How to Cast into the Wind When Fly Fishing

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Jim Dowd with Zoar Outdoor. I’m here on behalf of expertvillage.com to talk with you about fly casting and fly fishing. Although you may not be able to see it at the movement, but the wind is blowing across to my body and it is blowing downwind of my casting shoulder. In this case, casting into the wind is just a pleasure because the wind floats the line away from you and it is very safe. All you need to do is concentrate on good form and loop control. This is the easiest wind situation when you are fishing and you are approaching your prey; try to keep that in mind as you make your approach. Try to find a situation where the wind will actually help you so you can concentrate on good form. If it is inevitable however that you can’t do that, and the wind is coming into your casting shoulder, what happens there is that it tends to blow the fly line right into you, and you run the risk of catching a hook somewhere in your carcass. So there are several different things you can do to avoid that. The first is a tight very high speed, low back cast. It keeps the fly line down out of the wind and away from your body: tight, low, fast back cast. This second one is cross body cast and stop. Because of the wind, I am not casting it into the wind. I need to change my position relative to the wind and to demonstrate this better, so let me get over here; tell me if you can see me all right. I’m going to walk down there so that I am doing this with the wind. In this case, I’ve changed position because the wind is blowing into my casting shoulder, so there are several things you can do to avoid having the wind blow the fly line right back into your body. The first is a tight, narrow and fast back cast. It keeps the line low relatively out of the wind and allows you to make your cast. The second is a cast we just spoke about a few moments earlier and that is the cross body cast. This carries the fly line away from your body and you are in a situation where you are safe. You just raise the reel, open your hand and cast across your shoulder. The third cast that you can use is just fish off your back cast. Just turn and use your back cast. The fourth cast you can use is called a Belgium cast, and that is a cast where you start coming around like this and then cast across your body; side arm overhand. The next cast you can use is just change hands. This is wonderfully effective but you need to practice this. So there are the different methods you can use to cheat the wind and make an effective fishing cast. "