The Up Cast

By Rene Hesse

There are a lot of ways to learn casting. There are many different terms to describe the parts of the cast. All the great fly casting instructors have a different way of saying the same thing. When I get to share what I’ve learned from the masters while teaching a class, I usually learn something from the students. See if this thought process sticks in your brain the way it did for them.

We were doing a class with several veterans who were guests at Frog Hollow trophy trout stream as part of the nonprofit Veterans Fly Fishing Co. LLC. Several of the veterans were experienced fly anglers. As we worked on making good loops and fine-tuning the casts, the subject of the ‘back cast’ came up. We watched the back casts and talked about the rod tip stopping and launching the line. It’s hard to break a habit, and getting the correct trajectory was difficult for a few of the guys. After a while, they picked up on it, and the casts started to look great. The back cast sets up the forward cast. We had smiles as they saw the progress.

At the end of the casting session, two of the guys came up to me and said the thing that made the difference for them was hearing the term, ‘up cast’, as a way to describe the back cast. The mental picture was what they needed to change the trajectory, close the casting arc and improve the shape of the loops. So now the term up cast will be in my quiver of terms. There are a lot of ways to describe the same thing.

Tip: Stand in front of a large glass building or window and watch your back cast. If the rod leg of the line (the part of the line touching the rod tip and going to the beginning of the loop) is pointed down at the ground or even horizontal, think about the up cast and see if you can get it going upward.