Wouldn't it be terrible to live in a climate and area where fly fishingopportunities abounded the whole year round? There would be no "off-season"in which to regroup one's energies or to reflect on the successes and failuresof the previous year. We'd be without valuable down time to prepare forthose new adventures that are waiting for us a few months ahead. Interiorlakes are frozen and, on the coast, the last of the chumsalmon are finning aimless circles, waiting to die. (At risk of creatingcovetedness among the interiorites, we won't dwell on the fact that we coastersdo have year long fly flinging opportunities. Sometimes on nice winter days,it's hard to choose between time astream, a round of golf, or an excursionin the sailboat.) It's sufficient to say that, even on the coast, winteris a time when most of us choose to be fireside warm rather than frozento some streamside boulder. So now, when there is some spare time away froma whole lot of nifty fishing temptations, is really the time to lay outand execute some plans for improvement. What better objective than to workon our flycasting?!

"Why bother now?" "There will be lots of opportunity duringfishing season to practise and improve" "I'm quite happy withmy casting and I catch fish, so why get worked up about fly casting anyway?".....Hmmm ?? Here's the sales pitch for the improvement plan. Fly casting isthe foundation or essence of fly fishing. If you can't deliver the fly properlyto the fish, you are seriously disadvantaged. Fly casting is a fairly complexprocess and therefore requires some serious attention. The caster needsto be able to use limb and body movements to present a light lure ( thefly) using a heavy line and a special tool( the fly rod) to a variety ofquarry under many different physical, climatic and even emotional conditions.The improvement side of the process is something that never ends. Happilythere is no such thing as achieving perfection, only the interesting challengeof a continual search for it. The poetry and beauty of fly casting is whatsets fly fishing apart from other forms of angling ( just look how the movie"A River Runs Through It" has influenced many to take up the sport).Better casting will reduce fishing frustration, be more personally satisfyingand ..... you'll sure be able to show off more effectively!

When you are out fishing is just about the worst time to concentrate onfly casting improvement. There are just too many variables that will preventtotal focus on the elements of casting. Think of these interferences :-wind, bushes in front and behind, cold fingers, up to the waist in water,mosquitoes, difficult to see exactly what the line is doing and how thecast has really performed. To make matters worse, those pesky fish willlikely even interfere from time to time!

The "off-season" plan is really pretty simple. All you needis to decide that improvement will be beneficial, and then commit some timeto the exercise. Here are the plan aspects:-

Advice and assistance - There is a wealth of information available onflycasting in the form of videos, books and magazine articles. If you bangyour computer hard enough there may even be on-line places with fly castingadvice. Seek out material by some of the gurus of fly casting instruction: Mel Kreiger, Lefty Kreh, Gary Borger, Joan Wulff, Doug Swisher, BillyPate, Al Kyte, Tom White, Mike and Denise Maxwell and others.Most of these people have both written and video material. They all havetons of years of instructional experience and there own "style"of explaining and teaching. The key elements of what it takes to make goodfly casting is common to them all, even though their explanations and choiceof words make them appear to be different. The videos are a great way togo! Most are well done, with easy to see casting actions interspersed withon-the-water examples of how a casting lesson should work in real fishing.Often an instructor will have several videos ( introductory as well as advancedcasting ) and possibly a book to back up the videos. Books and magazinearticles are a useful way to study the techniques in depth ( via the writtendescriptions and diagrams) and provide an easily accessible reference whenrequired. Fly fishing mags frequently provide casting articles. These areworth clipping/copying in order to create an additional source of castingreference material in a ring binder. Search out back copies of the magsin second hand book stores. The local fly shop should have ( or can get) the various books and videos on casting . Most shops will rent the videos.So commandeer the TV this winter and run through a variety of these videos.You surely won't feel like it when the trout are gorging on mayfly dunsunder a brushy bank and behind the big rock - just when you'll need thecasting skills that you could have acquired in the slow season.

There is nothing wrong with renting a fly casting instructor for an houror so. Skiers, tennis players, golfers and bowlers do it in order to getby the painful early stages of learning , to acquire more sophisticatedtechniques, or to iron out problems. For some reason, we fly fishers areoften reluctant to seek out professional help and to spend a few dollars( remember this fly fishing may be a life-long condition, so why be afflictedwith unhappy casting skills? ). Once again, the local fly shop is the placeto ask about casting instructors. The Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) hasa program to "certify" fly casting instructors and, increasingly,instructors with these qualifications will be available. Certification helpsto assure students that they are getting an instructor who has the skillsto teach others (this doesn't imply that those without credentials can notbe effective teachers).

Practice, practice, practice - Even though it's cold and miserableout there, you should want to seek out your local soggy piece of schoolyardlawn or snowpatch, and flog away. All that video and book research shouldhave you quivering for perfection. So what if your neighbours are able toconfirm the mental instability they always believed you suffered from! Thebest way to practice fly casting is to do it on terra firma ( grass or areasonable facsimile).If you choose your site well, there will be no interferencefrom brush, wind, or stray cats. The dry land stuff allows you to cast againsta measured distance ( try a line marked off in 5 foot intervals); to setout targets for accuracy practice, and to walk out your cast to see howit fared ( did it really straighten out or did the last 10 feet of a 70foot cast land in a pile?). Under controlled conditions, you will be ableto practice the various casts, correct them, and repeat them many times.This process of locking-in the correct way, between eye body and brain,is essentially what practice is really for. You may have to repeat the correctmove many thousands of times until it becomes instinctive.

Gear check - there is no sense in trying to achieve better flycasting if your rod, line and leader are not in balance. These days, it'smuch harder to purchase an unbalanced outfit, as manufacturers provide excellenttools throughout their price range, and shops dispense good gear advice.However, if your gear is of uncertain origin and balance, take it to a shopor an experienced fly caster for advice. The ideal set-up for practice isa medium weight outfit ( line weight #5 to #7). Use a brightly colouredfloating fly line and a 9 foot tapered leader to which is tied a small pieceof bright yarn ( don't use any part of a real fly for practice as this isdangerous for bystanders who may want to sue you for a lost eye!). The brightfly line is essential for you to better see how your casting is behaving.

As part of the "fly casting improvement plan" I will leaveyou with some "truths" to ponder on as you work your way to bettercasting. Your job will be to search out any additional details that mightbe needed to better understand and appreciate their validity. I like tothink of these 5 truths or essential elements as the "guts"ofgood fly casting . They are described in a small booklet published by theFFF ( The Essentials of Fly casting - by Bill and Jay Gammel -1993) :-

1. There must be a pause at the end of both the front and back portion of the casting stroke, which varies in duration with the amount of line beyond the rod tip ( ie. more line = longer pause).
   
2. Slack line, during the casting process, must be kept to an absolute minimum.
   
3. The rod tip must move in a straight line path during the casting stroke.
   
4. The stroke length ( or size of the casting arc) must vary with the length of line past the rod tip.
   
5. Power must be applied in the proper amount and in the proper place in the casting stroke.

( casting stroke = the entire motion that the casting arm goes throughto create a back cast and a forward cast )

Keep these 5 elements in sight, watch videos and read, practice awayfrom fishing, and you will improve the quality of your fly casting, no matterhow much experience you have.

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