This month, as the winds blow relentlessly, don’t be a victim to the conditions. Daunting wind forecasts keep many anglers on the couch instead of on the flats. To be dominant over the winds this Spring, work on your casting plane angles.

A basic principal of fly-casting is that a straight-line path of the rod tip through the casting stroke equals a tight loop, a wide arcing path equals a wide loop and an overpowered or abruptly powered dipping path equals a tailing loop. Obviously, the tight loop is the loop of choice in most situations.

The straight line path of the rod tip is going to provide you with that tight loop every time, so focus on that and watch your rod tip. With that in mind, if your casting with a perfectly executed straight path of the tip stroke but that path of the tip is parallel to the ground or parallel to the water, you will notice that once the line has rolled out and ready to fall, the wind will have it’s way as the momentum of the cast is gone.

A common mistake in these situations is to make a regular back cast but then drop the tip to the water on the forward cast. Now, you have created a wide arcing path and a wide loop to follow that doesn’t stand a chance.

You were right to bring your tip further down on the forward cast as you want that fly to be on the water and on target as soon as the line rolls out but the back cast needs to be angled up slightly so that you can bring your forward cast down, driving the fly and line down to the water, but with a nicely controlled tight loop (because of the path of the rod tip), never giving the wind an opportunity to mess with your game.

This is simply a matter of making sure that you are focusing on achieving that straight-line path of the tip and simply playing with the angles to figure out what works at different distances. Do keep in mind that your line-shooting ability will be limited when throwing down at the target so practice carrying more line for those fish that are a little farther out.

What wind?

Labels: Fly Fishing Tip of the Month, Fly-Casting Tip of the Month