Get rid of the clock!

I’ve wondered for so long why so many casting instructions are so complicated and confusing.

We have also been taught with so many wrong paradigms that make no sense. One of them is the clock to teach casting, to be precise when to stop the rod. Most instructions tell the student to stop at 10 AM at the forward cast and 2 PM at the back cast. This is rubbish! Let's get rid of the clock right away!

I'll use my kid's math tool to show this.

Angle changes with distance

Rather than the clock I'll use a pizza slice to demonstrate the idea. The size of the pizza slice represents the angle the rod makes between the forward and the back cast. And the angle reflects the length of the casting motion you need to make to cast the desired distance. This applies to the forward as well as to the back cast (obviously).

To make things really easy to understand, I’ll define three different casts:

1) short distance cast

2) medium distance cast

3) long distance cast

What numbers these distances represent, is up to you.

So, here's the whole idea:

Shorter the cast, the smaller the pizza slice.

Longer the cast, larger the pizza slice gets.

That's all?... Well, almost. Depending on the distance you cast, also the direction of the fly line (also known as 'trajectory') changes.

On the shortest casts the

1) pizza slice is small

2) trajectory of the forward cast is aimed at a downward angle and the back cast in an upward angle. Why? For more accuracy. 

3) line speed is low

On a medium distance cast the

1) pizza slice is larger

2) trajectory of both forward and back cast is more or less horizontal, basically parallel to the water.

3) line speed is a bit higher

On a long(er) distance cast the

1) pizza slice is the largest

2) the trajectory is angled slightly upwards on your forward cast (and back cast slight angled downwards) to compensate the influence of gravity exposes to the fly line. Remember shooting a cannon to a target far away?

3) line speed is higher even

As you can see depending on the distance of your cast, the size of the pizza slice changes as well as the trajectory. Knowing this makes the '10 AM to 2 PM' analogy to teach casting totally confusing and misleading. So get rid of the clock when (trying to learn) casting!

Need some help on your foundation cast? Check here.