Hi! I just bought my first fly rod a little under 2 weeks ago and have been fishing almost everyday since. I really like it so far, I’m living right outside of Yosemite NP and am very grateful to have access to such beautiful rivers and lakes. I had my girlfriend record a video of me yesterday so I could check out my form. I know it’s atrocious at the moment, and was wondering if anyone has any tips to improve my casting. Thanks!!
Posted by NoAcanthopterygii102
5 Comments
Pay out your line distance, then shoot your line out and try all the other methods of casting roll casting, etc.
You look like your having fun and working on form so it’s not as bad as you think. You look like someone developing skills. Good luck. 👍
Keep that line up and let your rod do more of the work. Youre kinda just flailing the line around and not letting your rod load up. Be more intentional about your false casting if that makes sense. A youtube tutorial and some time in the backyard or a park would do you a lot of good in helping out with that.
Think about the travel path of the tip of your rod. It shouldn’t look like a windshield wiper. It will have some arch to it but much less than that.
I also had an old guy tell me that you should be able to hold a beer under your casting arm while you cast. Keep your elbow in tight.
edit: in reality your elbow wont be in super tight to your side. but thinking about the beer can helped me out a lot.
r/flyfishing will give you much better help than this sub.
Not casting advice, but I can tell you that you need to be holding your line with your casting hand pointer closer to the rod. This will let you strip like better as opposed to trying to grab it with your non dominant hand when the line is much farther away from you.
Edit for casting advice: you want to be moving the tip of the rod in a straight line as opposed to an arc. Currently you are moving the rod in a semi circle which is improper casting technique.
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a fly rod so I can’t offer much for advice on form. I will suggest wearing a hat of some type though. I went out one day and got distracted and ended up burying a hook in the back of my head. My wife couldn’t get it out, urgent care wanted nothing to do with it, so the ER got to remove it. If i would have had a hat on, it would have hit that instead and saved a whole lot of embarrassment. Although i did get a good laugh when a nurse walked by and jumped in terror because she thought i had a live bug on my head, so i must have tied it pretty well.
Good luck to you and have fun with it. If you haven’t yet, tying your own flies is a blast and it’s such a great feeling to catch something on one you tied.