The majority of fly fishers pursue trout in streams and seldom use a fly rod on other waters or to chase other species of fish. A big part of the appeal of fly fishing for trout is the delicacy and exactness of the sport. We rely on precise movements of the hands to deliver the fly with accuracy.
But as anyone who has read more than a couple of fly-fishing magazines knows, you can fly fish in waters that don’t flow, don’t hold trout, or may even be salty. While there are certainly opportunities to use light trout gear in such places, most of the time, you’ll be working with stronger rods, heavier lines, and bigger flies. You should also expect to have to cast farther.
These factors are going to put more stress on your casting hand. If you don’t recalibrate your approach to casting, your fishing session may be cut short due to soreness or pain. This can put you out of commission for days. Not surprisingly, a number of fly fishers decide this kind of fishing is not for them and return to the trout stream. It doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s Not a Billy Club
Far too many fly fishers use force to compensate for inefficient casting form. This is especially true for men, but women are by no means immune. Many anglers whack away with the rod in an effort to squeeze a few more feet out of the cast. All of the force generated by their large arm and shoulder muscles gets transferred to the rod via the much smaller muscles, joints, and tendons in their hands. Too much force for too long is a recipe for fatigue and injury.
Unless you are an accomplished caster who can cast over 60 feet with relative ease, it’s quite likely you are using more force than needed. Not convinced? I spoke to Bruce Richards, who in addition to being the former line expert with Scientific Anglers, also helped develop the casting certification program for Fly Fishers International. Very few folks understand casting as well as Bruce.
In the early years of this century, Bruce worked with Professor Noel Perkins at the University of Michigan to develop an electronic cast analyzer. This compact little device measures the speed at which you rotate a fly rod. It also shows how much force is put into the cast. Bruce told me it’s typical for intermediate casters to use up to 200 percent more force than necessary. He recounted how one angler was using 450 percent more! Not surprisingly, this is a good way to shorten your time on the water and has the potential to put you out of commission for weeks or months. If you find it difficult to cast more than 60 feet with a 5-weight or heavier stick, it’s time to get some help with your casting.
The good news is the Covid pandemic has made it easier than ever to get expert casting help. Qualified casting instructors are now providing one-on-one instruction through online video platforms. Orvis is promoting this approach through their casting school. This realtime online setup means an instructor can help correct your casting mistakes from the comfort of your backyard, a nearby park, or even on the water.
One of the advantages of good casting form is you can hold the rod quite gently for much of the casting stroke. The only time you need a firm grasp is during the brief power-snap phase on the front and back casts, and even that is likely to be less force than you might imagine. The power snap for a 70-foot cast needs about as much grip strength as a friendly handshake. This is one of the reasons why good casters make distance casting look so easy. A less forceful grip can also improve accuracy, which will pay dividends with shorter casts on the trout stream. A couple of sessions with a casting instructor may be all you need to hone your stroke and save your hands.
Reel Weight
Fly reel technology has come a long way since the “good old days.” Featuring sophisticated drag systems, saltwater-safe components, precision machining, and almost bulletproof coatings, modern reels make old Pflueger and Hardy models seem like crude winches. But while they may have been clunky, those older reels were often lighter than their modern, high-tech counterparts. For single-handed rods, any extra weight is going to put more strain on your casting hand. All things being equal, you want a reel to be as light as possible.
You may wonder what difference an extra ounce or so can make. Perhaps you have even heard that the reel needs to balance the rod. Surely a heavier rod requires a heavier reel? Unfortunately, when it comes to reel weight and rod balance, there are a lot of old husband’s tales out there. I’ve spoken to many expert casters and done more than my fair share of testing and research on the topic of rod/reel balance. The truth is that it’s pretty much irrelevant when it comes to casting modern single-handed rods.
Unfortunately, a number of those beautiful machined reels we purchased a few years back can be a tad heavy. This isn’t too much of a problem if you are chasing tarpon or permit and make a cast only every half hour or so. But if your fishing requires a lot of casting, it’s time to support the economy and get the lightest reel you can afford.
