How to Cast a Fly Rod (Fly Casting Basics Explained)

hello there if you clicked on this video you want to learn how to cast one of these and this is a fly rod a little bit better than you are today and I'm going to give you some pointers on just how to do that because in the beginning when I would cast all the line would just fall right in front of me and a big heap of spaghetti that happened to me and I hope that this lesson will help mitigate that for you and help you get that line out just a little bit further stick with it fly fishing is not hard it does take a little bit of technique in practice but once you start to feel it and get it you're going to be like wow that thrill right when you make a great presentation and catch a fish it's worth the effort that goes with it along the way and we're going to really get basic in this lesson too on some of the tips that I've learned over the years that have helped me that I'm going to share with you in this video first may seem silly but there is a way to properly hold the fly rod and properly meaning it's just going to be better for you long term by putting your thumb up on the cork just like this that helps give you some leverage right gives you a little bit of Leverage when you're casting some people like to put their forefinger which is okay some people like to put their thumb if you hold it like a suitcase though you just lose a little bit of that leverage and you're more susceptible to moving your wrist a lot which is a bad thing when you're Fly Fishing so hold the rod I like my thumb on the cork you can do your first finger but just avoid holding it like a suitcase now the first thing you need to do and this is a big mistake that a lot of people make in the very beginning is they don't put take out enough line right you want to be able to pull out enough line and before you even start casting you want a full length of fly line beyond the tip of your fly rod if I start casting right now you can see right now there's no floating line from the tip of my fly rod that's going to be really tough to start generating some line speed so get a full length of floating line beyond the tip of your fly rod once you've done that now you're ready to cast Okay so there's some fundamentals to know now in the beginning it's good practice to do a lot of false casting but typically when you're fishing false casting will be at a minimum typically you can get your line out there with just one or two false casts so one of the misconceptions are is that you have to keep going back and forth and back the more you false cast the more likelihood of a tangle so try not to false cast too much you will in the beginning but but it's not necessary to keep going and going and going and going I did this myself right I noticed that I kept false casting I let it hit the water and I keep false casting again but yet the fly wouldn't go out any further so and you're just scaring the fish so learn learn from my mistakes early on don't do a ton of false casting and you'll know once you start feeling the harmonics of of the fly line and the Fly Rod all working together you're going to realize that you don't need to do a lot of false casting now typically one of the biggest mistakes new fly cters make is they allow the rod to go too far back on the back cast and too far forward on the Forward cast a great mental rule of when you're first starting out is don't let the fly rod go back any further than 10 and no further than 2:00 on your casting stroke as you begin to gain distance your casting stroke will increase but we'll go over that later so in the very beginning though have that mental mindset okay don't let it go back any further than 10:00 no further forward than 2:00 and you're going to find it's going to work a lot better for you when you begin to cast so you got your full length of line out from the tip you're thinking yourself okay I'm I'm not going to I'm not going to have any more I'm not going to let that fly rod go back any further than it needs to to get the line out just like that even watch the Back cast right one of the other big mistakes that people new to fly fishing and fly casting make is they come forward too quickly they don't let the line line fully extend out behind them and that's typically why all the line just kind of Falls at your feet so make sure that your line goes all the way back before bringing it Forward I encourage anyone new watch it right wait for it and then bring it back wait to go all the way back and then bring it back if you do that Cadence you're going to have a lot more success when it comes to Casting a fly rod so wait for it forward weight forward forward weight forward forward so now that you practice the casting stroke what is your nonc casting hand doing my non-c casting hand always has contact with the fly line so a lot of new fly cters will move both hands try to in the beginning try to keep this hand working individually from your casting hand and what I mean is you're kind of managing the line right Slack kills a cast so you want to have basically a tight line from your non-c casting hand all the way through the rod all the way through the line you can see when I'm casting I'm holding on to the line and I'm keeping things tight to the end of the line you see what I'm doing there and now as I as I do the casting stroke I'm letting a little bit of line out from my left hand and until it's until the cast is done so you see what I did there there so you're always managing the line with your left hand kind of keeping the the whole system from your hand to the fly through the fly rod to the fly always tight you can have some slack down here that's okay but you want to keep it tight everywhere else and I snag the bottom time out I'm back all right so you're going to be snagging the bottom a lot when you first start out too I let the fly sit too long and it hit hooked the bottom so when you want to start getting a little more distance you got to have enough fly fly line out to be able to reach those distances so feel free to pull out 30 40 ft of fly line all right so watch the casting stroke watch my left hand again we're letting everything get out there I've got a double nin indicator set up so even with a lot of flies and stuff you can still cast