Hi "tmon",

Casting comes easy for some and hard for others but there is no substitute
for some good help.

I think why many fly casting instructors, videos and books on fly casting
say "don't bend your wrist" is because many only bend their wrist to cast.
If you only plan on casting on smaller streams, "wrist casting " (only
bending your wrist and not using your arm) will work well for you. I have
seen some of the finest fly fishers in the world 'wrist cast' on smaller
water. It is an efficient way to cast for shorter distances. If you plan on
fly casting on open water like lakes, steelhead rivers or the tropical flats
you will have to use your entire arm to cast. Kind of like throwing a
baseball.

If you watch Doug Swishers 3M video "Basic Fly Casting", he will talk about
the "micro wrist". He is trying to verbalize about using your wrist to
'snap' some speed into the end of the casting stroke and then come to a
complete stop. He means for you to give the rod a little/short "kick" or
"snap" and the end of the front and back stroke of your cast.

Doug Swisher did comment that we have lots of great fly casters now but we
also have lots of bad ones too. He said with all the short line high stick
indicator fishing in streams and all the trolling in float tubes and
pontoons boats, that many never have to lean to fly cast to catch a lot of
big fish.

I worked for Fenwick, Orvis and Mel Krieger fly casting schools over the
years as an assistant casting instructor. We always had a head instructor
that ran the schools and then several assistant instructors. I would
recommend that anyone who is starting into the sport or anyone who is not
happy with their casting to find a goods instructor or school. Some times
just an hour or two can make a lot of difference (maybe even 15 minutes?).

After you learn to cast consistently with ease, then you can move on much
more easily to fly fishing.

Fly fishing guides really are happy if we can send them a customers that has
taken the time to learn how to cast first. It makes it much easier for the
guide to get that angler into some fish.




--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA, USA

Web site: www.kiene.com


"tmon" wrote in message
...

As a semi-newbie who is still trying to cast well consistently, I
thought I'd go out tonight to the local park for a little practice.
There was a Little League practice going on and I was puttering around
with my usual inconsistency off to the side. Then the practice ended
and I heard the voice, "Want to know what you're doing wrong?"
It turns out the guy was a coach. "You're not using your wrist.
Think snap, dead stop." Then he proceeded to false cast about 50' of
line effortlessly like it was nothing to demonstrate. He watched me for
a while, we introduced ourselves, I thanked him, then he left.
My casting improved more in that 15 minutes than it has in 2 years.
Why do so many instructors tell you to keep the wrist straight? It
seems much easier to generate line speed by snapping the wrist to a dead
stop. I guess there really is no substitute for personal instruction,
even if it is only for 15 minutes.