The Substance of Fly Casting
In fly-casting instruction we make a distinction between the physics of making effective fly casts, which we refer to as the "substance" of casting; and the personal tendencies fly casters develop related to such things as stance, grip, and wrist movement - which we refer to as casting "style".
In effective fly-casting there are four essential elements to the "substance" of the cast:
- To make an effective cast keep slack in the fly-line to a minimum
- The length of the casting stroke will vary with the length of the cast
- There is a pause at the end of each stroke, the length of which varies with the amount of fly-line beyond the rod tip
- The fly is going to go in the direction you accelerate and stop the rod tip.
- The effective cast is accomplished by smoothly moving (accelerating) the rod from slow to fast, combining this stroke with an abrupt stop of the rod, which bends or "loads" the rod.
Slack
In order to make a cast in either the forward to backward direction, the caster must get the end of the fly moving, which cannot be accomplished if there is slack in the fly-line.
A common error is for the beginning caster is to start the cast with the rod held at a 45-degree angle above the ground or higher. This position will cause the line to belly, and will result in wide loops in the back cast, or worst yet, tailing loops.
The proper starting position for the initial pick-up is to hold the rod tip down, almost to the ground/water, with all slack removed.
Casting Stroke Length
The length of the casting stroke will vary with the length of the cast. Simply stated, the longer the cast the longer the stroke, and the shorter the cast the shorter the stroke.
This principle is why the "clock face" method of teaching casting (a casting stroke between 10:00 and 2:00 for example) is somewhat misleading.
Short, accurate casts of less than 30 feet, can be accomplished with a very, very short casting stroke (between 11:00 and 1:00 for example). While long casts of 50 feet or more require the caster to move the rod through a much larger casting stroke (really long casts might require a casting stroke between 3:00 and 9:00).
Pause
Similar to the variable length of the casting stroke, the caster must pause in the forward or backward stroke, the length of which depends on the amount of fly-line beyond the end of the rod tip. Because the cast requires us to accelerate the rod in a forward or backward direction, we are pulling against the weight of the line in order to "load" or bend the rod.
Trying to cast a line before it has appropriately straighten, or after it has started to fall to the ground, causes a variety of problems in the casting stroke. Premature casting before the line has formed a nice "candy cane" shape at the very end of the stroke, will cause the snap, crackle and pop or bull whipping of the fly-line.
Starting a casting stroke after the fly line begins to fall, can cause a variety of problems, including wide, air resistant, open loops, or even tailing loops as the caster attempts to overcome gravity by applying too much power in the casting stroke to compensate for the slack-line.
Loop Shape and Direction
The fly is going to go in the direction that the caster smoothly accelerates and abruptly stops the rod tip. Nice, narrow, aerodynamic loops result when the rod is smoothly accelerated through a straight-line path, combined with an abrupt stop at the end of the forward or backward casting stroke. In order to accomplish tight loops, as a rule, it is best to limit the amount of bend in the wrist.
Wide loops are the result of the rod tip following a wide, looping, oval path (a convex path).
Tailing or crossing loops are caused when the path of the rod tip fall below a straight-line path (a concave path), which is usually the result of the caster applying too much power somewhere in the casting stroke, or when the casting stroke is too narrow for the amount of bend in the rod.
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