the fundamentals are there watch the fly line in my left hand see now it's all it's all casted out in front of me so you're always managing line with your left hand making sure that you don't go too far back on the back cast and too far forward now you notice I'm doing a lot of false casting and I'm doing a lot of false casting for demonstration purposes I want to show you this is probably about a 40ft cast I can make this happen on just a couple of false casts just like that I've cast 40 ft and I false casted twice you don't need to do a ton of false casting if you're mechanics are right so remember how far back your fly fly rods going right that's one of the things that kill the cast for most new fly Fishers is having it too far back and then you're bringing it back too quick so think of a hand of a grandfather clock right tick tick tick watch the line fully extend out behind you before bringing the Rock for that'll make a huge difference made a huge difference for me when I started to have that patience during the casting stroke it'll make a huge difference for you as well so the other thing is it took me a lot of months before I could start casting with any type of proficiency so a lot of times I went out of my backyard or my local park and I just practiced and practice will help you get there when you're out fishing but if you follow those basic fundamentals when casting it's going to help you out a ton now there are a lot of different styles of casting and what I'm going to show you has worked for me over the years so typically when I'm casting a fly rod I kind of hold the fly rod out for me here when I'm casting I do that because it's a preference right I don't like the Flies getting too close to my head you can cast at more of a 90° to your head I like to kind of cast out here and keep everything away from my body one of the things that kill a cast early on is when a new fly cter breaks their wrist and what I mean by that is you want to use very little wrist action right flly casting is not is not this right you don't want to use very much wrist at all if you watch me my wrist barely moves right I'm I'm pretty much keeping it in the same type of position I'm keeping my wrist very little movement very little at all so you want to avoid breaking your wrist on the back cast or forward cast because that also kind of messes with the dynamic of what you're trying to do and essentially is build up line speed and make a nice Loop in the floating line so do your best not to break your wrist you'll notice that I'm using a little elbow I'm also using a little bit of shoulder while I cast you can see how that's happening right there little elbow little shoulder and there's little body language right body language helps just like if you were a boxer you want to use kind of your body to help power the punch you want to use your body to help power the cast so you'll notice that I do a little body language as well I'm I'm kind of moving with the motion of the fly rod so if you practice those steps right and don't create any bad habits by breaking your wrist you will get there right takes a little patience takes some practice but you will get there so the the other Pro tip that I want to share with you is fly line does make a difference if you just bought that first fly rod setup that came with the rod reel and line it's likely that line isn't great having a quality fly line really does make a huge difference and I learned that the hardware I was really having struggling in the beginning I had a setup that was uh already pre-made and as soon as I went to my Fly Shop which happened to be the morning hatch in Tacoma Way Back in the Day Gary said hey I know it's going to it seems expensive at that time it was about 40 bucks today they're about 80 bucks I got a good fly line and holy smokes that made a huge a huge difference the other is the fly rod the better the fly rod the better the casting experience it it does make a difference typically anyone new to fly casting you want a moderately fast action to a medium fast action Rod really does kind of help with the casting process and as you get better you might want to upgrade into a fastaction rod which helps you cut into the wind better and that type thing but look for a moderate fastaction rod and it's right in the Wheelhouse of having a fly rod that's very forgiving on the cast so I think I covered just about everything so just stick with it practice and you'll get there you'll start to feel it you'll feel the mechanic start working oh one another Pro tip for you if your fly is grabbing your line through the cast that means you're putting too much power into the cast which creates too much of a bend on the rod which then creates a tailing Loop and what that is is the rod is bending so much that it's creating almost like a figure8 loop from the back and the Fly comes around and grabs the fly line so that means you're using too much power right it's not about how hard or how fast you can bring the rod back and forth you want to generate power but you want to do it and have the line and the rod and yourself all working in harmony to get the line out so you don't need to use a ton of power it's it's more of a finesse and a feel and once you get those techniques down you'll start to feel it you'll feel it come together all right well if you need a little help with choosing the right gear I put a couple videos together this one covers tippet and tapered leaders if you have some questions there and this one just kind of the basic that you need to get going with fly fishing I hope that helps the next time you're out there fly fishing and thanks so much for tuning in and until the next time fish on

Channel: FlyFishDan

Views: 7,969

Keywords: fly fishing, fly tying, fishing tips, fly fishing tips, fishing videos, catch and release, fishing life, saltwater fishing, fly fishing videos, fish on, fishing tackle, fishing trip, flies for fly fishing, fishing lures, fishing tackle tutorial, fishing challenge, fishing tackle reviews, fishing tips and tricks, fishing report, streamer fishing, trout fishing, bass fishing, kayak fishing, fishing vlog, fishing stories, fishing talk, fishing adventure, dry fly fishing

Id: SH91zv8UGPk

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024