Fly Fishing 101

Last weekend was my dad's 70th birthday.  And today my brothers and I are taking him to Branson, MO for the weekend.  We're going to see a show, do some fly fishing and just have a good time hanging out.  But I wanted to plan something with just me and my dad to celebrate his birthday.


Then a few weeks ago I saw a tweet from @thisisfly about Orvis Fly Fishing 101 classes. Perfect!  The class would be a good refresher for him (he's only been fly fishing once) and a chance for me to work on my form as well.  And the class is free!  So last Saturday he and I headed to Feather-Craft Fly Fishing in St Louis and had an hour of learning about casting with one of their instructors, Ryan.

Here are some of the high points of what we learned:

Good Form

Ryan described the proper arm movement as being like what we used to do as kids to get truckers to blow their air horns on the highway.  Your elbow should be in approximately a 90 degree position and your wrist should be firm on the rod.  Your movement of the rod should come from your shoulder.  Rather than your elbow and wrist doing the work you should try to keep them somewhat stiff and locked into position while letting your shoulder do the work.  This will keep you from getting tired as quickly and you'll be able to fish longer.

Consistency

The age old piece of wisdom "Practice Makes Perfect" should really be "Practice Makes Permanent."  Just putting in practice time is not enough.  You have to practice correctly.  You have to have the same motion and angle going forward and backward in every cast.  It doesn't matter if you're overhead casting, side casting, or roll casting you want your arm moving in a consistent line and angle with each motion of your rod.  This keeps your lines tight and keeps them from crossing over each other.  Your muscles will remember how you have practiced casting.  I started to notice that when I stopped paying attention to my form I would begin to use my wrist and elbow to perform my casts.  When I started to pay attention and keep my wrist and elbow firm, my back casts started drifting into a different angle than my forward casts.  Begin eye-rolling in frustration... It will take time, but with enough practice with the correct casting method it will become easier. 

Patience

The longer your line is extending from your rod the longer you have to wait for the tension in your rod to "load" for the next cast.  Loading is when the weight of your line pulls at your rod to create the energy to shoot your line into the next cast.  This is easy on your forward cast.  You can see your line and know from sight when to start your back cast.  But I know that I don't want to train myself to turn around and watch the line on every back cast to know when to start your forward cast.  You have to learn the feel of your rod.  But until you have learned the feel of the rod having loaded properly with enough tension for the forward cast, BE PATIENT!!  99% of the time you should wait just a little longer that you think is necessary.  But it can be better to wait a little too long than to cast forward too early and pop your fly off the end of your line.

Rod Position
One of my biggest issues in casting has been the end of the line dropping too close to the water, if not hitting the water, before beginning my back cast.  What in my casting was causing this to happen?  I was halting the rod in my forward cast too close the ground.  As I had started to practice in my backyard I would aim the line on the final cast by practically laying the rod down in the grass.  Gradually this crept into my back casting as well.  And so I couldn't keep the fly from hitting the ground on either end of my false casting.

The angle of your rod to the ground as cast forward and backward will depend upon the length of line you have out.  Think about it like the face of a clock.  With less line you should try to stay between around 10:00 and 2:00.  As you let out more line those angles should rotate backward and expand.  With more line your forward cast should stop around 11:00 or 12:00 and your back cast between 3:00 and 4:00.  Don't try to stick with these exactly.  Remember, this comes from a novice trying to relay what he learned in a short hour of instruction.  You'll have to play with the angles to determine what going to work best with your outfit.

If you're just getting into fly fishing I would highly recommed taking the Orvis Fly Fishing 101 class.  It will be time well spent.  You can find the location nearest to you here.  There is also a Fly Fishing 201 available as well.  I want to take that class too.  I'll let you know if I get the chance!