One, Two, Three

I am not sure if it is because the movies always show lots of casting or because art directors love the idea of the line whistling through the air. But it seems to me that much of the casting one sees on video is absolutely excessive. Perhaps it is genuinely because casters enjoy casting or maybe they don’t believe that they can get to a target without all this rod waving. But darn it I find it frustrating.

Chasing trout in clear water casts should be kept to an absolute minimum

 

I just watched some fantastic footage of guided fishing in New Zealand, dozens of great fish in crystal clear water eating for the most part dry flies. Good guiding and spotting from the guide and one imagines a relatively novice angler. I am not going to provide a link; that could be seen as offensive, and it isn’t my goal to embarrass anyone.

 

But hell I was getting really frustrated watching it, I had to cut the video up into smaller pieces and return to it later. Fish that were frequently no more than two rod lengths away and one, two, three , four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten false casts to get the fly to the fish. All the while me shouting at the screen, “Just let the bloody thing go”… !!!

Art directors love false casting, but that isn’t what you want to be doing when fishing.

Yes they were using the excuse that it was a bit windy, but really, all the more reason to cut down on the rod waving.

This is perhaps one of the key signs of a good caster, that they don’t take multiple swings to hit a target. All of us can, even when casting less than effectively, reach a moderately close target with a cast or two

When I am teaching I emphasize a number of issues, “improvement should come at the same time as less effort” and as important “you should NEVER make more than three false casts (actually that isn’t true, but the times when one may wish to make multiple casting strokes are extremely limited)

If you are making too many casts you are spooking fish and in the aforementioned video, one would have to wonder how truly difficult this fishing is. Yes the fish were big, the guiding, from what I could see was top notch and the water crystal clear. But I have to tell you that in my home waters you make that many casts that close to a fish (a fish much smaller than these NZ browns) and your quarry would have scarpered well before you finished with the wand waving.

Tough low water conditions on the Bokong River, success required quick accurate casting to very spooky fish.

False casting is a curse, and it is very easy to simply get into the habit of it, too many videos show inordinate numbers of false casts. Perhaps, as mentioned above, people think that it is pretty, or artistic, or (my personal gripe) “an Art Form”. It isn’t it is physics and more to the point, wastefully excessive casting doesn’t catch fish. The fly works when in the water not in the air and even if you don’t scare the fish off, you are wasting valuable fishing time.

So a couple of points about false casting that one should consider.

• A good caster can throw an entire line in three casts, stream fishing should rarely require more than two.
• The first cast at a fish is ALWAYS your best shot; the odds of success reduce exponentially from there.
• Casting isn’t fishing, certainly I like casting, I spend a lot of time practicing and playing with casting, but delivery of the fly to the fish as quickly and unobtrusively as possible is the goal when actually on the water.
• You will find that you can cast a lot less than you think to reach most targets.
• You will also find that if you have developed the habit of multiple casts it is just that, a HABIT, and not necessary or effective.

 

Some pointers in terms of reducing false casting.

• Simply try not to, most people don’t get any more distance from multiple casts then they do from few.
• Multiple casts are often little more than a habit.
• If you lose control dump the cast and start again rather than try to rescue it
• Hauling will assist in reducing casting strokes
• As will shooting line both on the back cast and forward cast, if you don’t do this then practice it.
• Trust your loop, if you are throwing good tight loops you will be amazed at how far they will travel with little effort.
• In a headwind cast upwards behind you and downwards on the forward stroke, many anglers imagine that they can’t cast into a wind, but the real problem is that they simply aim too high and the fly blows back

 

Five essentials.

Finally, Bill Gammel’s five essentials of fly casting again come into play, as they do with almost all casting.

• Eliminate slack line, that means start with the rod tip low and keep a tight line throughout the cast. Slack is inefficient simple as that.
• Track the rod tip in a straight line, again it is the most efficient means of transferring forward momentum to the line cutting down on the need to cast more
• Stop hard and pause at the end of each stroke to allow the line to unfurl, (if you don’t you effectively have slack again). A hard stop on the forward cast will transfer the energy most effectively cutting down on the need for additional casting strokes.
• Smooth acceleration, longer smooth accelerating strokes will see the line sing out with very little effort or force required.

Carl McNeil provides some of the best casting demos on line, Clear descriptions and good photography.

You can learn a lot from YouTube, there are some excellent casting videos available on line, but there is also a lot of rubbish. Carl McNeil’s video clips to my mind being some of the best. It might be fun watching “shadow casting” in “A River Runs Through It” but that doesn’t represent efficient or effective angling.