Fly Fishing Tip of the Day – Quit False Casting

     

Do you remember the greatest fly fishing movie of all time?  Yeah, I’m sure you do – A River…….., well you know the rest.  If not, watch the video clip below.  Remember that seen where Norman is false casting away – something about enticing a fish to rise.

Well, that’s not reality.  In realtiy or in steelhead fly fishing reality you should try to minimize your false casts.  There are a number of good reasons to do this.   Two of the biggest are that you can increase the time your fly is on the water and decrease the total amount of casts in a day – keeping you from getting tired.

“A fish of a 1000 casts.”  There’s no question of the truth to that quote.

I’m really talking about single hand rods here, although it could apply to two handed rods in some situations.  How do you minimize false casts?  First, let’s talk about how many false casts you need.  0, 1, or 2 should be the goal.  This is a goal that I want you to tuck into the bank.  Where are you at now?  Do you need to develop skills to decrease the needed false casts?

It will be important to learn how to do a double haul eventually to increase line speed and decrease needed false casts.  Take a look at the double haul link above for a introdcution to the double haul.  Just remember that we want to shoot for 2 false casts or less.

Conclusion

Doing too many false casts will make you tired, decrease the time your fly is on the water and the amount of fish you hook.  Set a goal to only do 2 false casts or less.   Watch the double haul video to get a feel for this cast.  Then get out in your backyard or in the water so you can start practicing.