Learn How to Run a Cast When Fly Fishing

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Jim Dowd at Zoar Outdoor for Expert Village to talk with you about fly casting and fly fishing. Now that we’ve talked briefly about the fishes senses of smell, hearing and sight; let me talk to you about a technique that I like to use called the running cast. Essentially what the running cast is based on is the premise that if you can overcome the fish’s senses on your first cast, and you make your best cast the first one, the fish is unaware of your presence and much more likely to strike your fly. However, with each successive cast you make a little bit of movement, the fly is flashing in the air, the fly is flopping in the water, things are happening that are foreign to the trout’s environment: each time you make another cast the fish becomes more likely to be aware of you. So I consider the running cast to be making 3 good presentations and then moving on. For example, right here where the current breaks across these rocks and forms an eddy, there is a possible place for trout to hold. I just made three casts hoping to show you what it is like to net a fish, and unfortunately, nothing happened. Now at this point if I wanted to catch a fish, I would simply move on and stalk up to the next plate. So the principle of the running cast is number 1, before you commit or make any movement to make a cast, observe carefully what is going on, read the water, see if you can spot a fish and move accordingly. Stay in the trout’s window, outside the trout’s window and in the blind spot, move quietly, move like a predator a mink or a heron or an otter. Make sure your hands have no scent. Make a good cast, your first cast. If you don’t have a fish make two good more casts and move on. "