Delivering Your Fly on the Backcast

By Michael Hatfield

Many times when fly anglers are faced with obstructions on their casting arm side or there is a stiff wind blowing from your casting arm side, we use the cross-body cast.  This cast allows you to have that little bit of extra room necessary to keep your fly and line either out of the trees or from blowing directly into you.  The March 2004 issue went into more detail of the cross-body cast.  However good this cast is, the drawback is that it is not really a good distance cast.  The good news is there is another solution.

Let’s say you are standing close to the bank and want to cast upstream and out into the stream at an angle.  The problem you have is that your backcast will end up in the bushes because there are a lot of low hanging branches that will interfere with you cast.  If you could only turn around and cast downstream instead, that direction is all clear.  The solution is to delivery your fly on the backcast.

Turn and face the opposite direction of where you want to cast.  Open your stance up a bit because you will need watch your backcast and get a longer arm extension.  Make your normal pickup and forward cast directly opposite from your target.  Now your backcast should be going in the direction of your target.  Your rod tip needs to be traveling in a straight line just as in a normal cast and the line trajectory should be slightly upward.  As you complete the speed-up-to-stop of the backcast, let the fly settle on your target.  You have now delivered your fly on the backcast.  Since we are generally more accurate with our forward cast, you can now control your line better around the obstructions and deliver the fly to your selected target.

This technique can also be used effectively on those days when the wind is coming from your casting arm side and keeps blowing the fly line into you.  Follow the same steps as above.  Turn and face the opposite direction of your target.  Open your stance up a bit.  Now, instead of the wind blowing the line into you it is blowing the line away from you.  Make your normal pickup and stroke, but once again at the completion of the backcast speed-up-to-stop let the line settle towards your target.

Shooting line for more distance is applicable here as well.  As you complete the speed-up-to-stop motion on the backcast, let loose of the line in your line hand and shoot that extra ten feet of line.  Be sure to keep control of the shooting line by making an “O” with the thumb and pointer finger of your line hand and let the line shoot through the “O”.

This is another cast that is easy to practice in your yard and in just a few minutes you should be comfortable with it.  If you do have a problem, stop by your local fly shop, I’m sure they will be very happy to help you out.

Michael Hatfield lives in Richmond, VA and is a member of the Shelbyville Rod Pro Staff.  You can reach him through his website at www.threehatsflyfishing.com