Speaker 1: Approach is especially critical on small streams, but the
techniques you learn there can be applied to rivers of any size.
For reading the water, and approaching fish, casting accuracy is
really important. Let's visit Pete Kutzer to learn the five most
common casting mistakes.
Pete: Today, we're going to troubleshoot the five most common casting
mistakes, and how to correct them. Probably the number one most
common casting mistake I see, is starting with that rod tip too
high. When you start your initial back cast, you want to keep
that rod tip nice and low, close to the water. That's going to
keep that line nice and straight, and make that nice, easy back
cast, that nice lift in acceleration, and that pop to a stop. If
you start with your back or rod tip too high, you're going to
have the tendency to dip a little bit behind you, and maybe send
that back cast down into the water. So start with that rod tip
nice and low, make a smooth acceleration to that pop to a stop.
The second most common casting mistake is probably not stopping
the rod, keeping this rod moving in a continuous motion.
Remember we have to stop and pause, and wait for that line to
roll out, and it's that stop that transfers the energy from that
bent rod into the line. So when you're casting, think of an
abrupt stop, and an abrupt stop on both the back cast, and the
forward
The third most common casting mistake is probably going too far
back with the rod. Starting with that rod tip nice and low,
coming up and then down on that back cast. That, again, is going
to send your line down into the water, making that fly probably
splat on the water, getting stuck in a tree or a bush, and not
creating a nice tight loop. So just think stop that rod tip up
and back, or imagine you have that wall up against you. Not too
far back, you don't want to go through that wall behind you.
The fourth most common thing I usually see when somebody's
casting, is they have a tendency when they get something in
their hand, they want help it. They want to throw it as far as
they can. These fly rods, they'll do the work for you, if you
let them. When you make that forward cast, notice when I make
that cast that my arm is pretty compact, pretty relaxed. It's
just right in here, not too far forward, not too far back. What
I see is this, a tendency to want to throw that line, kind of
help that rod out there. If you do that, that's going to have a
tendency to throw your line uphill. You could potentially cause
a tailing loop - that's your line hitting itself and that's a
little segue into number five. But we want that nice smooth pop
to a stop, not too much extension, nice and easy. Just think,
you wouldn't tack a nail into a wall out here, just right here,
nice and easy.
The fifth most common thing I see is probably that tailing loop.
Now, that tailing loop is when that fly line hits itself, and
causes a knot. If that happens, a lot of times people like to
say it's because of the wind, it's a wind knot. You may have
heard that before. Well, the reality is it's usually a bad
casting knot; and it can be caused by three different ways. One
way is by punching. You're kind of thrusting that rod tip
forward. That's going to cause that line to hit itself, causing
that knot.
Another way is by having too short of a casting stroke for the
length of line. That's how far back I go, to how far forward I
go. From here, to here, that's my casting stroke - here, to
here. If it's too short for the length of line, that's going to
cause that line to hit itself, and cause that tailing loop. And
probably the third reason why we get tailing loops, and this is
probably the most common, is we're trying to apply that flick,
or that pop, right in the beginning.
Remember, when we cast, we want to make the smooth acceleration
to a stop, smooth acceleration to a stop. If we flick in the
beginning, there; that's going to cause that tailing loop. Think
pop to a stop. Don't pop in the beginning, and then bring the
rod down. Get that smooth acceleration to a stop, and that's
going to give you a nice loop rolling out to those fish.