The following briefly describes the 3 principles to efficient fly casting. They may look familiar if you know the 5 principles the FFF uses however we felt only 3 where needed to both teach and implement. Feel free to ask any questions you may have here or in person at the Leland Ranch.

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Contrary to what you might have heard, fly casting is quite easy. The true goal of fly casting is to efficiently control your fly line, and you can do it!

Although there are subtleties to just about any physical activity or sport, including fly casting, there are only three important principles to fly casting efficiently. More on this in a bit.

Let's start with a fun word exercise that will help you better understand the goal of an efficient fly cast. Although the sport of fly fishing is aptly named, as we are using a lure called a fly to catch a fish, the defining attribute of our sport, fly casting, is improperly named and here's why.... We aren't at all casting the fly. In fact, we are casting a weighted fly line that carries the fly to the fish. So maybe a better name for fly casting might be “fly-line casting.” But we still have a problem with the word casting. The term “casting” seems to impart a flinging or flicking motion, the more casting energy (power), rather than efficiency becomes the focus. A better term to properly describe the efficient action of a fly cast is, “fly line pulling.” Pulling fly line with the help of a fly rod being an extension of your arms movement as well as an amplifier is really the secret to a butter-smooth, efficient fly cast. Knowing this, you're now ready for the three principles.

1. No-Slack (Straighten Line): In order to pull anything like a rope tied to a cart or a fly line for that matter, you must have direct contact with the rope or line. We call this straight line contact. Imagine trying to start a water skier with slack in the tow rope. It won't be pretty when the tow rope goes tight between a charging ski boat and a static skier. Someone might get hurt and nobody is going to be skiing. So, remove all slack in your fly line prior to attempting to cast and maintain connection with the fly line.

2. Constant Rod Load (Pull): Remember, you're “pulling” your fly line. A pull starts slow, then accelerates. When you pull the line during your casting stroke, good things happen. Your fly rod's tip bends (storing energy) and stays at a constant load throughout the casting stroke as the weighted fly line resists movement. Fly rod tips love a constant load and conversely hate erratic applications of power, which result in erratic waves of fly line...not efficient. Back to principle 1. you'll also create slack with these erratic movements.

3. Efficient Transfer of Rod Energy (Stop): Now that your fly line is moving and you have stored energy (in the form of your flexed fly rod) it only makes sense that we efficiently move the energy from the rod into the fly line. This is easily done with an assertive STOP of the rod, during the casting stroke. At the stop, the fly rod comes out of flex, and the stored energy is happily and efficiently transferred into the fly line, and off the line goes. A bow hunter doesn't slowly decrease tension and then expect the arrow to fly off the string. They let off the string/arrow and it goes!

The good news is that the principle-based “math” of an efficient fly cast is the same on both the back cast and forward cast. Remember, there is a slight pause after each stop, which allows the fly line loop to “almost” straighten out, then the next casting stroke begins. How soon or late you stop your rod's tip during the cast dictates the size of your loop. With just a bit of practice, you'll be forming efficient loops of fly line in no time at all. All fly casts (overhead, roll, underhand, etc.) rely on the three basic principles explained above. Understand these simple principles and you'll be able to fish in more challenging situations, catch more fish and enjoy every cast.