Getting good at the basic
fly casts should be a top priority of a serious fly
fisherman. These are the most used fly casting techniques and
are the basis for most advanced fly casting.
There
are three basic casts presented on this page. There is also a
free three part video series I found on youtube.com by Tim Landwehr
that does a great job of showing you these casts along with some tips.
Overhead
Cast
The overhead cast is the most basic of fly fishing casts
and actually consists of two casts. The backcast and the
forward cast.
Nearly every advanced cast is a
variation of the overhead cast.
Here is the first
part to the series with the fundamentals of the overhead cast included.
False
Casting
False
casting is a method of repeatedly doing the
overhead cast. The false cast is used for a few different
reasons.
Getting more line and
distance into your
cast.
A quick method of shaking your fly free of
excess water.
Adjusting
your cast to hit your intended target.
All
of these
are good reasons for false casting but it should be noted that the more
false casts you make the greater your chances are of mistiming one and
screwing up your cast. So keep them to a minimum.
Here
is the second part of the video series where Tim explains the false
cast and gives tips on shooting line for greater distance casting.
Roll
Cast
The last of the basic fly casts is the roll
cast. There will be times when you are fly fishing that you
will have trees, brush or other obstructions to your back.
This makes it nearly impossible to do a proper overhead cast because
there is no room for the backcast.
A roll cast is a
technique that looks similar to the overhead cast minus the
backcast. The advantage is you won’t get tangled up in the
trees behind you. The disadvantage is that it is harder to
gain distance in your cast.
This is the last and
final video of the series. It presents the roll cast and some
tips on presenting your fly to the fish. Tim also presents a
cast called the steeple cast.
There
is really no way
for you to simply read or watch someone cast and know how to do it
yourself. My purpose for this page was to present these basic
fly casts to you for a better understanding.
