Wrist Flick Eases the Pain

On my first attempt at fishing the dry fly I missed quite a few takes. The fish were clearly taking the fly because of the splashes. Is there a special timing involved or telltale signs to look for?
Mark Lambourne

Mike Marshall replies: You have my sympathy! A ladder fall gave me appalling lower back pain, which took two years to go, but I was still able to cast without discomfort. My rod was as you describe, used with standard belly WF7 lines, and I fished from the bank, or perched on an inflatable seat in the boat. Wading caused too much pain.

People say my casting action is slow, smooth and gentle, but they are always surprised at the distance achieved. However, this is without any stress on my lower back.

You say that even a short casting session causes suffering and this tells me that you, like most fly fisherman, are putting far too much energy into casting. To put this into context, at a recent British Fly Casting Club meeting, I watched a 12-year-old boy cast over 35 yards with a 7wt outfit. He had just the right amount of wiry strength and speed, not power.

Strong, jarring arm strokes backwards and forwards are at the root of your problems. Simply slow right down and accelerate gently, these movements only get the rod bent against the line’s weight. In fact, have some practice and see how slowly you can cast before the line stalls, you will be surprised! The trick is to put in a very small, fast, wrist flick and abrupt stop at the end of the stroke, when the already bent rod springs forwards or backwards very quickly and off the line will fly. Think of flicking a pea-sized piece of mud off the rod tip, which could not possibly cause pain. Any more casting effort than this is totally unnecessary.

It would be inadvisable to buy a softer rod with a lighter line since, in a breeze, casting will be much more difficult, thus tempting you to put more effort than is needed into your casting. This, in turn, will aggravate your back condition.

Reprinted with permission of Trout Fisherman magazine.