Hi, Mike. During my guiding career I had some 1300 anglers in my boat. I'd say 90% of them exhibited #7. What I call the "Lazy Left Hand". Technically, it's the lazy "line" hand", but anyway, it's a cast killer. You need to be able cast with at least a modicum of distance and accuracy to fish dry flies effectively from a boat on the Green. So most of my days started with the demonstration you gave about how #7 creates slack when that's the last thing you need. The sad part about it was that many of these anglers had fished with guides many times previously, and none of their guides had said a word about this cast killing flaw. All I could do is shake my head and fix it. Kudos for spreading the word. As to #1, their is occasionally a valid reason to lift your reel to align your rod with the fly line shooting down the target line. It reduces friction from the line guides. Especially the tip top. For very long casts, it can make the difference between getting to the fish or not. I rarely use this move. Accurate 15-30 foot casts with good mending are what catch the most fish. It's definitely a pro move, and you're right to discourage average anglers from mimicking it. Hi, Mike. During my guiding career I had some 1300 anglers in my boat. I'd say 90% of them exhibited #7. What I call the "Lazy Left Hand". Technically, it's the lazy "line" hand", but anyway, it's a cast killer. You need to be able cast with at least a modicum of distance and accuracy to fish dry flies effectively from a boat on the Green. So most of my days started with the demonstration you gave about how #7 creates slack when that's the last thing you need.
The sad part about it was that many of these anglers had fished with guides many times previously, and none of their guides had said a word about this cast killing flaw. All I could do is shake my head and fix it. Kudos for spreading the word your clear presentation. As to #1, there is a valid reason lift your reel to align your rod with the fly line shooting down the target line. It reduces friction from the line guides. Especially the tip top. For very long casts, it can make the difference between getting to the fish or not. I rarely use this move. It's definitely a pro move, and you're right to discourage average anglers from mimicking it. Accurate 15-30 foot casts with good mending are what catch the most fish. Anyway, nice video. Do you have one about mending?
Glad you liked the video. I do a lot of casting clinics and see #7 in almost everyone. I try to keep these videos short and general. They are mostly for my local TU Chapter but people are starting to subscribe!
@@MikeMouradian Hi Mike. A teaching aid I used in my boat was that my rental rods all had Wulff Triangle Taper floating lines with a bass shooting head. The bass head is only 27', so the clients could load the rod with less line out. This helps a lot with 2 mediocre casters standing 8 feet apart in your boat, casting over your head. :) And it's great for mending. Especially if you're nymphing. When you started #7 by lowering your camera angle, I immediately thought, "Is someone on RUclips finally gonna address the Lazy Left Hand?" When you did, I was like, Hallelujah! Anyway, keep up the good work.
Man, you described me on all 7 mistakes lol. Just completed my 2nd day as a new fly fisherman, day 3 will be even better because of this video. Thank you Sir!
All i can say is thank you so much. You just pointed out all the wrong stuff I do. Even though I've fly fished once so far haha. But the best teaching I've ran into so far.
wow right at the end there. about keeping the hands together. i heard a loud popping sound. the other tips were golden but that last one about how i lose the line loading, well my head finally became unstuck.
Nice. This would have been helpful 50 years ago when I tried to learn how to cast by watching Gadabout Gaddis on a 15 inch b/w television (and obviously no way to record and playback!).
Ngl these tips can really mess up some peoples fly game, I fish extremely hard water and some of the things he is saying that are total no no's, are what gets you fish, here in Ireland anyway
While I won't disagree with your experience in Ireland. Most of these tips come from both the rod manufactures as well as teaching casting for 20years. Casting with bad technique will work but you may find you work twice as hard to do what you set out to do. Also these are tips for casting small flies. Casting heavy weighted flies or large articulated flies do need a set of other tips.
Hi, thanks for your video. Study the 5 essentials in fly casting would be my advice to you. Sorry to say but many of your points are not correct. The most obvious being that the double haul loads the rod. It does not. And rod load is the least part of fly casting.
While I appreciate your comments . I would take your comments in perspective. Most fishing is done in a 20-40 yard range . The physics of that are very different from distance casting. These tips are for casters who don't have good form. After you master good technique then you can go after distance. Also I would argue accuracy is more important than distance.
