Welll, here it is! The third and final installment in a series of excepts from George Robert’s new book, “Master The Cast.” His publisher was generous enough let FlyFish.com share some of it with its readers…Enjoy!

The Wrist
The wrist has two positions in fly casting: bent forward, and straight. The bent-forward wrist position is easy to find. Holding the rod handle with the key grip, simply push forward with your thumb as far as you can while pulling back with your lower fingers. Your wrist will naturally stop in the bent-forward position. The bent-forward wrist aligns the butt of the rod parallel with the underside of your forearm.

The straight wrist position is slightly more difficult to find, but only because there is no point at which you are forced to stop, as there is when you bend your wrist forward. The straight wrist positions the butt of the rod at a 45-degree angle to the underside of your forearm.

Each of your back casts will begin with your wrist in the bent-forward position (with the butt of the rod parallel with the underside of your forearm) and will end with your wrist in the straight position (with the butt of the rod at a 45-degree angle to the underside of your forearm). Each of your forward casts will begin with a straight wrist (butt of the rod at a 45-degree angle to the underside of your forearm) and will end with your wrist bent forward (butt of the rod parallel with the underside of your forearm).

Many beginners, and even many experienced casters, open their wrist beyond the straight position on the back cast; that is, they bring the rod butt out more than 45 degrees from the underside of their forearm - some to as many as 90 degrees. Much of the trouble casters have with forming tight loops on the back cast is because they “break” their wrist rather than simply straightening it. The rod butt should come out from the forearm to a maximum of 45 degrees. While learning to gain control of your wrist, you may find it helpful to focus not on “opening” your wrist during the latter stage of the back-cast stroke, but rather on simply “cracking” your wrist as you stop the rod abruptly.

Many beginning fly-fishers try to cast with wrist movement alone. Although you can make very short casts with only your wrist, you need to use your forearm and upper arm as well to make casts of even moderate distances.

In lessons 1 and 2 we explore fully the functions of the wrist in fly casting.

The Forearm and Upper Arm
If you were to cast using only your wrist, moving it between the bent-forward and straight positions, you could cast a very short line fairly well. With a 9-foot rod you could handle perhaps 10 feet of fly line, plus the leader, outside the rod tip.

To handle more than 10 feet of fly line outside the rod tip, you have to load the rod deeper. Think again of the bow and arrow. To shoot the arrow a very short distance, you need only to draw the bow slightly. But to shoot the arrow farther, you need to draw the bow deeper. It’s the same with the fly rod. The bend you can put into the rod with wrist movement alone is sufficient to cast only 10 feet of line. But to cast a longer line requires a deeper load on the rod.,P>

If you were to simply use more power to try to force the rod to bend deeper within the 45-degree wrist movement, you would shock the rod and destroy the cast. Indeed, many of the troubles I see with saltwater fly-fishers trying to gain distance involve trying to load the rod forcefully within a very narrow casting arc. Doing so will kill the cast every time and is responsible for countless tailing loops and “wind knots.”

Remember that the rod must accelerate gradually and smoothly throughout the casting arc. To load the rod deeper without destroying the cast, you must widen the casting arc. If you were to try to do this by simply opening your wrist more than 45 degrees - that is, if you were to cast by “breaking” your wrist - you would move the rod tip through a large convex path and would be unable to form a tight loop. (Remember that to form a tight loop, the rod tip must move along a straight-line path throughout the casting arc.) To widen the casting arc while maintaining the straight-line path of the rod tip, you must use your entire rod arm.

To move the tip of the fly rod along a straight-line path throughout the casting arc, your rod hand must move along a straight-line path throughout the casting stroke. In its entirety, the fly-casting stroke is a compound movement: the back-and-forth movement of the wrist, within the back-and-forth movement of the forearm, within the up-and-down movement of the upper arm - a move within a move within a move. Used together, these three movements allow you to move your rod hand, and hence the rod tip, along a straight-line path. Learning to move your rod hand and rod tip in a straight line is so important to becoming a good fly caster that you should think of what you’re doing as straight-line fly casting.

If you were to lock your upper arm in place and use only your forearm and wrist to execute the casting stroke - as many beginners are prone to do - your rod hand, and hence your rod tip, would have no choice but to move in a curved path, producing a poor loop. Incorporating your upper arm into the casting stroke - raising your elbow slightly during the back-cast stroke, and lowering it again during the forward stroke - is critical to your rod hand’s maintaining a straight-line path throughout each stroke.

The Closed Stance
The average fly-fisher probably gives even less thought to his stance than he does to his grip. However, proper stance is integral to good fly-casting mechanics and is responsible for balance, power, and accuracy.

There are two basic stances in fly casting: the closed stance and the open stance (we cover the latter in lesson 7). Throughout the first six lessons you’ll cast from a closed stance. The primary requirement of a closed stance is that your shoulders remain square to the target throughout the casting sequence (rather than rotating sideways to the target, as they will when you cast from an open stance).

A good fly caster can cast well with both feet together, but I strongly suggest you begin with your feet shoulder width apart (measuring from the outside of your feet). Next, move the foot corresponding to your rod hand about half a step back, so that your toe is just behind the heel of your forward foot. Turn your rear foot outward slightly. Placing one foot behind the other will give you better balance and will also allow you to shift your weight to affect a slightly longer casting stroke (a wider casting arc) to make longer casts.

Master The Cast - Part 1 Master The Cast - Part 2