Fly Casting - Why Won't My Leader Straighten??!!

[@octaviocampossalles2138]

I've been a fly fisher for 30+ years. This is probably the best fly casting video I've seen.

[@SportFishingAsia]

Good one Peter. Very clear and covered all the common issues. Very helpful.

[@howie8582]

I’ve been fly fishing for over 40 years. This is the best analysis I have seen. Many thanks

[@WadeTheWild]

This is by far the best 20 min I've spent learning to cast a fly line properly after watching hundreds of videos. Thank you for making it so clear and simple!

[@jasonmossman3680]

This is the most informative and comprehensive fly casting video on KZbin. Well done.

[@toddreashore1294]

Thank you Mr. Morse! Outstanding explanations of 'slack' creation in all of it's variations; now making the fishing life of this ole Canadian Army Signals veteran, much more pleasurable.

[@GB-cm6yy]

Damn, guilty as charged on at least 3 or 4 of those points Peter 😬😊.. especially over powering the delivery cast when i have a head wind. My inclination is to try and punch through the wind with even greater force. Thanks as always for another awesome video.

[@petermorse5442]

Thanks, Shape that loop.

[@rugrboutdoors2491]

I've watched lots of videos on casting. First time I heard about the proper application of power. Realized that overpowering is the main cause of when my casts go wrong. Awesome instructional video. Thanks so much

[@cachi-7878]

🤔 Looks like you haven’t watched enough, then. There are many other videos which talk about application of power.

[@vangmountain]

When u say overpowering, my guess is u are referring to the velocity of your arm. If this is happening it means you are not loading your rod and as such, you are trying to make it up with rod velocity. I know cuz I did this with my right hand. Then I took up salt water fly fishing and realized I needed to be ambidextrous to account for changing wimd conditions. With my weaker left hand, I was outcasting my right with little effort? How? Becauae my left being weaker, got all its power from the haul whereas the right was flawed in that it tried to compensate by overpowering the rod. The problems with overpoweing is you can't make those abrupt stops needed to facilitate energy transfer. As such, you end up forming a big loop. And why do you feel the need to overpower? Because you are not properly loading the rod. Another issue with overpowering is that you can't maintain acceleration. What you do is you accerate quickly and then finish off with constant velocity prior to coming to a stop. Work on loading your rod with proper timing and hauling. If you do this, your rod speed will slow down, and your road will load more leading to there being no need to overpower the rod. Focus on power coming from the haul, not the translational velocity of the rod.

[@rosef5362]

Even after attending your casting classes this is a great refresher. Thanks Pete. P. S your book was a great read too. 😊

[@Bleda412]

This is an excellent, down-to-earth fly casting tutorial.

[@jdoza5184]

Best demo I’ve seen in years, also like that the conditions are not ideal, there seems to be a good wind blowing from time to time which in my opinion is realistic. I just spent 21 days in Idaho, Montana and Utah and during that there was only one (1) morning that there was calm no wind.

[@briancroner3717]

Very well done. I've been a fly fisherman for over 40 years, this is the best instruction on fly casting I've seen I would like to know your formula for an all around tapered leader for trout.

[@petermorse5442]

Thanks Brian. 50% butt, 25% taper, 25% tippet - this is all approximate. I use Maxima Ultragreen to make my trout leaders. As general rule multiply the line weight by 5 which will give you in pounds the butt section - so a #5 line likes a 25lb butt. If the leader we want is going to be 12ft long that's 6ft of butt. Then we have 25% taper which will consist of 4 X 10" sections of 20-15-12-8lb Maxima Ultragreen connected by double blood knots, then your 3-4 ft of tippet on the front of that.

