“A good fly-casting instructor will teach you that, when false casting, you should begin each cast just before the previous cast has unrolled completely. This allows you to bring the leader and fly through a smooth change of direction, and it keeps the fly line airborne.”
“However, I see many casters who still do this even when they have to deliver the fly a significant distance: They begin their final forward cast before their back cast has finished unrolling. If your timing is pretty good, and you don’t begin your stroke too soon, you can still deliver a fairly long line this way (provided everything else about the cast is good). Keep in mind, though, that any line that hasn’t unrolled in a cast amounts to slack (Figure 1). You must remove all the slack in the fly line before you can begin to load the rod. If you move the rod tip forward even 3 inches before the rod begins to load, that’s 3 inches you’ve stolen from your casting arc (Figure 2). If you’re only making a short cast and don’t have to shoot line to deliver the fly, it doesn’t make much difference whether or not you allow your final back cast to unroll completely. Casting distance, however, means casting efficiently. Allowing your final back cast to straighten completely gives you the most efficient forward stroke possible.”
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“Letting your final back cast straighten completely does something else that’s very important. The force of the unrolling line, when it straightens, will pull the rod tip into a slight bend; that is, the rod will be “pre-loaded” on the forward stroke. Remember that the deeper the rod is loaded, the more power there will be in the delivery. Letting your final back cast straighten completely gives your cast more distance and power with no additional effort.”
Be careful of your back cast zone. To me, power, crisp, controlled are key words. Stay in that zone and don’t fall prey to distance casting unless you know what purpose it serves at the moment. Covering more holding water? Fishing to a spotted fish? Why are you trying to cast so far? Impressing someone watching?
SwittersB & Exploring 
Knowledgeable and kind yes. Whilst endeavoring to learn the basic skills, with constructive input, then one doesn’t become frustrated. I have found that there are many willing, kind people ready to teach if you are kind and sincere yourself. Smiles beget smiles.
Best wishes,
Jill Grigsby-Bonner
Monticello, Utah
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How far should a cast be? If it is just standing and casting, what is the average?
Tak
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I think your question is rhetorical? I know. It is a frequent addiction for some. However, a few qualifiers: salt water fly fishing is the most challenging casting I have ever encountered because of the wind and distances required, at times, to cast and intercept fish. I was often either casting 25′ or trying for 60′ The efforts for distance and at speed, immediately revealed my weaknesses. Many of my casts collapsed out front with less power because I did not wait long enough on the rear load.
Also, I find on lakes, that distance is sometimes required. I know many tubers just kick about and pull a bugger. However, spot casting to a porpoising brute 60’+ away is occassionally called for. Beyond that, for me, 20-40′ is often quite adequate.
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Thank you for the information. Not just rhetorical. I wondered what the average length of a cast is. I too have trouble with distance casting.
Tak
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http://globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/measure_tape/
Lot of casting styles here: http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/tbasic1.shtml
http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/forum-polls/6846-how-far-can-you-cast.html
Frankly, Tak I don’t know. I entered ‘average fly cast distance’ in a query. Maybe ‘distance’ skewed the results, but every thing was about how do you increase distance. I know most of my dry fly casts are 20-40′, most nymphing casts are 15-25′, most lake casts with an Intermediate are farther (maybe). Steelheading progressively farther with one and two hander.
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Yes, your recent times out on a the river and drift boat provides ample opportunity for others to critique the stroke. Sometimes just a few comments from observers can do wonders improving the timing of the casting stroke. Good luck on those outings.
SB
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