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[Xgolfman]

Well ,went out this afternoon with a guy who's a master instr. in casting and flyfishing in general, (probably one of the best fly tier's in the lower mainland, damn the stuff this guy's got..) OK, back on topic...he took me out to a park and we worked for over an hour....casting at a much higher aim point..i.e. tops of tree's and windows on distant buildings helped immensely..but for the life of me i can't seem to NOT use way too much wrist..and everything i tried, (including sticking the butt into my sleeve with a line wrap around my wrist too) didn't seem to help stop or fix the problem...i did improve maybe a smidgen on getting my line out..the roll casting is much better..but i SUCK at trying to get any line out past maybe 35+ feet...one in maybe 5 of my efforts were OK..the rest..the damn wrist...very very frustrating...

So, my next step is to get one of the wrist braces that attach to the rod and try that..and a lot more practice i guess...is it this common to for new guys to have this problem???

[BwiBwi]

Are you casting with your right hand? If you're right handed. Might want try casting with left.

[Fish Assassin]

I found the biggest problem in people learning how to fly cast is the tendency to overpower their cast. It is imperative that your wrist is "locked". Perhaps this might help you understand the mechanics.

http://www.sexyloops.com/beginners/index.shtml

[Stone]

Are you casting with your right hand? If you're right handed. Might want try casting with left.

And why would you want to try casting with your non-dominant hand?  Your dominant hand is usually more coordinated and slightly stronger. 

Golfman:  Fly casting is not something that you pick up after one lesson.  You don't suddenly develop good casting technique overnight.  Take a few more lessons and practice what you learn to develop good muscle memory.  This guy that you're learning from, the "master caster" , he's a certified casting instructor...right?  If not, then I would suggest that you take lessons from one.  Muscle memory is on of the hardest to unlearn.  And if you get going on bad technique, you will find it hard to unlearn some of the bad habits that you might have picked up.  Practice, practice, practice!    Good luck.

[BwiBwi]

Because I found non-dominanct hand doesn't have a mind of it's own trying to flex here and there   But then it might not work for everyone, so... 

[Stone]

Because I found non-dominanct hand doesn't have a mind of it's own trying to flex here and there   But then it might not work for everyone, so... 

I see, interesting.  So if you were to pick up another sport that you've never played before, would you apply the same idea?  Let's say you've never golfed before, and during your first few tries at driving the ball, you find out that you have a wicked slice.  Being right handed, would you then change your stance and play left handed to see if that corrects your slice?

Most people would retain their normal stance and try to fix the slice with better technique.  I don't see how it could make sense in any other sport to ditch your dominant side because of a few glitches in technique...why would it make more sense trying to cast a flyline?  Did someone teach you that?

[BwiBwi]

How did you know?? I do play golf better with left, and tennis, and badminton also. The ones I find not working well going with non-dominant side is snooker, bowling, ping pong. Do keep in mind though. I cast better with dominant side when using levelwind, centrepin and spinning reel.

I just find dominant hand I use too much wrist action. But left hand.... it behave.

Anyways, it maybe just me but since you just can't fix your wrist moving too much problem, why not give it a try?? 

[Stone]

Anyways, it maybe just me but since you just can't fix your wrist moving too much problem, why not give it a try?? 

It wasn't me that's having problems breaking his wrist while casting...LOL!

[BwiBwi]

Sorry not directing you as 'you' per say. But to Golfman. 

[funpig]

Golfman:

It does take time and practice.  I bought an inexpensive 6 wt rod and line a few years ago (Dragonfly and Dragonfly).  It took me a bit of practice to get the hang of it (a few times in the park and practising on the Vedder canal).  I found that I really needed to let out quite of bit of line to load up the rod so that I could get the feel of the casting stroke.  Of course, if you have too much line out, you can lose control of the fly line.

Recently, I made my own sink tips.  I purchased Rio T-14 (50 cents a foot at Berry's).  I looped it on the end of my floating line to fish the rivers.  Depending on the flow of the river, I use 3, 6 or 10 feet of T-14.   Anyways, this would be an easy way for you to add weight to the end of your line for practising your casts.  I think that 3 to 5 feet of T-14 on the end of your line will help you to feel the rod load up and slow down your stroke (Just use maybe 20 feet of line out to keep your line shorter and easier to control).

And another thing, was it windy when you practised?  I found that wind can play havoc with your fly casting.

[newsman]

Everybody is an expert! Ya right! I have had instruction from three certified instructors, only one was worth the fee. I learned far more from my freind Randy Morgan, owner of Hatch Match'r Fly & Tackle. For the record it was also Randy who encouraged me to teach fly casting.

Here's what my experince as an instructor has taught me:

#1 DO SOME HOMEWORK in short DO SOME READING on the suject. The #1 book I recomend is Joan Wulff's Fly Casting Techniques (This lady has been a casting champion for over 60 years).

#2 practice:

Don't just flayal your rod. Go down to Ikea and by a package of their velcro electrical tiedowns. When you go out to practise have a freind strap the rod but to your forarm (this is where the velco straps come in) while you choke up on the handle near the rod. This will isolate your wrist,like a splint. If done right you will not be able to bend your wrist. This will allow you to get a mental imprint of how the rod feels when it loads. If the rod is not loading it is not working. Think of the mental imprint thing this way; It's much like shifting a manual transmission. You can't do it effectively when you have to constantly focus on it.

