Fly casting is about precision and practice. There are many casts you can use in fly fishing, but they all follow the same basic principles of moving the rod and line. Learn different casts that you can use in fly fishing. With frequent, regular practice, you can become an expert caster.

Roll Casting

Use the roll cast technique when there is no room behind you to cast. You can practice this cast on the water.

ROLL CAST TECHNIQUE

The roll cast is a very efficient and effective cast if you plan on fishing on creeks or streams. The primary purpose of the roll cast is to give you the ability to cast when a backcast is not possible. The roll cast technique is also effective when there is a stiff of wind at your back or need to just quickly reset your fly. Follow these four steps to get started on practicing how to cast in tight spots:

1. Hold the fly rod out in front of you and make sure there are no tangles in your fly line.
2. Bring the fly rod tip back so that a small segment of line hangs loosely behind your casting shoulder.
3. Move the fly rod forward gradually; slowly at first, then speed it up steadily.
4. Stop when the rod tip is still pointing slightly upward and watch the loop unroll.

SAFETY TIPS

1. Wear sunglasses or other eye wear when fly-casting so the hook doesn’t accidentally snag your eye. Polarized sunglasses will cut the glare on the water to help you see fish.
2. Go fishing with a buddy.
3. Wear a life jacket when fly-fishing in lakes or streams.
4. Moving water can be especially dangerous, use proper waders and always be careful when wading. Stay away from dams

Content courtesy of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Tight Loop & Open Loop

OPEN LOOP

Sometimes called "no loop." The lines (legs) are widely separated. This is produced by waving the rod so that the tip moves in an exaggerated convex path.

This type of loop takes a lots of energy to cast. It is not recommended to practice this technique in windy situations, it may end up in a disaster. This technique may be used while casting heavy flies or weighted rigs for nymphing, but if you don’t know how to control the shape then you won’t be able to take advantage of this technique benefits when the situation calls for it.

TIGHT LOOP

Sometimes called narrow loop. The lines (legs) are close together and parallel, produced by an almost straight line path of the rod tip.

This type of loop requires less energy to control. A tight loop is extremely efficient in wind and enables you to present your fly with pin-point accuracy. The energy used in this loop is mostly uni-directional and has high line speed. Tight loops can be really fun to cast.

Haul Casting

Learn more about haul casting techniques. Advantages and disadvantages of different styles including the water haul cast, double haul cast, and triple haul cast.

WATER HAUL CAST

The water haul is a type of casting often used in windy conditions to increase the velocity behind your cast to enable it to go further and with more accuracy. Follow these steps:

1. Allow your back cast to fall onto the water momentarily behind you before making your forward cast and the second haul.
2. As the forward cast resumes, the tension of the fly line being pulled off the water puts more load into the fly rod. The forward cast then shoots out with extra speed as the compressed rod straightens out at the end of the forward stroke.
3. Don't allow a weighted fly to sit on the water for more than a brief moment, or it will sink too deep to allow you to snap the line back off the water.

The extra weight of the water on the line may also help propel and turn the line over in the wind. (Ordinarily most of the water would be snapped off the line as the aerial back cast turns over.) You can use this technique when you cast into the wind or across it. Some fly fishermen use it when they cast backward to fight wind from the casting-arm side. It is an inherently low cast and a little risky to use in a wind from your casting-arm side, unless you do it backward or switch casting arms.

DOUBLE-HAUL CAST

The double-haul cast is well known as a distance and wind-casting technique. Follow these steps:

1. Start with the fly line out on the water in front of you.
2. Begin the back cast with the fly rod tip near the water, all slack taken in, and the fly line hand gripping the fly line near the stripping guide.
3. Sweep the fly rod back powerfully to the one o'clock position, while at the same time hauling (pulling down quickly) with the fly line hand. This accelerates your back cast and helps lift the fly line off the water. You want to propel your back cast at a higher angle and with more force and speed than usual.
4. Add some "body English" for extra power-stroke extension.
5. As your back cast straightens behind you, let your fly line hand drift back to near the stripping guide.
6. At the straightening of your back cast you want to be leaning back a bit - more body English - to lengthen the power stroke of your upcoming forward cast. It helps to sometimes watch your back cast to see if you're attaining enough altitude and power to straighten your back cast in the wind and to see how to adjust to improve your timing.
7. Your forward cast should take you from a leaning-back starting position to a leaning-forward final delivery. As you begin coming forward, "haul" down again with your fly line hand forcefully, and then immediately position it back up near the stripping guide.
8. The very last motion of your forward cast should be accented by a strong wrist thrust, driving the fly line out on a high-speed trajectory. Your fly rod should be heavily loaded, applying every bit of power advantage graphite offers prior to the final delivery.

If you are fly casting short to medium distances into a head wind, the forward cast should be low, just over the water where there is less wind resistance. If you are fly casting longer distances, or with a tail wind, the forward cast should be angled upward.

TRIPLE-HAUL CAST

The triple haul is everything you did in the double-haul, plus this extra step.

As your fly line begins to unfurl in front of you, haul back once more with your line hand. Do this just after your second haul. Remember that just as you completed your second haul, you again positioned your fly line hand near the stripping guide in preparation for this. The third haul will speed up your final presentation and force the fly line to turn over abruptly, helping to land the fly on target. Without this third haul, your fly line may extend properly, but it will blow off target as it turns over. The third haul then is used to force the fly quickly down to the water before it can get blown off target. This is where the triple-haul comes in handy, especially with the air-resistant dry flies.

Casting with Wind

If you want to maximize your fishing time, you should know how to cast in the wind. Though the wind is a fly casting enemy, it can be overcome by force and tact.

TIPS FOR CASTING WITH WIND

While many fly fishermen hesitate to start fishing on a windy day, those who are already on the water usually can find a way to cope and succeed. Sometimes beating the wind just requires finding a section of protected water where the wind is not as strong. And since many fly fishermen don't like to cast in the wind, those who can tackle it, often have the water to themselves.

1. Be equipped for wind. This is not the time for a soft rod and double-taper fly line. Most modern graphite rods have the backbone to beat the wind, and when they are matched with a weight-forward line, shortened leader and streamlined fly pattern, you can go afield with a greater degree of confidence. In very strong winds a sinking tip line or shooting-taper works even better, as the added weight at the end of the fly line will help you gain distance and get the line to turn over.
2. Use wet flies. Of course, you need to use wet flies or flies with little wind resistance when the wind is very strong. Weighted nymphs are best in terms of low wind resistance. Since the wind ruffles the river's surface, you don't need to worry about the sloppy casts that are associated with wind casting, they likely will not spook the fish.
3. Wear proper attire. Your clothing becomes critical in wind, too, since hooking yourself is more likely. And because you will be driving your casts with more force than usual, any impalement will be all the more memorable and dangerous. A hat that will stay on, eye protection and a jacket are great boons in absorbing errant flies.
4. Use your body to gain the advantage. All of the recommended motions and casts discussed here will require more speed, force and critical timing than usual. Your fly casting strokes will be longer; your "body English" will be more exaggerated; and an extra punch of power will be needed at the end of each casting stroke. Different tactics will be required as wind direction changes or as your casts change direction in relation to the wind. Also, if you can fly cast with either hand, you will have a definite advantage.

Surface Techniques

Dry-fly fishing is by far the most popular method of fly fishing because it is nearly 100 percent visual. The fly fisherman watches the fly on the water's surface and sees the fish eat it. It's an exhilarating - and entertaining.

FLY FISHING TECHNIQUES

The surface-floating dry fly represents an insect (or in the case of popping bugs for bass, a frog or other surface-swimming creature). Although dry-fly fishing is challenging, it is simpler than wet-fly (subsurface) fishing. Once the fly is on the water, dry-fly fishing is a two-dimensional game compared to wet-fly fishing, which is three-dimensional. But wet-fly fishing does not require the degree of casting skill that dry-fly fishing requires, so many people take up the wet fly first.

