Shooting And Handling Line (18 of 19)

When we shoot this line, we want to have good timing. We want to make sure that we're releasing that line at just the right moment. There's a couple of different ways you can do this. You can see it, or you can feel it. To see it, what you're looking for is that nice loop rolling out in front of you. As soon as you see that loop, that's your visual indicator on when to shoot the line. See the loop. Then you can release the line and start to shoot it. If you want to feel it, you can feel that rod come to that good abrupt stop. Come to that nice stop, then release that line. So, you can see it or you can feel it. If your timing is off, if you release that line too soon, what can happen is that line can wrap around your arm, wrap around your rod, and it won't shoot out very nicely. So we want that good timing, and release that line after we stop. Make sure when you're releasing that line, that you feather it through your hand. You don't want to just let that line go and then strip it back in before that line gets straight. So just think, open that bale, hold that line in your other hand, your non-casting hand, make that nice stop, feather it through your hand, back underneath that finger, closing the bale. Then we can strip that line back in. Remember, keep that rod tipped nice and low. Every other cast you hear about in fly fishing is a variation of either the pick-up and lay-down cast or the roll cast as we've seen here. And you'll use these casts more often than any others. Practice these as often as you can, and you'll have a lot more fun fishing with a fly.