Next; keep your elbow down. Your elbow should stay level with your floating ribbs. The movement is all elbow, NO SHOULDER, No Wrist, one straight line from rod tip to elbow; up and down. You may need to have a friend Strap your elbow to your side with a belt, or you could try holding a scarff to your side with your elbow. Raising the elbow allows the arm to pivot backwards on the backcast causing your line to drop.

Grip: There are two ways to grip your rod; thumb on top, or index finger on top. In the begining I always recomend a caster grip the rod with the index finger on top, with proper casting form this provides a natural stop for a good backcast.

Pay attention to your body; If it hurts, you are doing it wrong. Wrist hurting? It's because you are using it. Stop! Shoulder hurt? It's because you are using it. Stop! Do this long enough and you will be rewarded with a repetative strain injury!

As for what BWI; said good advice. I always encourage my students to work at learning to cast with their non-dominat hand as well as their dominat. I find changing hands shifts the thought proccess from one side of the brain to the other and makes casting imperfections more evident to the caster. It also appears that when both sides of the brain are ingaged the body is quicker to respond to the though comand proccess.

So get out there, get strapped in, feed out 30 feet of line, and begin to cast chanting "Fishing -------- With Rod"

[marmot]

Golfman, i dont think its a problem limited to beginners....Ive seen lots of people who know better just lazily cast and let the wrists go a little limp.  I think though that if youre properly loading and unloading the rod your casts should still be long enough to catch most fish, your wrists will just be really sore at the end of the day.  Sometimes when I need to cast really far and am double hauling my wrists will be aching at the end of the day from fighting to keep them relatively locked.  Any tips on that newsman?

[DragonSpeed]

Don't just flayal your rod. Go down to Ikea and by a package of their velcro electrical tiedowns. When you go out to practise have a freind strap the rod but to your forarm (this is where the velco straps come in) while you choke up on the handle near the rod. This will isolate your wrist,like a splint. If done right you will not be able to bend your wrist. This will allow you to get a mental imprint of how the rod feels when it loads. If the rod is not loading it is not working. Think of the mental imprint thing this way; It's much like shifting a manual transmission. You can't do it effectively when you have to constantly focus on it.

Next; keep your elbow down. Your elbow should stay level with your floating ribbs. The movement is all elbow, NO SHOULDER, No Wrist, one straight line from rod tip to elbow; up and down. You may need to have a friend Strap your elbow to your side with a belt, or you could try holding a scarff to your side with your elbow. Raising the elbow allows the arm to pivot backwards on the backcast causing your line to drop.

Note - this WILL leave you looking like an idiot while you are learning.  Be sure you practice in an area of town where you aren't likely to encounter other people you know, and that your friend can be bribed with lots of booze

[flyfisherman]

When casting remember 10 and 2, forward cast not past the 10 o'clock position, rear cast not past the 2 o'clock position.

Right handers, keep left foot forward, practice with a little line first until you get the feel that your controlling it, loading it up, and getting out more line with less effort.

Keep the rod at the 1 to 2 o'clock angle to keep the line away from you so while casting.

Golfman, I'm not far from Green Timbers if your heading there in the future, I always need more practice, practice makes perfect!!

[Stone]

Well, I'm not going to come on here and pretend to be an "expert"...but all of those things that were mentioned (wrist position, elbow position, etc.) are aimed at keeping your rod tip travelling along the right path.  Whatever your rod tip does, your flyline will follow.  If you're breaking your wrist causing your rod tip to dip on your back cast, then the flyline will follow and your line will hit the water behind you.  If you're hooking your rod tip on your casting stroke, your flyline will follow and produce a crooked loop that comes in from the inside out.  All of these errors will produce a less efficient loop affecting your accuracy and casting distance.

The aim of casting a flyrod is to try and keep your rod tip travelling in as flat a plane as possible.  It doesn't matter whether your elbow is right next to your ribs or not, as long as your rod tip is travelling in a straight line.  In fact, the more line I need to support up in the air, the longer my casting stroke becomes.

Several other factors need to be considered to make a good casting stroke.  Power application needs to be precise and in the right part of the stroke.  Overpowering a casting stroke can cause your rod tip to dip and flex in unusual ways causing problems such as tailing loops or line stacking.  Timing is also critical.  The most common error that new casters make is not allowing their back cast enough time to lay out before starting their forward cast.  Take your time to learn how to make a good back cast, and this will help your forward cast tremendously.

Sometimes asking people's opinion about anything to do with flyfishing results in more than a dozen different answers.  And in this way, sometimes I feel sorry for the beginner for all the confusion.     There are some really good certified instructors that I've heard of.  Scott Baker is certainly a good one out of Angler's West, and so is Brian from Whistler Flyshop.  Those guys can claim to be experts...and their opinions probably worth more than mine.  Give them a shout.  Scott's really friendly and approachable, and loves to talk fishing all day.    I think in the end, you will be glad that you had some good instruction in the beginning rather than learn bad habits that will be hard to unlearn later.