Fishing dry fly - presentation
casts.
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| Curve right |
Learn to make the curve cast, reach cast, hook cast, slack
line cast, fly fishing has many facets to it and lots of different techniques.
Dry fly fishing is perhaps the most visual and exciting method and it
requires not a small amount of skill, particularly presentation skills.
Presentation is a combination of things, not just good casting. It requires
the selection of appropriate rod, reel, line and leader, for instance
there is little chance of getting excellent presentation of a size 20
fly with a #9 line! Similarly a 3x leader is not much use with that size
of fly either! As a rough guide the "x" leader size times three
is the fly size, so a 7x leader is OK for a 20 and a 3x leader is fine
for a 12.
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| Hook left |
One tremendous advantage for the dry fly fisherman is to
be able to land a fly gently and achieve drag free drifts over the fishing
zone. In some instances this can be achieved by straight line casting
and mending but for the most part some sort of air mend or presentation
cast will produce a more satisfactory result. Curved casts can be easily
made by moving the rod whilst line is being shot and the picture shows
the right hand curved cast delivered by the angler's right hand. This
is a very useful cast when there is a strong central current and slack
line is required in the middle of the cast to allow a drag free drift
at the far side of the stream.
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| Slack line |
The hook cast or shepherds crook is made by moving the rod
horizontal like a side cast and stopping it short so to speak, resulting
in an overthrow of line that ends up at right angles to the main body
of the fly line. By this means it is possible to cast around obstacles
and it is handy for reaching difficult fish or remaining out of sight.
Slack line casts are typically used to reach fish lying
downstream of the angler. In the picture the slack line has been sent
to the far end of the fly line only. With skill the angler can put slack
anywhere in the fly line or all the way along it simply by timing the
horizontal wiggles that he gives the rod.
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