Clean Cork
Run your fingers lightly along a cork grip, and you should feel a slight drag. This friction is caused by the finely textured surface of the cork dragging on your skin and fingerprint ridges. This is what makes a grip “grippy.” Anything that interferes with this skin-to-cork friction will require you to grasp harder to compensate, which can lead to fatigue and soreness.
Perhaps you are the type of fly fisher who feels a rich patina on the grip gives the rod a classy look. Or maybe you have had the cork sealed to help protect it from damage. Unfortunately, both of these will reduce the friction between your hand and the cork. If you can bear the thought of a rod that looks almost new, remove the patina with a toothbrush and some soapy water. If it is particularly stubborn, try some Comet cleanser. Cork sealer is unlikely to succumb to such gentle treatment and will likely require a minute or so of light sanding with 400-grit sandpaper.
Rubber Gloves and Fashion Tape
Most folks cast with their thumb on top of the rod. This generally provides the strongest grasp and is almost essential if you plan on casting farther than 50 feet or using anything heavier than a 5-weight rod. But what if your thumb has limited strength or a painful joint? This is when it can pay to increase the friction between your skin and the cork.
Casting icon Joan Wulff has come up with a great solution. In one of her casting videos, her thumb appears to be sheathed in a rubber finger cot. I suspect it’s nothing more than a thumb (or finger) cut from some tight-fitting dishwashing gloves. This seems almost perfect for anyone who intends to cast a heavier rod for hours on end or who no longer has a viselike grip.
Another option is double-sided tape. I discovered this trick while playing around with some 5-weight rods. The idea was to see how far the rods could be cast and how good they were for accuracy at 50 feet, both of which can be important when you’re working larger rivers and still waters. As is typical for rods of this weight, they were fitted with cigar-style grips. This type of grip is fine for short-to-medium casts, but not so great when you need to reach a fish that’s feeding over six rod lengths away. The front taper of the grip creates a narrow, downward-sloping platform, which makes it more likely your thumb will slip. As little as an eighth of an inch of thumb slip will screw up the casting loop of line coming off the rod tip, affecting both accuracy and distance.
I went online looking for answers. What was needed was something that would stick to skin and cork, but not so securely that the thumb couldn’t be quickly and easily removed when needed. The glue chemistry also had to be skin friendly. The search engine suggested Fashion Tape, a product designed for those who want to wear a plunging neckline without risking an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.
I’m pretty sure the manufacturer never considered marketing Fashion Tape for fly fishing, but when it comes to holding fly rods, this stuff ’s the bomb. Just apply a strip to the top of the cork where you place your thumb and go fishing. When you need to let go of the rod, it’s easy to free your thumb and leave the tape in place. Unless you accidentally smear it with sunscreen, mayonnaise, or floatant, a single strip of tape should last you all day.
Thumb Rest
Perhaps you enjoy saltwater fly fishing or chasing stripers in the Delta or on big lakes. Maybe you get your kicks throwing big bass bugs at hungry largemouths or are one of the few West Coast steelheaders still using a single-hander. If so, you’re likely wielding rods in the 7-to-9-weight range. These brawny batons can throw big flies a long way and connect you with fish that swiftly remove yards of backing. As many folks are well aware, this kind of fishing can be extremely addictive.
Most manufacturers fit these rods with a full Wells grip. Unlike the cigar-style grip, the cork on the full wells is flared at the top, which helps stop the thumb from slipping down onto the rod shaft during casting. The larger diameter also creates a slightly wider patch of cork for your thumb to press against, which helps reduce lateral slip. If your hands are in good shape or if you seldom need to cast far, a rod with a full Wells grip should answer all your needs.
If your hands aren’t as strong as you’d like or if you need to make a lot of long casts, you should probably expect some issues with hand fatigue. One obvious sign is when your thumb joint or wrist starts to get a bit tender. Unfortunately, by this point, there’s not much you can do other than pop some pain meds and soldier on. The obvious downside to this approach is that it can take several days for your hands to feel free of pain again. That’s obviously not a good option when you’re on a bucket-list fishing trip or the steelhead run has really gotten going.