[@briancroner3717]

@@petermorse5442 thanks, Peter. I will give the Maxima a try. The trout leader I make is one that Ruel Stayner of Twin Falls, Idaho shared with me back in 1985. 3 ft of .019 to 2.5 ft of .015 to 2 ft of .013 then tie 16 to 20" or so of tippet of your choice. This gives you a good 9' leader - I use a #6 line. This homebrew leader works very well - rolls out beautifully. You're gonna laugh, but I still have some spools of Dai Riki leader material I bought at Dan Bailey's 3 decades ago...I still use it to build my leaders - clear, no color... it's old stuff, but still in good shape. I haven't had a leader break or fail me despite the age of the material.

[@scottayotte2045]

As a newbie, I have to say that this video is super informative! Was able to take the info and put it into practice. Wow! Super, super helpful!

[@MajesticSlinky]

"You're using a stick to throw a piece of string." That really helps put it into perspective for me.

[@xtiansimon]

Were you watching me last weekend?! LOL. I liked the presentation of trajectories and the pause, giving you the extreme ends of these problems. I was able to imagine running through one of these on the water, and testing to see if I’m in the sweet spot.

[@Kalgrm]

Great video Morsie. Very comprehensive. Thanks for making and sharing it. (Well done Peachy on the videography too.)

[@petermorse5442]

Yeah he does a great job on filming editing and even the music. Thanks mate, appreciate it.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

@@petermorse5442 Cheers guys! :)

[@datboiya8942]

Amazing video. Ive never thought about when I should let the line go when shooting it out. Youve also made me realize I do the start of the front cast wrong by curving it too much. Thank you so much.

[@LetsGoFishin60]

Excellent training video Peter. Well presented.

[@alberthabib4220]

There is always something to learn. I’m a newbie at this and always looking out for ways to improve. Must admit I’ve probably developed some bad habits. You’ve deconstructed the cast so that I can analyse my casts. Thanks.

[@MatthewCromwell-d2l]

Very well presented - easy to understand and apply. Thank you!

[@lauriebroomhead5044]

Great training video Peter. It will prove very useful for fishers beginning their fly fishing journey.

[@richardgolden9181]

Excellent instructional video. I saw a few things I was doing incorrectly. Thank you.

[@publicspeaking2]

What a great video. Thank you. I have saved it and will be watching it again and again

[@kevinbishenden3908]

Great explanation video especially about stretching the line which I have not seen mentioned by other youtubers

[@exilbayer6377]

One of, if not the, greatest presentations if have seen! So many details, which I knew, but you made me finally understand them! But maybe you can pick annother background, next time?!? Your explanatoins were great, but I often couldn´t really see, what you were demonstrating.

[@berndziesche9770]

Very good video, mate. Well done! Helpful, informative and great presenting! 👍

[@Expee065]

Great video Morsie!

[@johnvanvliet3937]

Excellent video Peter the best I have seen, thanks

[@cachi-7878]

Nice presentation, Sir!

[@DML575]

Great info & tips, thanks for sharing. 👍

[@rudysmith6293]

Excellent presentation! Thank you!

[@jasonandrews4750]

I just found your channel Pete, looking forward to checking out all your videos. Subscribed 👍 Cheers mate Jas the Butcher

[@danfloros4267]

Perpetually.....highly informative..thankx Pete!

[@lambertsaldi1550]

Thanks for the great information 👍👍 Good Luck too all on the water 🎏 🎏 The Vermonter

[@awesomeoutdoors1786]

Excellent demonstration thank you

[@benbelzunce8753]

Great video. Really well explained as usuall!

[@scottstubbs9913]

Great instruction! Thank You!😊

[@patjones8659]

Nice one Morsie!

[@oldsmugglerflyfishing]

Great video

[@deanwatt]

As UFC fighter Connor McGregor once said "precision beats power, timing beats speed"

[@berks8260]

Great example and demonstration…keeping it simple….

