FS Digest

Just starting to fly fish and I'm trying to figure out why I cant get more than 10ish feet of fly line out, any more line and it just piles up in front of me or I cant actually get it to roll out on the back cast. Am I expecting too much casting distance?

5/6wt rod

7.5ft 4x tapered leader with a small cricket dry fly.

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by 09vistablueFX4

FS Digest

Are you bending your wrist when you cast? Are you waiting to feel the rod load?

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by IGotsMeSomeQuestions

FS Digest

your barely getting enough out to even load the rod. somethings off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=232s_yaryzk&feature=youtu.be

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by walterh3

FS Digest

What line do you have?

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by dodgydodgerson

FS Digest

Go out in your yard and practice with about 30 feet of line stretched out in front. Make a back cast and stop. Let it fall to the ground. Is it stretched out or piled up? Stretch it out again in back and make a forward cast and let it drop. Is it stretched or piled? Find the right pace going one direction at a time. Once you can do that, start to put it back together. Let your backcast open and then go forward.My guess is that right now, you're moving too quickly back & forth and everything is collapsing.

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by UrsinusGrad

FS Digest

Here’s Lefty Kreh explaining it.

https://youtu.be/DUiVUoFE-Zs

Another good video by Tim Rajeff who’s a champion fly caster about the basics. He talks about flinging water off a paint brush which is a great analogy.

https://youtu.be/LMm2xBurbX0

Early on I practiced indoors with a piece of yarn as the “line” (nothing on the end) like in the video but using the tip half of my rod. A 4 foot dowel would also work. It really helped me figure out the mechanics involved. Start really short and then extend the yarn out to 10-15 feet or so.

The idea is to move the tip straight away from the target then straight towards as opposed to in big loops. Until you get better this can cause wind knots on the water. A workaround is essentially a side arm back cast then move the rod more vertical for the forward cast. Worked for me at least.

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by Jasper2006

FS Digest

You should practice with about 30 feet of flyline already stripped out. One flick of the rod (either forward or backward) should be enough to fully extend it.

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by FLORI_DUH