But fear not, the early signs of fatigue are often written in the fly line. If you notice that your distance is creeping downward or the casting loop hooks to one side or even gets kind of wiggly, it’s an indication your casting hand is getting fatigued. This is when it’s a good idea to take a short break from casting or at least power down your casts.
Of course, a better solution is to avoid hand fatigue in the first place. I spend a lot of time fishing lakes, estuaries, and the surf with 8-weight and 9-weight rods. This wasn’t much of an issue when I was young, but these days, fatigue and discomfort can be a problem. It’s especially noticeable when striped bass move into the surf to feed on baitfish. These magical events may last only a few days, so local anglers tend to make the most of them by fishing long and hard. I certainly do.
Last summer, the beaches from Santa Cruz to Monterey were home to schools of stripers harrying mackerel and sardines. Watching schools of large bait being chased by dozens of striped bass is quite a spectacle. Unfortunately, a lot of this action was taking place hundreds of feet from dry sand. Even the guys throwing heavy jigs and metal lures were having a hard time connecting. But every so often, the baitfish would come within 80 feet of shore, and it was all hands on deck. The action would last anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours. It quickly became apparent that you needed long casts and big flies to interest these fish. As you might expect, maniacally casting big flies for an hour or more can quickly tire your hands. Somehow I managed to calm down enough to pay extra attention to my casting and my hands. I noticed my thumb was moving slightly off center during the power-snap phase of the cast. Just a few millimeters of misalignment was enough to make the casts shorter and less accurate. Even a full Wells grip wasn’t enough to counteract this problem.
It didn’t take long to recall that Lee Haskin had shown me a grip modification that helped stabilize the thumb. This simple alteration was achieved by sanding a flat spot into the cork where the thumb rests. This was back when my hands were still in good shape, so I didn’t understand its true value.
Lee got the idea from his friend the late Del Brown. Del probably won’t need introducing to many readers. It’s fair to say he pretty much revolutionized fly fishing for permit. If Del did something, you can bet it was well thought out and had proven itself on the water. I’m not sure if Del came up with this idea or if he borrowed it from someone else. Joan Wulff had worked with Winston rods to produce a rod with a grip that had a similar modification. It’s quite possible she got the idea from Marvin Hedge, the competition fly caster who introduced the world to the double haul. Hedge even has a patent for a thumb rest that fits into a specially made grip. Whatever its provenance, the fact that some of the world’s top fly fishers and casters have embraced the modification suggests it has real merit. Intrigued, I set about modifying an 8-weight rod. I placed my hand on the grip and traced a line around my thumb. A few minutes of judicious sanding produced a flat pad that looked like the one on Joan Wulff ’s rod. I took the rod to a local playing field, and the modification quickly proved itself. The thumb was completely stable throughout the casting stroke. Indeed, the alteration seemed to keep the thumb aligned with the rod shaft throughout the power snap. I deliberately reduced my grip on the rod to see just how gently the rod could be held and still make long, accurate casts.
That little experiment was a real eye-opener. It almost felt like I was casting a 5-weight. I then took the rod to the surf to see how well it performed when things get wet and wild. It passed that test with flying colors. I don’t have a quantitative way of measuring how much less grip was needed, but it was significant. I was so impressed that all my 7-plus-weight rods now feature a thumb rest. It’s quite easy to do this modification, but if you are leery of DIY, contact a rod builder. You can also contact Lee Haskin at gurglersonline.com if you would like the Del Brown version.
There’s a lot of exciting and challenging fly fishing beyond the trout stream. All you need to do to make the transition simple and painless is invest a modest amount of time and money on your casting and some simple gear mods. Why put up with the crowds on the stream, when you can hook all kinds of fish in places that seldom if ever see a fly fisher?
