1) Deep Soft Weight may be soft to handle, but it can be hard on your head if you cast improperly. To make the easiest (and safest) presentation possible, use an elliptical casting stroke whenever you need to “chuck and duck.”

2) Does the tip of your floating line sink sometimes? It may not be a problem with the line, rather your leader may be sinking, pulling the fly line’s fine tip after it. Try a little Payette Paste or Aquel on the connector or butt of your leader to keep it (and the tip of your line) floating high.

3) To help maximize control, shoot line through your line hand by making an “O-Ring” with your thumb and middle finger. The O-Ring is just like another guide on the rod and serves the same purposes: Helping to aim the line and keep it under control (no more line tangles around reels and the end of reel seats).

4) One of the simplest ways to increase overall casting distance is to shoot line after the back cast as well as after the forward cast. Such a “double shooting” technique helps to eliminate excessive, fish-spooking false casts.

5) If you fish with heavy flies on light lines or use extremely long leaders (in the 20-foot range), try using a tension cast to make your presentation. It works on both flowing and still waters, on both forward and back casts, and can be a real help when fishing from a float tube.

6) Hauling isn’t just for gaining distance or heaving monster flies. It also makes shorter casts easier on you casting arm. Because the haul adds energy to the cast, you don’t have to accelerate you casting arm as much. If you aren’t accelerating as hard, you conserve you energy, allowing you to cast more comfortably and for a longer period of time during the fishing day. Hauling is a casting technique I simply don’t fish without.

7) ”Jerking” (or “bumping,” “kicking,” etc.) the rod on the forward cast is a great way to make “tailing” loops (those loops that criss-cross in the air, usually resulting in tangles and “wind knots”). You can help prevent such herky-jerky activity by remembering that you must smoothly PULL the rod (and thus the line) through the air. The acceleration of the rod should reach its maximum just before the rod is stopped, not midway through the casting stroke.

8 ) Don’t rotate your wrist laterally as you move your arm through the casting stroke. Such rotation can lead to ‘hooked’ loops on both the back and forward casts, creating a waste of casting energy and loss of precision.

9) Long-distance casts are achieved by technique, not brute strength. Certainly, you need strength to move long lengths of line, but the way in which you manipulate the rod will make or break you when it comes to reaching out those few extra feet.

10) Being able to cast long distances is sometimes a true necessity. However, with distance comes a reduction of accuracy and precision. Try to get as close to the quarry as is reasonable before casting (that may mean hands and knees). This will allow you to cast more easily and with more control (just remember that being close means you may need to keep the rod side-arm).

Advanced Fly Casting Tips: Adding Distance to Your Cast

George Revel, shares his casting tips and techniques to get you casting over the magic 100 foot mark. Leveraging skills perfected from years of five weight distance casting competitions, George explains the three important components to a distance cast: high line speed, elevated line trajectory, and lengthening the casting stroke.

Joan Wulff’s Fly-Casting Techniques

This remarkable book is for everyone who fishes with a fly rod – or wants to learn. With a fly rod, fishing for trout, salmon, bass, pike, panfish, or saltwater gamefish can become the most exciting kind of sport there is. Joan Wulff’s Fly Casting Techniques pioneers a set of casting “mechanics” and offers precise descriptive terms of every part of the cast. There are sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, shooting lines, aerial mending, the double haul, correcting common mistakes, and much, much more.

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