Lesson 3

For those of you who have not taken the Lesson 2 skill-honing exercise — this is Lesson 3 of that instructional series.

 

Now that we know about Key Position Distance and adjusted-stops, it’s fair to ask, “what if we make a missed-cast?” We’ve talked about “compromised casts” and why an angler may need to use an adjusted-stop to reach a targeted location, but what about a bad cast?

 

Many casts “miss” on finding the Key Position stop-point, but this doesn’t mean these casts aren’t salvageable fishing opportunities.

 

So what should we do when we make a bad cast? The first thing we should ask ourselves after making a poor cast is, “how bad was it?” Did it miss by a lot or a little? If the answer is 'a little' then a correction should be considered. I call these post-cast corrections to the line, tippet, and/or fly Terminal Mends.

 

A Terminal Mend or Tippet Mend are the adjustments we make to the ‘terminal end’ of our line after the fly has landed on the water. This could be a correction of the line or tippet, or be an adjustment of the fly. These fly-meet-water adjustments are characterized by several hand, wrist, and arm movements; these are: a wrist or arm raise, a lowering-of-the-wrist/arm, a Twitch-mend, and a Belly-mend.

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Almost all terminal mends are made with a high rod tip, or as the rod is being raised from its' stop-point position. A higher rod-tip assures the correction is made in the tippet section [terminal end] of the line.

 

It’s these mostly subtle movements that allow us to adjust the line, fly, or both. These slight adjustments allow us to better place the fly in the spot [or current] we had anticipated or intended our cast to originally land. Hence, salvaging an "average cast."

 

If we do not use a terminal mend and allow the fly and line to land on the water without any correction, then the adjustment the fly and line make [on their own] is what I refer to as, Fly Repositioning. This is to say, if no terminal mend were to occur ‘the adjustment’ that the water current would initiate on the line and fly [without human interference] would be described as Fly Repositioning.

 

Note: Fly Repositioning can be thought of as the untwisting of the line and tippet before the fly drifts naturally.

 

Skill-Honing: Place the 3 (paper) plates from the earlier exercises closer together (bunching them in a triangular shape). Continue to work on discovering the accurate stop-point [The Key Position] in the forward cast. Using a closer configuration [of the plates] will help you build accuracy into your cast.

 

Note: Keep in mind that optimal stop-points may only be discovered at the Key Position Distance. Your line-length will determine where this “sweet spot” casting distance will be.

 

Skill-honing: Want to practice terminal mends? Take your practice to a local river or pond. The goal with this exercise is to make a subtle adjustment or correction to the line and fly so as to "salvage" an otherwise "missed" fly first cast.