'The Back-cast’.

Before we get into the back-cast properly, I will just have a quick recap and will make no apology for repeating my three golden rules, each of which, is of genuine basic importance.

• 1. The rod must be held with the thumb on top, (this gives the direction of the line).
• 2. The wrist must be locked through out the cast, (this stops the rod at 12.00 o’clock), close to the ear lobe.
• 3. The elbow should be loosely down by your side, (this is the pivot and stops the outstretching of the arm).

We are ready to start an actual cast so lets assume that we are at the waterside and as this is to be a sort of a casting lesson, and that we are not really concerned with catching fish, we’ve chosen a reasonably open stretch of water with nothing to hinder the back-cast. Once the rod has been set up, even though we’ll use a bit of wool instead of a fly we must both ‘don’ a pair of glasses (spectacles). Never, ever, go fishing without glasses of some kind. I wear Polaroid sunglasses most of the time these enable me to see through the glare on the water but the main reason is eye protection. You can replace teeth but can only have one pair of eyes.

Next a few words about the way we stand. In my opinion this is not really important but a lot has been written about it. Some writers attach great importance to the stance and say things like ‘your left foot should point towards your target area’ etc. I’ve been weaned on small to medium sized rivers and have learned to cast when standing, kneeling, crouched behind a bush or rock and recently from a sitting position. The main consideration is that you should be comfortable.

As you read through this passage you will see that I refer to rod positions at 10.00 o’clock and 12.00 0’clock etc, so to enable you to follow my instructions I will try to establish what I mean by these terms. Try to imagine that you are standing side on against a large clock face and that this clock has one hand. You will be standing upright and relaxed and your right ear is up against the centre where the hand of the clock is fixed as a pivot. When I say 12.00 o’clock I am talking about a rod position directly above your head, 9.00 o’clock is a rod position straight out in front and probably level with your nose. Please study the photograph to see what I mean. So, if I say to freeze the back-cast at 12.00 o’clock to allow the line to extend behind the rod the thumb will be pointing straight up in the air and alongside your ear. May I at this stage apologise to any left-handers, I regret that you are going to have to convert everything into ‘left hook’ instructions, I’m sure that you will be used to the process of reversing instructions.

I really like the overhead cast it is probably the most accurate and delicate cast and it gives the greatest distance for the effort expended. Most wet and dry fly anglers use it all the time and if you ask me, I think it is the easiest cast to perform.

Right, before we start we must get the line out on the water, you will find your own way of doing this but basically most anglers use a combination of a few waggles and roll casts then finally a couple of false casts until you get out about 4 or 5 rod lengths. There must be no slack between the forefinger, (which is trapping the line on the rod handle), and the fly. Eventually we will move on to having some slack line between the first (stripper) ring and fore finger but it will be essential to hold this line under slight tension with the left hand. Again, as we progress, the left hand, which in this episode will hardly be used, will play an important part when we move on to shooting some line, but more of this later. O.K. we find ourselves facing the water with line out in front with no loops or slack line.

This cast is called the overhead cast and I will continue to refer to it as such, however, to be absolutely correct, the rod should not be completely vertical. I would recommend leaning the rod very slightly to the right for safety reasons. This will stop the fly hitting you in the face on the back-cast and on the back of the neck on the forward- cast. The faster the line travels the farther it will go and it travels fastest if it rolls over the top of the rod. The fact that I’ve just told you to lean the rod slightly to the side will hardly affect it. It is important that the tip of the rod follows the (almost) vertical plane, straight back and straightforward. If the back-cast and forward- cast are on different planes distance will be lost.

The line is now extended out in front and is drifting slowly downstream with the current, it is held secure against the rod handle with the forefinger and has no slack. The rod tip at this stage is almost touching the water. We now start the power lift for the back-cast by smoothly (not snatching) sliding the line off the water with a raising of the rod until it points to 10.00 o’clock. It will be noted that the rod is already bent in other words it is starting to cock the spring and store energy, then without stopping accelerate the lift into a power flick by bending the elbow (which will remain down by your side). This power flick lifts the line off the water and starts it travelling back and up behind you. Throughout this movement the wrist should have remain locked with the butt of the rod touching the underside of the arm. I mentioned in my introduction that I prefer to call the back-cast the up-cast, my reason for this is that the emphasis when executing the power lift, is to get the line up high behind you not just back behind you. I urge you to think of it as an up-cast not a back-cast. One small point to mention, although you have stopped the rod upright beside your ear (thumb pointing straight up) at 12.00 o’clock, in actual fact, the line as it extends up behind, in reality will pull the rod tip back to about 1.00 o’clock. This fact can be ignored to start with, I want you to fix in your mind that your thumb should stop at 12.00 o’clock and be pointing straight up.

By starting the lift with the rod low down on the water the rod has stored power by the time it reaches 10.00 o’clock. If you had started with the rod 2ft above the water you would not have moved much line or stored up much rod energy by the time it got to the start of the power flick. I cannot over emphasise the importance of a high back-cast, a low one causes your flies to pick up grass and may even break the point off your hooks. Energy will be lost as the forward cast tries to bring the line which will be parallel to the ground behind, forward. If the back-cast is made high behind, the line only has to run downhill on the forward cast and is therefore a more efficient type of cast altogether. As you practice keep saying to yourself “back and up” always remember the “up” .It is one of the things newcomers to fly-casting find difficult, forgive me for labouring the point but it is most important. Please do all you can to keep your back-cast high. Remember, unless the back-cast is done properly you will never get a good forward-cast. I would go as far as to say that this movement more than any other, will determine success or failure – it is that important.

Just to re-cap, starting with the rod tip touching (or almost) the water, start the smooth steady lift, when at 10.00 o’clock, without a pause, accelerate into a power flick UP and behind. That’s all there is to the back-cast.

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