The Casting Coach -- Basic Casts

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The Casting Coach...

Some Basic Casting Rules

Start with the line straight. Just as it is impossible to pull a car with a slack tow rope, it is impossible to move a fly with a slack line. If the line is not straight, movement is wasted to straighten it. Your effort is not only wasted, you now have the rod in a bad place to start the cast. Always start with a tight line. This of course applies whether your line is on the water, in the air, or formed into a roll casting "D" loop.

Every casting stroke is a smooth acceleration followed by a stop. The acceleration bends the rod and loads it like a spring. While it is accelerating the bend increases, when it stops the rod recovers and straightens. It is the stop that transfers the stored energy in the spring (the rod) to the line and therefore makes the cast. That is why descriptions like "flicking paint off a brush" are applicable to casting. Most people understand that action and can replicate it. The better the stop, the better the flick (the unloading) of the rod.

The line always follows the rod tip and when the rod stops, the line projects in the direction that the rod tip was going when the stop was made. This is perhaps the least understood rule but it is absolutely fundamental to the construction of every casting technique. Every direction that the line takes was produced by movement of the rod tip. This is obvious and yet often ignored! If you want your line to go in a straight line, make the rod tip move in a straight line. The direction of the line is the same as the direction of the rod tip -- and the same goes for circles or parts of circles, ellipses or any other shape that can support continuous motion for the duration of a casting stroke.

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