[@sjohnson4882]

Great explanations

[@bjlarsen]

Thank you sir - very useful

[@TheEzzieboy]

In fly casting, as in most technical endeavors, it is really easy to OVERTHINK it. I thought the points about the leader itself were important to mention. The incorrect leader length and diameter for the type of fishing you are doing is probably the most common error, and the most correctable. Also, making sure your fly LINE is properly matched to the rod is a great place to start. I have found that in helping someone "fix" their cast, these initial things should not be overlooked. I've even taken the rod from a "student" who swore he had the proper weight line for the rod. It turned out that, yes, he had the right WF line, but he somehow had put it on BACKWARDS. (hard to do, unless you are transferring a line from one reel to another). My point is, fix the fixable before looking at mechanics.

[@petermorse5442]

Yes, there are always factors we can change before we get to casting. Always has been my approach to teaching.

[@whitefoxenterprises]

great video!

[@Leavenotraceexpeditions]

Thank you kindly!

[@Numl0k]

Excellent video! I appreciate the wide angle shots. So many folks just show what the casting hand is doing, but no shots of what the line is doing. How much fly line do you typically have past the last guide when you're going to shoot line? Also, I just started trying to fly fish in the surf, and I had an unexpected epiphany moment. I'm used to throwing small flies, mostly dry flies. But in the surf, I was using a shrimp pattern fly that got heavy with water, and had lead eyes, so it was substantial to say the least. On my back cast, I could really *feel* when the line straightened out behind me and started loading the rod. That tactile feedback was a major "Ah-HAH!". Hopefully I can translate that to other styles of fly fishing!

[@petermorse5442]

Thanks. Good question and something I have never considered. I know from an instructors casting comp we have that a rod length of line is sufficient to begin to shoot. Yeah, the "donk" on the backcast is a fair indication when you have a heavy fly on. I think that learning to watch your backcast as often as is possible is the very best way to learn your timing.

[@paulbugeja5425]

Your presentation with the explanations are very helpful, so I have a question pertaining to improving my rollcast on a 5wt. rod, WF line and a small beadhead nymph pattern size 16 or 18. So I am having a problem the straightening of my leader with a rollcast trying to hit a 20' target. I think the problem is that I need to shorten my leader in order to have thicker tippet material to properly turn over the fly.

[@petermorse5442]

Paul a roll cast should unroll into the air and then settle onto the water. maybe your trajectory on the forward cast is too low, ie you are aiming down. Try roll casting into the air and then let it settle. There is a great clip on YT of Peter Hayes teaching the roll cast, look that up.

[@kristijankovacevic9657]

Thank yuo, so izzy

[@YUNO-_-DIE]

tho I've seen so many people give line during the last cast to reduce slack during an overpowered throw to increase distance on their cast and still straighten out.. they must be super comfy with their setup to be able to accomplish that aha I just do the basic's no screwing around just a gentle cast to straighten out and cast in a general area lol

[@jamescornflake1542]

Why does my hook constantly have to be removed from my scalp? Should I wear my motorbike helmet in the river?

[@cachi-7878]

😂

[@Spellcheekswammablamma]

😂

[@4492573]

Key position and power stop position

[@chrish3030]

Can I ask if you fish with the rod that you use to teach, if not, why? Also is it true that someone’s casting ‘style’ is better suited to certain types of rod ?

[@petermorse5442]

Its a rod built on a Sage blank that I've had for about 15 years. Its has no line weight designation on it so it can be a stiffer rod with a #4 line or a bendier rod with an #8 line. Its been in the hands of a few thousand casters, has made a million casts, and its on its second set of guides but has never caught a fish or even been fishing - I have plenty of fishing rods and this one is probably a but flashy. All I know about rods is find a rod and line combination that suits the fishing you want to do and learn how to cast. Being able to adjust for all set-ups is ultimately where all great casters end up, stick any line on any rod and make it work.

[@brendanharkin7231]

All of my faults demonstrated here!

[@robertyetsko80]

EXCELLENT INFORMATIVE VIDEO THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!

[@joe18750]

Outstanding tutorial. Thanx!