Dry-fly fishermen use the same basic technique to fish a dry fly whether or not fish are rising. In both cases, the fisherman casts to a specific target - the rising fish or a spot in the water where a fish might lie. If no fish are rising, the fisherman must read the water to determine from its speed, depth and general character where the fish are located. In other words, he fishes not to rising fish but to spots where the fish should be.

THE REACH CAST

One of the special casts you need to eliminate drag is the reach fly cast, which you make like a normal forward cast, but after the fly rod has stopped, while the line is still traveling, you extend your rod-arm to the side of your body. When the fly cast is complete, the fly should land at the target and the line should lie on the water, angling across current from your fly rod tip to the fly. By moving the rod to either side of your body, you can angle the fly line across the current whether the current runs from left to right or right to left. This cast demonstrates a basic principle of fly casting: After the power has been applied to the forward cast, you can't change where the fly will go, but you can change the position of the line between you and the fly. Think of it as making a normal cast and then using the rod to lay the line on the water out to the side of your body.

When you are upstream and across from a fish, make a reach cast that finishes with the arm and fly rod extended to the upstream side of your body. Then, as the fly drifts downstream, move your arm and fly rod downstream at the same speed that the fly floats downstream. Your reach allows the fly to drift drag-free, because everything - fly, line and rod - move downstream together.

You can obtain a drag-free drift of 20 feet or more with this method. The drift starts with the fly rod tip 11 to 12 feet upstream of your body (rod length plus arm length), and ends when the fly rod tip is the same distance downstream of your body. Of course it's imperative that the fly floats over the fish during the drift.

PARACHUTE CAST

A variation of the reach cast, called a parachute cast or parachute mend, can help induce slack in the leader and prevent drag. To execute the parachute cast, make a forward cast aimed slightly higher than normal, and wait for the fly line to straighten over the water. When the fly line straightens, smoothly move the fly rod tip up and back toward you before the fly line settles to the water. The parachute mend is essentially a reach cast made back toward your body, rather than to one side. I use the mend when I'm directly upstream of the fish and fly casting downstream.

The downstream dry-fly method is especially useful for fishing adult caddisfly imitations. Caddis often skitter and twitch on the water's surface and this method allows you to manipulate the fly by tightening the line briefly to imitate the movement of the natural.

Unfortunately, when you use the downstream method, it's sometimes difficult to set the hook when the fish takes. The striking motion can pull the fly out of the fish's mouth. Wait until the fish takes the fly and turns down before you set the hook. The technique requires restraint.

HOW TO DRY-FLY FISH

The basic dry-fly procedure goes something like this:

1. Use the right tackle. Dry-fly fishing is usually done best with fly lines of 6-weight and lighter. These lines land gently and reduce the chance of frightening fish, and rods designed to cast them have softer tips than rods designed for heavier lines. The softer tips cushion the lift on the fine fly tippets you use when fishing small dry flies. (Casting large hair bugs for bass requires an 8-weight outfit.)
2. Select an appropriate fly. If fish are rising, you must determine what they are eating. Put your nose down near the water, take a good look, and try to catch a sample of the insect or insects floating on the surface. A small aquarium net makes it easy. Choose a fly from your box that is similar in size, shape, and color (in that order) and tie it on your fly leader or fly tippet.
3. Pick a target (a surface-feeding fish). Remember that obstructions in the stream can cause the currents to swirl and change direction. The fish face into these swirling currents, which are not necessarily from upstream. In this situation, cast so the fly lands where it can float toward the fish's head first. Wind can also blow a fly into the fish's view.
4. Deliver the fly to the target, or if you are on a stream to a spot a few feet upstream (or upcurrent) of the target.
5. Allow the fly to float over the target, with the fly behaving like a natural insect (dead-drift or slightly twitching). The fly should act like a natural insect once it is on the water. This usually means that it should free-drift downstream with the current as if unattached to a fly leader. Because your fly is attached to a leader, the current acting on the line makes the fly skate unnaturally across the water creating "drag." Dry-fly fishermen spend most of their time trying to eliminate drag.