If you’re confused about how to use your wrist for a better fly cast, you’re not alone.
Plenty of anglers have been told not to use their wrist when they cast. The truth is, you cant make a good cast without using your wrist. It’s all in how you use the wrist and when. Knowing how to apply power successfully, using your wrist, will take your casting to a whole new level.
In this video Tim Rajeff shows you how to correctly use your wrist when fly casting.
Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Many, many years ago, while at the casting pools in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, I overheard a casting instructor using the analogy of a “hammer hitting a nail” to visualize the final wrist movement in a cast. Think about it; just before hitting the nail, you snap your wrist forward from an otherwise straight arc. The analogy works.
The title of this piece IS incredibly misleading. It’s NOT ALL in the wrist!!!!!!Listen to the video, it’s a LITTLE bit of wrist. BIG DIFFERENCE! I for one don’t even like to mention the word wrist when teaching people how to cast, because for some if you do they cast EXACTLY what he describes and the beginning of the video!
I have been fly fishing for about 3 seasons now. I get on the water maybe 6 or 7 times a year it seems, so casting is still a bit of “black art” to me. I do find myself using this little bit of wrist snap almost naturally. I’m not sure it is even a conscious thought, just sort of what my instinct dictates.
I still suck because I never practice, but I don’t suck as much as I used to suck, which is to say I still pretty much suck but manage to catch a fish or three most days out.
Fish On….
I like Joan Wulff’s method for the wrist-snap. She uses the analogy of pushing against the cork with your thumb, similar to opening a screen door. Your wrist will bend the right amount while keeping your line speed.
I wonder how many boogers tim has flicked. how much experience, did he get many dates in high school?should we change the instruction from hammering a nail to flicking a booger? sorry, but I couldn’t resist being a smart aleck in regards to that statement
Ha ha ha! “Like you’re flicking a booger off your finger”! Next time I step into the water I am going to laugh at that, I can already tell. Hilarious.
Incidentally the first day I ever went fly fishing (some 16 or 17 years ago now), the guy teaching me used the analogy of kitchen knife to help me with the wrist movement. Always helped me and I have passed it on to the many I’ve tried to help along the way. (But I’m going with booger analogy from here on out)
Tim is one of the best instructors I’ve had the pleasure to meet. His presentation is phenomenal. Another analogy that would apply is trying to fling an apple that you have stuck on the end of a stick. To launch the apple off of the stick, you would use wrist action at the end of the stroke. It would do you no good to apply it at any other point.
Just interested in what others think. If you’re not learning, you’re dead.
Nice! Tim Rajeff is an awesome instructor. His description of the wrist kind of reminds of when you do the final wrist ‘pop’ on a curveball, just the slightest but is vital to a successful break on the ball. The same dynamics are needed on a cast. Man I love fly fishing!