Belgian Fly Fishing Casting

Belgian Fly Fishing Casting

A two-plane cast benefits you fish heavy flies, sinking lines, tandem rigs, and big strike indicators

HIGH WATER ON IDAHO’S Big Lost River was forcing me to play a game I don’t usually enjoy. The fish were deep and stodgy, and that they wanted something dead-drifted. Their message was clear : No streamer madness, no hopper-dropper today ; just tie a stone fly nymph for an anvil and feed us ! So out came a size 6 Kaufmann’s Stone and my biggest strike indicator. I rigged in the 6-weight rod, dusted off my Belgian cast and started catching fish.

Keep It Moving

The Belgian cast differs by 50 percent important ways coming from the technique that almost all beginners learned on Day One. First, it‘s a constant-motion cast. The rod never stops until it’s time for them to lay the cast down, and throughout the stroke the rod is usually loaded. Second, the rod doesn’t move inside a straight line or via a single plane. Instead, the backcast is consciously made inside a more horizontal plane compared to the forward cast. Since the rod rounds and blends the boundaries between backcast and forward cast, the Belgian is rounded in each and every way possible. Mel Krieger aptly calls it a “pull-around, swing-around” cast. It‘s this roundedness that gives it great grace and justifies associations with exquisite Belgian chocolates.
I had to dust off my Belgian cast upon the Big Lost because I don’t often hurl heavy artillery, for example Kaufmann’s Stones, at trout. But it’s the ideal cast for ultra-heavy flies. It’s also the cast of preference for heaving a sinking shooting head. To cast heavy flies and dense lines, you‘ll need an open loop, constant tension upon the rod, and also the somewhat horizontal backcast to stay the fly away from the head. Even though you haven’t heard about the Belgian cast before reading this article, you could have subconsciously devised something adore it in an effort to cast these dense flies and lines.

.

You could have heard about this cast by other names, for example oval, elliptical, tension, or circular. They’re all synonyms to the Belgian. Increasingly more beginners are learning it lately in an effort to cast the two-fly rigs which have become ubiquitous on some rivers. By opening the loop and producing the backcast more horizontal compared to the forward cast, you reduce the quantity of tangling that these rigs invite. The longer your leader and lighter your trailing fly, the greater you’ll need this cast, while you will if you‘re fishing with nearly any strike indicator. Heavy flies, dense sinking lines, strike-indicator fishing, and two-fly rigs all have this in common : they‘re hostile to tight-loop casting, using its precise stops and crisp turnover. Instead, they work best with wide loops and languid turnover. At this the Belgian excels.

Getting Started

Like a reference point, start by making some 40-foot pickup-laydown casts with your normal casting style, the way in which you’d cast a dry fly. Make sure to result in the forward casts stop using the rod pointing well above the horizon. Now have the difference from the Belgian cast. Throughout the backcast, result in the rod move as if you’re swinging a searchlight just above horizontal, through some nearby trees. Throughout the forward cast, swing the searchlight with the sky almost directly overhead. (Keep your rod tilted a little off-vertical while you come forward to avoid hitting yourself inside the back from the head along with your practice-yarn fly. ) In an effort to have a smooth transition given by a near-horizontal backcast to some near-vertical forward cast, you’ll discover you can‘t have a crisp backcast stop. Do 10 or 20 of those along with your eyes in your forward cast. When the forward cast fails to extend, it might be because you have to stop the forward cast using the rod pointing in the tops from the trees instead of in the trunks.Do this again drill of 10 to twenty casts, however this time close your eyes. You ought to think that your rod is in constant motion. It‘s also wise to have the line’s tension upon the rod through the entire stroke and the rod doesn’t unload until after your forward stop.

At this stage, experiment using the scale the loop. Try this by imagining that the rod is drawing the edges of the giant egg —it’s three feet long — that levitates rod-side using the long axis inside the direction from the cast. Your backcast draws the surface edge from the egg and also your forward cast draws the edge nearest your ear. To alter the scale your loop, result in the egg skinnier or fatter. For very heavy flies or bulky strike indicators, you’ll result in the egg very fat. When fishing a hopper having a small, light nymph trailing behind, you’ll only got to draw a skinny egg.

The Belgian is likewise useful on breezy days. You should use it to pickup and backcast a hopper-and-dropper almost horizontally in your upwind side and produce the forward cast using the rod butt traveling over your head upon the forward cast. By pointing the rod downwind throughout the forward cast, you prevent the flies from blown into you as well as rod throughout the forward stroke. So try some casts in which the egg now sits on top of your respective head. Result in the backcast down the egg’s upwind edge. Result in the forward cast down the egg’s downwind edge, along with your tip-top passing over your left shoulder. If you’ve never cast this manner before, using the rod butt traveling over your head throughout the forward stroke, this cast will feel quite awkward initially. However, I promise that after about 20 or so repetitions, It‘ll become more comfortable.

Here is definitely final drill : While you round the rear end from the egg from backcast to forward cast, elevate your rod hand gently and slightly by lifting your elbow. This is known as drift. It’s a technique normally utilized in distance casting since it lengthens the forward stroke, and that is useful during a Belgian cast. Everything rounding from the loop slows through loop because it unrolls in back. To ensure that you’ve pulled all of the slack from the line following the backcast’s lazy turnover, a longer forward stroke will assistance to straighten the line fully in front. This really is especially helpful when circumstances warrant by using the Belgian but you have to really push out far to attain the fish. Drifting will always help your distance, and we’ll view it in additional detail inside a future post.

The Belgian cast can help you in lots of situations, from technical trout fishing with strike indicators to launching huge flies inside the surf with shooting heads. It might not have derive from Belgium but it’ll certainly actually make you a far more worldly fly fisher.

Writen by Macauley Lord