Airial mending?

[Master Baits]

Any of you master casters have any tips on airial mending?

I have been doing a little experimenting with my casting but have yet to be able to hook or mend any line before laying it down.
Any help would be appreiceated.

[Defeatist]

reach cast.....works great..

[Master Baits]

How do you do a reach cast, and can I put a mend in the line between the tip of the rod and the end of the line or just at the end with one?
So far I have only found The sexyloops site and a mid-current site that helps with beyond the basic casting styles. Does anyone have any better sites that show a more detaled demonstration of casting styles?

[alanb_ct]

To really learn well, you should consider buying or borrowing a book by Lefty Kreh or Mel Kreiger, or a DVD such as one offered by Joan Wulff. These resources will take you through the casting mechanics step by step of the reach cast and many others. My favorite book is by Lefty and is called "Modern Fly-Casting Methods." Get the book, practice on your lawn and take the book with you astream. I would say the reach cast is the most basic cast I use for dry fly fishing, especially when fishing down to the fish to present the fly before the leader. I consider a reach cast to be a big aerial sweep that lays the line down upstream while the line is landing on the water.

Say you are fishing a stream that flows right to left in front of you and you are a right-handed caster. You are presenting a dry down to a feeding fish and want to extend your drag-free drift. On your final presentation forward cast, sweep the whole rod upstream (to the right) as the fly is landing. If you're fishing a nine foot rod, you will have added at least 5 more feet or drag-free drift to the fish. This is because the line is now further upstream from you and has to come past your feet.

I should add that the benefits of aerial mending for dries are obvious; it's much harder to mend your line when presenting a dry, since any small tug will sink the fly.

Hope this is helpful. Watch any skilled person fishing down to a rising fish and I think you will see a variation of this basic cast.

[FK]

I suggest getting some of Lefty Kreh's instructional DVD's. He is mainly well known for long distance casting in SW however, he has a very detailed series of demos on mends, slack line and presentation casts for rivers.

The Reach Cast has one critical component,,,,,you must have slack or no tension in the line when performing the cast. The line must be free to feed out through the rod guides while reaching. It is done while the line/leader is in the air,,,,,not as a mend after the line is on the water. I agree it is one of the most used casting techniques for dry fly presentation.

Regards,
FK

[AaronJasper]

its also a very hard thing to teach people. you need to have more line out than what you need when false casting and then when you go to lay the line out reach upstream with the rod at a forty five degree angle. you should have an extra 10 feet of line or so out to ensure that your fly does not land short of the fish. when you reach over with the rod you shorten up your cast. this is an advanced casting technique and when perfected can pay huge divedends. i would say that anything by lefty is great. i learned from him when i was seven. he showed me how to cast at least 8 times and i was double hauling line when i was 8. he is an exceptional teacher! the only thing that was in my favor is that he was working with a clean slate and i had no prior bad habits. however with some good listening skills and patience you will learn this technique very well.

[FK]

Interesting Arron, my first formal casting instruction was also from Lefty Kreh.

I was fortunate to have taken three weekend classes with Lefty over the years,,,,,we would drive up to Hunter's in New Boston, NH and spend two days, from 8:00 am to dark,,,,just casting and learning about how to present a fly line. Come back a few years later and unlearn bad habits. I would commute to the office,,,,holding a pen in my R.H. and practice the motions,,,,,did get some strange looks from passing cars.

Lefty had only one mentor that he worked with,,,Ed Jaworowski,,,,I also was fortunate to have three weekend classes with Ed. Lefty told me that he considered Ed to be the best instructor of fly casting in the business. His books are my favorites for fly rod casting, The Cast and the follow-up book Troubleshooting the Cast.

Fly fishing is all about casting, and not only about maximum distance in the parking lot with yarn on the leader. When I attended the classes with Ed J. I made notes on the individual casts we learned and if memory serves, it was over 20 presentation casts, most of which apply to moving water and trout fly applications.

At this time I consider myself a serious student of casting and enjoy learning, I will most likely never be an expert level FF.

Regards,
FK

[alanb_ct]

FK:

One other resource I just thought of is the Federation of Fly Fishers. They offer certification as a fly-fishing casting instructor, and the list of skills and requirements is really worth reading. They break down the skills in to constituent components and want you to be able to demonstrate the right and wrong way to cast. I'm not really saying you should pursue the certification, but take a look at the list of skills, it's quite interesting.

[FK]

Alanb,

Thanks for the reference to FFF, it is interesting.

My problem with the FFF is once you become "Certified" you must renew every year to maintain the status,,,,,,not by requalification testing,,,, it is via "send in a check" every year. This is unusual and would be equivalent to obtaining a college degree and if you do not pay a renewal fee every year,,,,it is cancelled?

Their program started out with accepting anyone with an entrance fee would qualify ($$$$), most of the well respected casters dropped out due to the poor abilities of the "FFF Certified" crowd. Today the program is much improved and is more organized with specific skills not only for casting but explaining what is happening and teaching casting. They will have the FF cast a tight loop and then on demand change to a tailing loop for the qualification exam. Try that some time,,,,,false cast a nice tight loop and on the next false cast throw a tailing loop. If you can demonstrate this and explain why it happens you are on the right wave length.

Regards,
FK

[Gregorygob]

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