An amazingly simple casting tip that fixes the two most common mistakes in seconds
Sometimes the best tips are the most basic, because they’re easy to implement and hard to forget.
I got this one from the late, great Dan Stein who guided on the Bighorn River in Montana: If you keep your thumb of your casting hand in your peripheral vision as you cast, you can solve the two most common mistakes anglers make as they’re learning how to cast a fly rod.
Don’t stare at your thumb, and don’t turn your head. Just don’t completely lose a sense of its presence out of the corner of your eye as you cast the rod. (Go ahead, and try it now with an empty hand, as if you were casting, and you’ll see what I mean.)
What does this correct?
Issue one: even though you’re told to move the rod tip between “10” and “2” on an imaginary clock face, most people let that rod tip dip way lower over their shoulder than they think. They’re feeling “10” and “2” but really doing “10” and “4.” That’s because they cock their wrist on the backcast. Keep your thumb in your peripheral vision and you cannot over-cock your wrist.
Issue two: your arm flies wild and wide, which zaps all the energy out of the cast, makes forming consistent loops tough and all but negates any hope for accuracy. One thing you can do is pretend to (or actually do!) tuck a rolled-up copy of TROUT magazine under your arm and cast without letting it fall to the ground. Or you could keep your thumb in your peripheral vision as you practice the casting stroke. Do both at the same time and you’re going to iron out the issues that stand between you and being an effective dry-fly caster on a trout stream.
Better yet, since you may have already heard some of this (I find good tips worth repeating), remember these as “lesson number one.” Remember your thumb when teaching a newbie how to cast a fly rod, when you’re learning to cast for the first time or while inviting back that muscle memory after a long winter.
The thumb trick is easy to grasp, easy to remember, and I’ve seen it literally transform many novice casters into capable (and excited and enthusiastic) casters in a matter of seconds.
And seeing that unfold (I call it “catching an angler”) can be as much or more fun than actually catching any old fish.