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This week, our topic is fly casting, so who better to instruct us than Pete Kutzer of the Orvis Fly-Fishing School in Manchester, Vermont. You are surely familiar with Pete from his many great videos here on the Fly Fishing blog. He has taught thousands of people how to cast, or how to cast better, and here he talks about the five most common mistakes that he sees on the water:
- starting with the rod too high off the water;
- not stopping the rod at the end of each forward and backcast;
- going too far back with the rod on the backcast;
- trying to “throw” the fly; and
- tailing loops.
For the most part, these errors are pretty easy to correct, and if you pay attention to the solutions Pete offers here, your casting will jump immediately to the next level. You’ll find that you can cast longer, more accurately, and without the frustrating tangles that can waste a lot of time.
Pete, great tips! Sometimes when I am casting, I notice that my rod hand twists a bit on the back cast causing my reel to angle a bit to the right. I’m a right handed caster. What causes this and more importantly, what can I do to correct it? Or should I?
I would like your direction on casting wooly buggers as I am having difficulty getting distance because of them
being hevier
Great article emphasizing the basics of a cast.
@Dave R: My first thought is don’t bend your wrist when you cast, that’s putting the twist in it and taking a lot of power out of your cast as it opens your loop. It’s kinda dealing with number 3 on the list, you’re putting too much into the back cast. Your shoulder and partly your elbow should be doing the work, no wrist. But that’s as much as anyone can tell you without seeing you cast. Video tape yourself casting so you can see any mistakes you are making and/or go find a casting teacher to iron out those kinks.
@Mark Milligan: Could be effected by what weight rod you are trying to cast with and how heavy the woolybugger is weighted. A 6 or higher weight rod won’t have problems with most wooly bugger patterns but a 5 will start to struggle a bit on the heavier patterns. Fly line will effect this as well and a power taper line can help turn over heavy patterns like the wooly bugger. Otherwise a single haul or double haul added into your cast can add that little bit more umph needed to turn heavy patterns (to an extent).