Posted by Jim E (24.116.99.140) on October 23, 2003 at 08:46:41:
Tucked in casting arm.
I'm not much on trying to learn/teach casting techniques from books or even videos. The written word can be hard to fully understand and
comprehend. Videos allow the viewer to see what it is all supposed to look like, but when a caster has a particular problem nothing beats
having a real live person there to watch and analyze their casts. But(you knew that a "but" was coming) there are a few things that are easy
to explain and understand, then to correct. One is to keep your casting arm's elbow tucked in or at least keep it "very" close to your side as you cast. Therefore using only your forearm and wrist when casting.
Most of us have rods that are 8 ˝ or 9 feet long. This is plenty long enough to handle the fly line so extending out your casting arm isn't
going to help and will most likely hurt your casting performance. With an extended arm you will not be able to abruptly stop the rod at the end of each forward and back cast, which is essential to good casting. Also, extended arm casters tend to not cast in the same plane (casting planes are a good example of something that can't easily be explained through
writing) on both the fore and aft casts thus hindering their casting distance and can also lead to some “messy” problems. Further I believe it is harder to feel the rod load and unload with an outstretched arm.
New casters will sometimes start off right in keeping their arm tucked in but as they cast line out they begin losing control of their line, for
other reasons, (usually a line control problem, not a casting problem) then they'll start stretching out their arm to try and take up the slack. You know or remember when you got too much line out and it would all fall on the water both on the fore cast and back cast. The only
solution is to stop casting and pull in some line and then start over. Raising the arm never helped and never will.
I remember in my early years of casting I had trouble with not keeping my elbow close to my side. I would have to remind myself of this because if not I would let my elbow slowly gravitate up each false cast. If you have this same problem try pinching a newspaper or a magazine between your casting arm's elbow and your side while casting. Obviously, if you start
to lift your elbow the paper will drop.
Now, as with most things, there are some exceptions. The two that come to mind are when wading in waist deep water (or fishing from a belly boat) you'll need to extend your arm so you can keep your line off of the water
and possibly your elbow too. Also, saltwater casters will extend their arm at times when throwing very long lines. But for general trout fishing the tucked in elbow will serve you well. Try it and see if your casting
doesn’t improve.
Thanks for reading. And again, as always, if you have any tips that you would like to share just email them to me (you will be given full credit). Also, feel free to comment.
Jim Enns <*))))))))><