25 feet of line, having it lay on the ground stretched out before you. Grip the rod with your dominant hand around the handle. There is two ways or grips one can use for fly-casting. One of the ways is to grip the rod so that your thumb is on top of the handle with your fingers wrapped around it. The second way is to grip the handle with your thumb to the side, kind of like the way you would hold a key. Each method is good so you’ll have to decide which is more comfortable.

Next, use your other hand on the line between the reel and first guide to help you control the line.  This also sets you up for fishing once casting is completed. You can hold the line anyway you feel comfortable in this hand but typically most hold it between their thumb and forefinger.

Now imagine if you will, that if the rod were parallel to the ground, tip pointing out in front of you, it would be pointing at 9 o’clock and directly behind you would be 3 o’clock. The ideal casting motions would take place between 10 and 2 o’clock. When you are performing the strokes, each back then forward stroke will have a pause between motions. Commonly known as “false casting” this procedure is used to lengthen the cast in order to place the fly accurately and in the case of dry flies, to help dry them.

When bringing the line from front to back, at the point the hand stops at 2 o’clock, the line continues flowing back to unfurl behind you, this is called the back cast. The forward cast, of course, is the opposite motion and when the hand stops at 10 o’clock the line will unfurl in front of you. This constant motion of moving the rod hand between these two points and pausing at each to allow the line to unfurl is the heart the cast. Again, this action is used to add line to the cast to gain the distance needed to land the fly onto the water where you believe the fish to be. Adding the line is simply letting some of the line slide through the fingers of your line holding hand. It’s a good practice is to leave a good bit of line hanging from your reel in order to do this smoothly. After some practice you’ll get a feel for how much line is needed to hang. This is directly dependant on this distance between you and the fish. 

The final forward cast takes place when you are ready to lay the fly down onto the water. The stop will happen as usual at 10 o’clock, but this time, you will lower the rod tip down at the same time and rate as the line to have the fly land gently on the water. The final forward cast takes some practice but it won’t take too long before you’ll be able to settle a fly onto the water with a light touch. Dry fly fishing has a more inherent reason to gently settle the fly where with nymph fishing you can get away with a little more. Ultimately a gentle and accurate presentation is what you will strive for to fool the weary and picky trout.