Fly casting specialist Jim Fearn has simple advice for anglers anxious to add extra yards to their casting, understand what you are trying to achieve, don’t try to add distance with force and visit a qualified instructor.
He passed on his knowledge to visitors at Edinburgh Angling Centre last weekend during a Rio/Sage weekend in which a range of rods were on display and Fearn stressed that visiting a qualified instructor can be a major benefit to many.
Fearn from Preston in Lancashire added: “Improving fly casting is just like improving for anything else. We live in a society of instant gratification and improving your fly casting is not something that comes overnight.
“It is just like me learning to play the guitar, it is highly unlikely I will be able to play something in an hour. A qualified instructor should be able to tell somebody what to practice. “
The text books and YouTube say use the face of a clock, move the rod from 10am to 1pm, accelerate back to a stop and then accelerate forward to a stop, and Fearn said: “That is an aspect of a certain range of fly cast but, again, it comes back about what you are trying to do with fly casting.
“Slightly depressing for me is that a fair amount of fly fishermen don’t even know what a casting loop is. If you do not understand what a loop is – that is that U shape in your line as it flies through the air – then that makes things difficult.”
Fearn said there has to be a stop as the line flies over the rod tip and he stressed: “If there is no stop then there is no loop.”
The amount of line that you are casting is important and to improve the best way to learn is to cast over and over again, focusing on the shape you are making in the fly line.
Text books say don’t bend your writs but Fearn said: “That is not an absolute, but there is a fault called wrist break. We do need wrist movement in fly casting, but you need a controlled wrist.
“Look at good casters, they use their wrist but it is under control, the wrist bends right at the end of the movement giving it snap, the turnover the snap, there are various words to describe it.
“Which is why you need to see a qualified instructor. Even if you have been to a casting instruction, if you want to keep improving, then go back and see them, and it is important to practice.
“The great thing about fly casting is that once you own a fly rod and fly line you can practice in lots of places, you can practice in a car park, you can practice in the garden on grass, you can practice on water and it is not costing you anything to practice.
“When you start seeing results, and being able to cast reasonably well, heightens the enjoyment you get from the sport.”
PICTURE: Jim Fearn tells anglers how to form a loop during a casting demonstration at Edinburgh Angling Centre at Granton. Picture by Nigel Duncan
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