ROLL CAST

Objectives:

Essential cast for straightening slack line
Often used to lift heavy flies and sink tips to the surface
Teaches the key spey casting principles
Note – always keep D-loop downwind of body by altering which shoulder you cast from.

Advantages:

The cast requires very little space behind you.
It’s a great cast to practice the forward stroke, power application and creating narrow efficient loop shapes

Disadvantages:

Mechanics:

Stand in a comfortable position facing your target down stream with the rod tip at the water. Righthand uppermost then right foot forward and vice versa.
Hold the rod with a nice loose relaxed grip
Lift the rod upwards until the rod is at 45 degrees in front of you
Begin a slow backwards movement dragging the fly and line slowly through the water, with the rod angled slightly outwards this is called the sweep
As the D-loop begins to form behind you shoulder lift your upper hand into the key casting position
As the D-loop just begins to sag beneath the rod tip deliver the forward cast.
Forward cast is a smooth acceleration to a positive stop using both hands pushing and pulling the rod through a straight line path.
With forward cast aim close to and parallel to the anchor in front of you on the open side.

Common Faults:

No load in the rod – D-loop has not formed behind the rod tip
Link stick (too much line in the water and the forwards cast results in the line ripping off the water noisily) – Anchor is behind you because the line left the water or the rod tip has gone too far back and there is an insufficient D-loop.
Collision loop (the line collides with itself on the forward delivery) – The forward cast has crossed the anchor.
Large open forward loop shape – The rod tip as travelled forwards in a big arc rather than a straight line path.