16 replies to this topic

[Cyphus]

Got my first fly outfit the other day, went out to a local park to practice casting for the first time. Took a quick video and thought I'd share it with you guys so you could chuckle and my newbie mistakes and cause who doesn't love watching line roll out?

[PUMP KNOWS]

That looks way better then what I can do

[Cyphus]

Bah ha ha, I'm sure that's not true Pump

[Bow Man]

Not bad...Not bad at all..... Good stuff and thanks for sharing.

[Shawarma]

Looking good!

Looks like you're dropping the back cast way too much to me. Towards the end of the video, that line would probably be in the water and that's gonna give you a hard time and plenty of line caught up in the bushes.

Also, take your time with it. Don't rush the cast much. On that back cast, look back at it and watch the rod load up the a smooth acceleration into the forward cast with a good snap of the wrist. Control will come with time. Keep at it!

[NiagaraSteel]

Demon caster! Lol that's what my casting instructor called me. Smaller, smoother strokes, and a slight flick when laying the line down on the water never hurts. It looks kind of like you're using too much wrist, use just a tiny bit of wrist action to none at all. But not bad at all for your first time casting.

[Shmogley]

if i can watch it and say something its that you drop the tip a bit too much on the backcast and you dont let the line furl out fully on the backcast as well. notice how you pause on the front to let the line roll out but on the back you dont do the same pause and instead rush it back to the forward position. thats something to work on to really get that good momentum. other then that its a pretty great demonstration for someone with their first outfit

 

also id say less wrist but i havent handled the rod you have. on some you need a bit more then others depending on how much it "bends"

 

good luck bro, now to see some fish landed

[Cyphus]

I watched a butt load of casting video's before I bought it/went out, so it gave me a decent place to start, plus I pick things up quick lol. I can definitely see what you mean on the back cast, both not pausing long enough to load it and swinging the rod back too far, probably making the line hit the water. Gotta try to keep it somewhere in that 10-2 range, right.

 

It feels so odd to look behind me on the back cast ha ha. During shorter line casts, I find making smaller movements with little/to no wrist movement easier and effective, but with so much line out I felt the need for more. 

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll try to keep it all in mind next time I go out to practice =)

Hopefully I won't shame myself when I do go out to the water!

[PUMP KNOWS]

I'm gonna freestyle it tomorrow and hit the ponds for carp.

 

Lets see how I do with no instructions...haha.

[tcp]

Looks good for first time, one trick to get the line out quick without having to do a 1000 false casts.  You can do whats called the "single" or "double haul".  With your hand that is holding the line, you can give a tug on the line as you do your forward cast, this will shoot line out quickly.  To really get the line out there, you can double haul which is the same thing, but you tug on the back cast and again on the forward cast. 

[Shawarma]

Practice your roll cast as well. You might find you will use that much more than what you're doing in the video. Of course, it depends on where you are and how far you're wanting to send that line but i find on the rivers i'm at, i'm roll casting almost 100% of the time because there's no space behind me to do anything else lol. 

[Shmogley]

Practice your roll cast as well. You might find you will use that much more than what you're doing in the video. Of course, it depends on where you are and how far you're wanting to send that line but i find on the rivers i'm at, i'm roll casting almost 100% of the time because there's no space behind me to do anything else lol. 

^this

all the good spots with little pressure are usually overgrown quite a bit and not very wide around here. 

id say i use a rollcast about twice as much as a full cast in actual practice

[Cyphus]

Ha ha, Yeah I gave hauling a try while i was out there tcp, don't have the co-ordination for that yeah, but I'll keep practicing it until i get it down.

The first thing I worked on was my roll cast since, as you say Shmogley, the good places are often overgrown and there's no back casting room. I spent about 3 hours that day on the roll cast, then another 3 casting overhead. I can't seem to shoot out much line when I roll cast though. I mean I know it's a different mechanism so I don't expect the same action, but I figured I'd get a bit more? and I find that I get more of a Pile cast presentation, not as nice as i'd like it. Any suggestions?

[Shmogley]

try to anchor a good bit of the line in the water so that when you are pulling it it makes your rod bend a bit. once you get that tension keep the momentum up untill going forward. the biggest mistake people make is they get that first bit of tension but slow down or dont speed up the motion. its kindof pointless to practice on grass though, you really need that water tension on the line.

also when on the forward motion try to keep your rod tip moving in a straight line forward rather then an arc, thats how you get that good shooting action.

 

in short: anchor the line and keep increasing tension throughout the motion

 

itll take a bit but once you get it once youll have it down forever

 

check out "reds fly" roll cast video on youtube. while it mostly relates to spey, the action is pretty much the same. theres others but his explanation helped me the most when i was learning

[Cyphus]

Thanks Shmog, I'll give it a shot. I'm going out tuesday to a bit of water to give it a decent shot. 

I'll definitely check out that video. I've watched the whole Orvis guide to fly fishing video's and a tonne of assorted other ones so I'm happy to watch another =).

[FrequentFlyer]

definitely work on the roll cast, its easy, form a D shape draw a straight line from your rod tip to the water, and you line should form the curve of the D, and then just fire your rod forward, stopping with the tip at about a 25degree angle to surface of the water

stop your rod sooner on the back cast, you're stopping at 3 oclock, 10 and 2 10 and 2, another tip, start with more line out of the rod, if you have don't have enough line out, the taper will cause it to want to back track down the rod, instead of feeding itself out of the rod, so say 15 to 20ft of line out, or so that you can feel the taper thinning down in your free hand, that will generate more line speed faster and get that line firing out.

 

one thing that I did that helped me learn, was go a line size heavier than my rod, it helped me feel the rod load up a lot better and was able to time my casts easier, so now using the recommended line size, i know what to feel for 

[Shmogley]

one thing that I did that helped me learn, was go a line size heavier than my rod, it helped me feel the rod load up a lot better and was able to time my casts easier, so now using the recommended line size, i know what to feel for 

^ this.

it made a big difference for me as well.