The Principles of Fly Casting
Casting is not an art. It is a mechanical procedure and a matter of angles and levers, but you don't have to be a mathematician or physicist to observe and appreciate the workings. Here are the principles that apply to every cast.
Principle 1. You can't bend the rod until you have line tension against the rod tip. This means you must eliminate slack in the line before attempting a cast. You must also be careful not to introduce slack at any point during the casting stroke.
Principle 2. Every cast should start slowly and constantly move the hand faster toward a quick stop. The phrases "speed up and stop" or "power stroke" are often applied to the final part of the casting stroke, but the hand must increase in speed from the start to the end of the stroke for maximum efficiency. The faster the hand moves, the more the bend, or load, the rod develops. If the hand stops accelerating, but continues moving at a constant speed, no additional load develops. If the hand slows, the load diminishes. When the hand stops abruptly, the rod quickly straightens and launches the line.
Words can't translate the subtle feel of casting, but images like throwing paint from a paintbrush or flicking an apple from the end of a stick are common. Try to toss a ring from a wooden dowel and you'll get the idea. It involves a slow start, continuous acceleration, and a quick stop.
In order to cast farther, defeat wind, or throw a bigger fly, you must put a greater bend in the rod by using more hand speed combined with a quicker stop. However, unless your hand and arm move farther, you will end up working harder.
Principle 3. To produce more load, without more effort, make the stroke longer. If, for example, a 12-inch stroke produces a certain load in the rod, you would generate a lot more load if you continued accelerating for 19 inches. Imagine throwing a
baseball. You make a short arm movement for a short toss and a longer motion for a longer throw, simply because it gives you more time to build up speed. The same principle applies to golf, tennis, and most other athletic activities. Longer strokes allow more speed with less effort.
Principle 4. The final motion of the rod tip, when the rod straightens after you stop your hand, determines the line's trajectory and direction. If the rod tip is going downward, the line goes downward. If the tip curves, the line also curves.
You can categorize or describe these principles differently, combine them, even add to them, but I've never seen a cast, good or bad, that can't be analyzed in these terms. These principles are invariable-no options, alternatives, or exceptions. What does change, endlessly, is the way you apply them. The actual casting stroke-the speed, distance, and direction of the hand, arm, and rod movement-changes endlessly while fishing, depending on the results you want, changing conditions, and obstacles.
To this degree, casting is analogous to golf, in that two strokes are seldom the same. The distance, lie, wind, and obstructions compel golfers to change their club, stance, grip, stroke length and direction, and swing speed. It is the same with casting. You can't determine the proper casting stroke until you first specify the desired result, and that changes from one cast to the next. A certain stroke or movement may be perfect for one cast, and wrong for another. I can't overemphasize this point. Avoid any instruction that dictates a specific motion without qualification.
Casting is not a matter of moving or not moving the elbow, bending or not bending the wrist, or stopping at one point or another. It is a matter of doing what is required from a mechanical standpoint for a particular situation. Don't be concerned with whether it looks right but whether it works right.
This doesn't mean you can do anything as long as the line gets out there, because some movements are more efficient than others. The best casts require minimum effort. You should always strive for efficiency.
Ed Jaworowski is the author of The Cast and Pop Fleyes. He lives in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. His on-line articles include: Tying Bob Popovics's Surf Candy, Fly Rodding the New Jersey Coast, and The Susquehanna's Fabulous Smallmouth.