Sorry, but the Bible under the arm method is absolutely not necessary! It is just the “traditional” method! I have been fishing for 63 years and fly fishing over 50! I am self taught and have developed my own casting method! I can put my flys right where I want em to go usually within a foot and have caught thousands of trout! I have tried the book under the arm method and find it inferior! There are many ways to skin a cat. Accurate casting, under your control is much more important than distance any day of the week! The further you cast the harder it is to set the hook! Always keep twenty feet back from the water and flick your first casts so the fly(s) land gently only a few feet from the bank! You won’t scare the trout there by casting over them or walking right up to the water and as they flee in terror scare the trout out farther! A scared trout is very hard to catch and often some of the largest trout are right beside the bank! Experience is the best teacher! I started trout fishing when I was five.
While I agree that there is no right way to cast, if you learn from some basic fundamentals you can then learn to correct problems later on. I teach many workshops and beginning classes. I see these problems in folks that have been fishing for years. After making them aware of some of these faults and the cheats they use to compensate they progress rapidly. It also gives them the tools to adapt to different situations. Here in Michigan, one starts out fishing for trout in the spring, then moves to Bass, Carp, and Pike in the summer, Salmon in the fall and Steelhead in the winter. Even Tiger Woods started over with his swing when he reached a plateau
@@MikeMouradian Nothing wrong with checking out fundamentals as you say, using and adapting what you find useful and discarding what what is not! I am in Nfld. where we developed the “riffling hitch” by necessity! Our history of fly fishing goes back hundreds of years, starting with the British who came here for the cod over 500 years ago! I grew up in the land of Brook trout and Atlantic Salmon. Many believe the hair wing fly originated here! There were no “ casting” instructors back in the days of my youth! If you wanted to fly fish or tie flys you mostly had to “ figure” it out and I did!!
I am coming back to "mend" all those bad habits I have picked up over the years--great video.
I am a true beginner and can't thank you enough for the time you have spent doing this video!
I only do 5 of them, no wonder I am not catching anything, Ive been in the garden practicing and what a difference, thanks a bunch.
keep practicing!
Hi, Mike. During my guiding career I had some 1300 anglers in my boat. I'd say 90% of them exhibited #7. What I call the "Lazy Left Hand". Technically, it's the lazy "line" hand", but anyway, it's a cast killer. You need to be able cast with at least a modicum of distance and accuracy to fish dry flies effectively from a boat on the Green. So most of my days started with the demonstration you gave about how #7 creates slack when that's the last thing you need.
The sad part about it was that many of these anglers had fished with guides many times previously, and none of their guides had said a word about this cast killing flaw. All I could do is shake my head and fix it. Kudos for spreading the word.
As to #1, their is occasionally a valid reason to lift your reel to align your rod with the fly line shooting down the target line. It reduces friction from the line guides. Especially the tip top. For very long casts, it can make the difference between getting to the fish or not. I rarely use this move. Accurate 15-30 foot casts with good mending are what catch the most fish.
It's definitely a pro move, and you're right to discourage average anglers from mimicking it.
Hi, Mike. During my guiding career I had some 1300 anglers in my boat. I'd say 90% of them exhibited #7. What I call the "Lazy Left Hand". Technically, it's the lazy "line" hand", but anyway, it's a cast killer. You need to be able cast with at least a modicum of distance and accuracy to fish dry flies effectively from a boat on the Green. So most of my days started with the demonstration you gave about how #7 creates slack when that's the last thing you need.
The sad part about it was that many of these anglers had fished with guides many times previously, and none of their guides had said a word about this cast killing flaw. All I could do is shake my head and fix it. Kudos for spreading the word your clear presentation.
As to #1, there is a valid reason lift your reel to align your rod with the fly line shooting down the target line. It reduces friction from the line guides. Especially the tip top. For very long casts, it can make the difference between getting to the fish or not. I rarely use this move. It's definitely a pro move, and you're right to discourage average anglers from mimicking it. Accurate 15-30 foot casts with good mending are what catch the most fish.
Anyway, nice video. Do you have one about mending?
Glad you liked the video. I do a lot of casting clinics and see #7 in almost everyone. I try to keep these videos short and general. They are mostly for my local TU Chapter but people are starting to subscribe!
@@MikeMouradian Hi Mike. A teaching aid I used in my boat was that my rental rods all had Wulff Triangle Taper floating lines with a bass shooting head. The bass head is only 27', so the clients could load the rod with less line out. This helps a lot with 2 mediocre casters standing 8 feet apart in your boat, casting over your head. :)
And it's great for mending. Especially if you're nymphing.
When you started #7 by lowering your camera angle, I immediately thought, "Is someone on RUclips finally gonna address the Lazy Left Hand?" When you did, I was like, Hallelujah!
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Man, you described me on all 7 mistakes lol. Just completed my 2nd day as a new fly fisherman, day 3 will be even better because of this video. Thank you Sir!
