Roll cast in horizontal plane for the exam

I'm getting started this year with a new line and rod. We've had beautiful weather the past few weeks with temperatures in the 50's. Wind has been more of an issue than the cold.

In the practice field, I find it easier to keep the rod tip close to the ground with windy conditions. The set up would include flipping the line back into a tight hairpin with the end of the fly line at my side, maybe five feet off the rod tip. Keeping the rod tip low, and without any slack in the line, the forward casting stroke is started and finished in a low plane. The result of this is a straighter path of the rod tip, tighter loop and greater accuracy at the 55 - 65' range.

This technique probably would not work well on water at that distance. So I wonder if it would be acceptable for testing purposes? Or should the rod plane remain vertical for the roll cast?

For roll casting in strong wind, the use of a horizontal rod plane is one good technique, provided you can still make the cast with small egg shaped loop especially if you are casting into the wind.

1. It would not serve as a good way to TEACH roll casting, since it is harder for your students to see exactly what you are doing.

2. This method doesn't tell your examiners that you can make a good tight roll cast loop by conventional roll casting technique, ie. with the rod in the vertical or off vertical plane. That's what they'll be looking for.

In high winds, I prefer to make the, "setup" with the rod tip close to the grass. This low-to-the-ground back cast flip is less likely to blow into a wide loop on the grass behind you which would provide slack as you make your forward presentation roll cast. I, then, switch to an off vertical rod plane to make the presentation. In windy conditions, I'll need as tight a loop as I can make, and I crouch a bit as I do it.

You will have greatest advantage by having that tight loop behind you DIRECTLY behind your casting elbow with your rod pointed way back at the apex of your loop. Now, if you have flipped your loop back with the rod in the horizontal plane, that apex may be 3' to 5' to your rod hand side. When that happens, I take a step in that direction before doing my forward stroke.

Some casters will do that just fine .... then they turn to make the forward cast, creep the rod tip up and forward allowing line to sag from the tip. They don't see it. This does two things, 1.) It provides the very slack they worked hard to avoid, It has to be taken up before the stroke is effective to load the rod. 2.) The creep does what it does with all casts.... it shortens the available stroke and tip travel distance. Sensing this, the caster sometimes applies too much rotational force too early. The rod tip dips and returns (a concave tip path) and a roll cast tailing loop results. Lesson to be learned: Get that rod tip way back AND KEEP IT THERE !!!

Sometimes I'll be coaching a candidate who keeps forgetting that. When that happens, I have him/her get that rod tip way back and down and literally press it into the grass only to be released as the forward cast is made.

OK, I suppose, to use the horizontal rod plane technique if you find yourself in a most unusual situation on your exam where you have to make a roll cast on grass into a spanking hard wind .... but in that event, I'd explain exactly why you have elected to do it that way to your examiners.

I saw Kathy Beck make an incredible distance roll cast using that technique for a competition event a few years back. There, however, she was not being tested and wasn't teaching. Sort of, in competition, "anything goes" so long as you play by the rules. A different situation entirely.

Once in a while, I'll use that strictly horizontal roll cast for short/medium range presentation to a very spooky fish on the flat on a bright sky day. I do it to keep everything low so the fish doesn't see a 9' rod waving in the air.

Let's have some tips and comments from the Group members on roll casting ... especially for the exam.