Fly Fish - The Basic Forward Cast

Dusty Wissmath: Hi I am Dusty Wissmath, and this is an introduction to fly casting. Now, we are going to talk about the basic forward cast. We have talked about the roll cast which is a one stroke cast. The basic forward cast has got two strokes, a back cast and a forward cast. Let s talk about the back cast first. The first portion of that back cast is a lift and a lowered portion. I have got the tip of the rod right down at the water and I am going to peel that line slowly off the surface of the water. I am going to peel until I get to the line leader connections at which point, I am going to accelerate the rod, to what I call a clutch stop, like so. I have opened this angle to 45 degrees, that angle between the butt section of the rod and the bottom of my forearm, and what I have done, what I call the clutch stop, is that all I have done, is accelerate the rod and then squeeze a grip, automatically this angle opens to 45. That a back cast. Now, that fly line has unrolled off the tip of my rod, behind me. It s bent the rod, it s lowered the rod and now what I am going to do is a forward portion of the cast. Imagine that that line has just straightened out in the air, it s hasn t started the fall yet, it s just straightened out, loaded the rod. Now, the forward cast is very similar to the roll cast. My elbow pulls my hand down, we call this lower load portion. I accelerate the rod to a close stop, push with my thumb, pull with my fingers. The rod butt now, goes against the bottom of my forearm, and I follow the line down to the water with a tip of the rod. We put it all together, it look like this. Lift a load, accelerate to a stop, and follow it down. There is one thing I would like to remind you of. There is an infinite number of planes that you can move the rod through to cast to a particular target. I am demonstrating in a very vertical plane like so, as my target is where you are. I could also cast in this plane, I could cast side arm on this plane, I could cast back hand in this plane, depending upon the wind, the conditions, any obstacles I might have. I could even cast side arm, back hand like so. The plane that you choose to cast in is one that s comfortable for you and it can also be dictated by the situation, and any obstacles. The mechanics remain the same. This 45 degree angle, right here, opening and closing right angle, limits and defines the acceleration to a stop, which is of course, the most important part of the cast, because that s what forms the loop. So let s remember that. So that covers the basic cast. Now let s talk about False Casting and Shooting Line