Fly Fish - False Casting & Shooting Line

Dusty Wissmath: Hi I am Dusty Wissmath and this is an introduction to fly casting. Now let s talk about False Casting and Shooting Line. Up to this point, we have just been talking about a rod hand, in my case, my right hand and I have been pinning the line with my index finger against the cork. First thing, we are going to do know is introduced the line hand, in my case, the left hand. We are going to need this, when we talk about False Casting and Shooting Line, and you are certainly going to be using this hand when you fish. The line hand is used to control the line and what I like to do is hold the line between my thumb and index finger about shoulder width apart, maybe slightly below my rod hand. The line hand actually mires the motion of the rod hand, as you move it. Let s talk about False Casting. With false cast, for several reasons, one is to change direction, if I m casting over here and I see a fish rise over there, I can false cast until, I am pointed in direction that I want to make my next cast. Now as you can see what false casting is, is just keeping the fly line in the air, not presenting the fly. Another reason that we will false cast is, if we are fishing with a dry fly, and the current takes that fly under water, and it gets wet. We can lift that fly off the water, false cast a couple of times to force air through it, and dry it out and then present it again. Now, most of us false cast way too often. I like to say that two or three false cast between is presentation is plenty. Another reason that we may false cast is to lengthen the distance on our cast. I can false cast, hold the off the reel, on my back cast, let it run through my fingers on the forward cast. Now, you can see, this takes a lot of time. Also, every time that fly goes behind me, I have got a chance to get hooked up in the tree. To lengthen your cast in much more efficient way is what we call shooting line. What I am going to do is take the amount of line of the reel, that I want to cast and stack it on the ground next to me. Now, I am going to pinch the line with my index finger and thumb with my line hand, I am going to make one false cast, two false cast and on my third I am going to let go, right after I accelerate to a stop. The way to the line outside the tip of the rod, pulled all that slack line off the water in front on me. We call that shooting line. Let me show you again. I will strip that line back in, and let it stack right on the water in front on me. Now, I m going to pinch that line between my index finger and thumb, make my basic cast, false cast once, false cast twice and on the third false cast, shoot the line. The key here is let the line go right after finishing the stop on the forward acceleration. When you see that loop out of your peripheral vision, start to far move your shoulder on your forward cast, that s a good time to let it go. So that s a little bit about False Casting and Shooting Line. Now let s talk about trouble shooting the cast