Five Key Fly Fishing Questions to Improve Your Casting

By Tom Yocom

Photos by Shelley Cordulack.

Catching a fish on a fly, like ordering a pizza, requires that the provider know what the recipient wants on it, the address, and how to deliver it. Here, we’re going to focus on the latter. Asking yourself the following five questions, and acting on the answers, can dramatically improve ‘how to deliver your fly.’

A man wearing a red jacket, black denim, and a green ball cap is fishing with a fly fishing rod and reel at a pond in a park. A clear blue sky is in the background. Overlaying the photo is the following text: High held rod tips create slack preventing a good backcast.

Is the slack out of the flyline before I start to cast it?

The line cannot be accelerated, forwards or backward, until the slack is out of it. Think of trying to make a child’s pull toy move before the slack in the string is out. It won’t happen. With the slack out, it’s easy. One of the most common causes of slack in the line is starting a cast with the rod tip held high. The “L” shape formed in the line from the tip to water creates a great amount of slack. Starting with your rod tip close to the water before you begin your cast will eliminate that slack.

Am I making a slow start, quickly accelerating the line and making an abrupt stop?

Starting your cast with a quick jerk makes you quickly look like a jerk. A brief, slow start, followed by a rapid speed up, an abrupt stop, then a pause, will make your line straighten out behind you, readying it for your forward cast.

A man wearing a red jacket, black denim, and a green ball cap holds a paper airplane parallel to the ground and pointed to the left. A pond is in the background against a clear blue sky. Overlaying the photo is the following text: The line follows the path the rod tip speeds up and stops!

Are my rod tip and hand traveling in a straight path throughout the entire cast?

A man wearing a red jacket, black denim, and a green ball cap holds a paper airplane pointed towards the ground. A pond is in the background against a clear blue sky. Overlaying the photo is the following text: Even if you cast the tip toward your feet!

The line follows the direction the rod tip speeds up and stops. For the tip to travel in a straight path, your hand and the rod handle must travel in a straight path. Your thumb should be on the back of the rod handle, as if you were holding a flashlight. Watching it will tell you where your rod tip and line are traveling.

Is my backcast straightening out before I make my forward cast?

If you hear a popping sound on your backcast your troubles are behind you. Remember, the line must be free of slack before a cast can be made. The sound of a pop, or crack, behind you tells you it is not. The usual culprits are failures to:

maintain a straight path with the rod tip,
put enough energy into the backcast,
make an abrupt stop, or
not pause long enough to allow the line to straighten out.

Of these, the most common is the first—directing the rod tip toward the ground rather than maintaining a straight path. All these flaws apply to the forward cast as well.

Am I waiting for the forward cast to straighten out before lowering my rod tip to float down with the line to the water?

Each cast, forward and backward, requires a straight path of the rod tip, an abrupt stop, and a pause (not a jerk back) to propel the line toward the target. If the rod tip is immediately directed to the ground or water in front, that is where the line will pile up. Think of the rod tip as a dart launch. If you were to direct your hand at the ground instead of the target, the dart would be at your feet. The fix for this common error is to stay on your straight-line casting path and make your abrupt stop, allowing the line to travel on. As the line begins to reach its limits and your fly begins to extend out, allow your rod tip to float down with the descending line. The fly should reach the water before the line does. Stop, pause and drop.

As in many sports and vocations, little things can make a big difference. A video or book may show you techniques but cannot spot problems and help you correct them before they are entrenched. Practice does not make perfect, but practicing the right stuff makes perfect. Nothing can substitute having a qualified instructor who can show you the things to practice and can identify what you need to correct. Their input will significantly advance your skills and make fly casting, and fishing, a pleasure.

You’ll also impress your friends—and often the fish

Tom Yocom, fly casting instructor, guide and fly tying instructor who has fly fished for everything from bass to barracuda, from panfish to permit and trout to tarpon. His home waters are now the warm waters of Illinois, which he notes are different from Alaska’s or the Bahama’s. His two favorite things about fly fishing are “the grab,” when a fish hits the fly, and the moment “the lights come on” in his fly casting students’ eyes with their first good cast. A student in a Becoming an Outdoors-Woman illustrated this by exclaiming “I love this! It’s like archery, but you don’t have to chase the arrows!”