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CASTING BULLETS

Improving your fly casting with the FFI Fly Casting Skills Challenge

I am a firm believer that fly casting skill should translate into better catching and all round fishing experience. Those that love casting for casting’s sake are welcome, but the majority of my students want to catch more fish, do better, with distance, in the wind and have fewer tangles.

The Fly Casting Skills Challenge was created by 4 Master Certified Instructors about 3 years ago. It was an honor for me to be included in the working group of 4! We tasked ourselves with creating a fun, self-paced progressive way to improve casting for fly fishing. Casting skills applicable to fishing situations of increasing difficulty are rated Bronze, Silver and Gold. Casters that achieve each level have the option of obtaining an award document and pin indicating their achievement for a nominal fee. The Fly Casting Skills Challenge can be found at www.flyfishersinternational.org under Education > Learning Center > Casting > Casting Skills Challenge. This is not the instructor certification program for which the FFI is known. There is no instruction or in depth understanding of casting mechanics requirement for participants. At Bronze and Silver levels, there is no loop shape or size requirement.

Since then, I’ve started incorporating the Skills Challenge into my lesson plans. I try to get many students through Bronze level in 3-6 lessons. There are some casters that can achieve Bronze quicker, but that’s not my typical student. Bronze is not beginner level. It starts with a 40 ft. pick up and lay down cast in a near vertical plane. This is the foundation of all casting and is the most efficient way to get the fly out of the water and back again. Limit false casting--it spooks fish and wears you out! This is followed by a cast where the delivery is sidearm or horizontal, as if one is casting under overhanging brush. This is followed by 35 ft. roll casts on both dominant and non-dominant shoulders. Roll cast is critical when there are obstacles behind or on either side of the caster and for multi-fly and nymph rigs, just to name 2 uses. The next one challenges the caster to pick up at 40 ft. and shoot line to at least 45 ft. with no false cast. This is done when stripping in slack or retrieving a streamer, and casting back out with no false cast is most efficient. You must develop a good back cast to succeed. Accuracy comes next at 20, 30, and 40 ft. Learning how to aim your loop at the target and estimate distance are fundamental skills when you’re trying to hit that small pocket where you think the fish is. Finally, the participant must make a 50 ft. distance cast. Sometimes there is a fish rising out there and you’ve got to get to it—with confidence. Also, the long game helps your short game in fly casting: casting at distance requires improved technique which translates to shorter casts.

Silver level hikes the challenges up a notch, as it should. One starts with vertical to horizontal casts ending with a cast that would deliver the fly under an obstacle. However, it is done on the non-dominant side (rod tip and line on left side for a right handed caster). This is followed by reach mends to the right and left. The reach mend is at once the most useful and easiest of the aerial mends. Most often it is used to obtain a better drift of the fly. Slack line presentations are important, and this is the next Silver challenge. If uncontrolled slack is your enemy, controlled slack is your friend as it allows better drag free drifts and time for sinking flies to sink. The Belgian Cast (Oval Cast) follows. This is a casting technique often used to fish streamers and is quite helpful in windy situations. Silver level accuracy is at 20, 30, and 40 ft. also, but the caster does this off the non-dominant shoulder! Imagine casting a dry fly to a target upstream with a tree obstructing your dominant side casting stroke. It’s also helpful for wind blowing into the casting arm. Finally, we’re back to distance, which is 60 ft. at Silver level. By this point some want to try double haul, but it’s not required.

Gold level requires more skill, especially in that 4 ft. loops and no or few tailing loops are required. This level of loop control makes Gold level easier. More importantly, wind and obstacles are less of an issue and more targets are available to the better caster. The first challenge assesses good loop formation and control at 45 ft. off the non-dominant shoulder. The second Gold challenge is a curve cast--that is where the line and/or leader curve around an obstacle. This can be an indispensable technique when dry fly fishing, and is occasionally used for streamers when you want the streamer to retrieve parallel to the bank. Roll cast pick up is next. This is an efficient way to get sunk lines/flies to the surface and can be a surrogate for the salt water quick cast. The fourth challenge at Gold level is changing direction. Many do this frequently, but few do it efficiently. Imagine having your fly and line washed downstream and you want to cast to a rising fish across the river. This is change of direction and the caster demonstrates 2 ways of doing this. What would Gold level be without accuracy? It’s one of our most important skills! At Gold level, targets are at 20, 30, 40 and 50 ft. Sometimes casts from drift boat, in a lake, or in salt water are this long or longer! Next, the caster must make a cast to 40 ft. while seated or kneeling. Anyone that has cast kneeling behind a bush or from a float tube knows this casting position can be a challenge. The next challenge is a cast which is very helpful in the wind or with obstructions on the casting arm side: the back cast presentation. The caster must have a good back cast in order to deliver the fly to 55 ft. Finally, the successful Gold level participant will cast to 70 ft. Four foot loops with no tailing loops make this much easier. The long game helps your short game.

I hope this description has inspired you! Don’t be intimidated. You can do this at your own pace, but most importantly, you can do this and it will help you when fishing! Seek help from a FFI Certified Casting Instructor if needed; it will speed your progress. Remember the words of Joan Wulff: "...if you don’t know where the fish lie but can cast well enough to cover all of the water with finesse, you are likely to solve the mystery and catch fish. If you know where they lie but can neither reach them nor present the fly naturally, you are not even in the game.”