Keep working at it! after a while it will become second nature.
That’s where I’m at tonight, no advertising, just pointers on what you need to know
All i can say is thank you so much. You just pointed out all the wrong stuff I do. Even though I've fly fished once so far haha. But the best teaching I've ran into so far.
Fix those mistakes early. They are harder to correct later.
A good teacher is so rare, thank you very much
Thanks Mike for having a rerun of the 2017 video - I really need to check myself on #7
Agree except reasons to false cast...Gauge distance, change direction, dry fly (if needed), Get out sufficient line.
Thank you for this last tip!! That changed my cast really
Glad it helped!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing your information! 👍👍🎣
Thanks for pointing these out, Mike. Done all these wrong things for years. Gonna work on proper hauls.
its hard to break those old habits
Thanks for the info! Very helpful!
wow right at the end there. about keeping the hands together. i heard a loud popping sound. the other tips were golden but that last one about how i lose the line loading, well my head finally became unstuck.
yes , that's a big one . I see guides do this all the time.
Man you don't candy coat it do you ? LMAO love it !!!!
"So stop that." Don't know why, but that made me laugh.
Nice. This would have been helpful 50 years ago when I tried to learn how to cast by watching Gadabout Gaddis on a 15 inch b/w television (and obviously no way to record and playback!).
Thanks Mike, I need to learn how to shoot line.
its very easy, stop by one of our workshops and I'll teach you
what a nice video
Right on!
No more drift for me Sir :)
Subtitles in Spanish please! From Neuquén, Patagonia
I will try to learn how to do this.
@@MikeMouradian Thank you very much my friend!
Ngl these tips can really mess up some peoples fly game, I fish extremely hard water and some of the things he is saying that are total no no's, are what gets you fish, here in Ireland anyway
While I won't disagree with your experience in Ireland. Most of these tips come from both the rod manufactures as well as teaching casting for 20years. Casting with bad technique will work but you may find you work twice as hard to do what you set out to do. Also these are tips for casting small flies. Casting heavy weighted flies or large articulated flies do need a set of other tips.
Hi, thanks for your video. Study the 5 essentials in fly casting would be my advice to you. Sorry to say but many of your points are not correct. The most obvious being that the double haul loads the rod. It does not. And rod load is the least part of fly casting.
While I appreciate your comments . I would take your comments in perspective. Most fishing is done in a 20-40 yard range . The physics of that are very different from distance casting. These tips are for casters who don't have good form. After you master good technique then you can go after distance. Also I would argue accuracy is more important than distance.
*
Sorry, but the Bible under the arm method is absolutely not necessary! It is just the “traditional” method!
I have been fishing for 63 years and fly fishing over 50! I am self taught and have developed my own casting
method! I can put my flys right where I want em to go usually within a foot and have caught thousands of trout!
I have tried the book under the arm method and find it inferior! There are many ways to skin a cat. Accurate casting,
under your control is much more important than distance any day of the week! The further you cast the harder it is to
set the hook!
Always keep twenty feet back from the water and flick your first casts so the fly(s) land gently only a few feet from the bank!
You won’t scare the trout there by casting over them or walking right up to the water and as they flee in terror scare the trout out farther!
A scared trout is very hard to catch and often some of the largest trout are right beside the bank! Experience is the best teacher!
I started trout fishing when I was five.
While I agree that there is no right way to cast, if you learn from some basic fundamentals you can then learn to correct problems later on. I teach many workshops and beginning classes. I see these problems in folks that have been fishing for years. After making them aware of some of these faults and the cheats they use to compensate they progress rapidly. It also gives them the tools to adapt to different situations. Here in Michigan, one starts out fishing for trout in the spring, then moves to Bass, Carp, and Pike in the summer, Salmon in the fall and Steelhead in the winter. Even Tiger Woods started over with his swing when he reached a plateau
@@MikeMouradian Nothing wrong with checking out fundamentals as you say, using and adapting what you find useful and discarding what
what is not! I am in Nfld. where we developed the “riffling hitch” by necessity! Our history of fly fishing goes back hundreds of years, starting with
the British who came here for the cod over 500 years ago! I grew up in the land of Brook trout and Atlantic Salmon. Many believe the hair wing fly
originated here! There were no “ casting” instructors back in the days of my youth! If you wanted to fly fish or tie flys you mostly had to “ figure” it out
and I did!!
In 7 your demonstration didn't match the words, your first cast where fine then you added slack as the demo , confusedI am
Seven is just keep your left hand close to your rod. I also call it the lazy left hand.