Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Five Essentials - part two

In the second of this series of five entries here is the next essential component of a good cast:

Proper acceleration of the fly rod.
In fly casting the function of the rod hand is to accelerate the rod so that it may 

load or bend against the resistance of the fly line. The hand accelerates the rod 
slowly at first and continues to increase in speed until the rod reaches a position 
perpendicular to the target at which point the rod hand accelerates even faster, and 
concludes, with a short, ultra fast stop of the hand. The majority of acceleration 
takes place near the end of the stroke.



In short: start slooooooowwwwwwwlllllyyyyy and speed up to a sudden and snappy stop.
This STOP is something Tim Raijeff talks about in this video. (the quality of the video itself isn't going to win anybody an Oscar for the best camerawork, but it well worth the watch.)