Fly Fishing in Windy Conditions - How-to Article

[Kevin]

Fly Fishing: Playing the Wind

Nothing ruins an otherwise perfect day of fly fishing faster than a strong wind.

Wind knots, inaccurate casts, and hours of fist-raising cursing of the skies can lead you to ask “Is this really worth it?”

I know the feeling. Many a spring days I’ve had flies selected, rods rigged, lines cleaned, lunch-packed and truck gassed ready for a full day on the river only to walk outside and get punched in the nose by 25 mph gusts.

Unfortunately, this is typical for spring in Arkansas. However, by no means does this mean you have to stay home.

Just a few simple tips can remedy the frustrations of fly fishing on windy days and lead to success on your favorite trout fishing waterway. Today, I’ll cover casting with pesky crosswinds.

Crosswinds
Crosswinds consist of any wind that is blowing from your left or right side, as opposed to in your face or at your back. If you’re a right-handed caster, the easiest way to cast with crosswind conditions is to position yourself so the wind is hitting you opposite of your rod side.

Why? With the wind hitting you on your left side (if you are a right-handed caster), it blows the line away from you instead of into you. Trying to perform a normal four-part cast with a crosswind from your right side would greatly increase the chances that your leader/tippet would become tangled; that you would lose momentum on your backcast; and maybe most important,  that you would get whacked in the head with your own line and fly.

Here are a couple of alternative casting styles to fly fishing in the wind.

Sidearm Cast - If the crosswind is particularly strong from your left side, don’t try and fight it. A heavy crosswind will change the plane of your line, so your backcast will be a little bit more to your right side than you’re used to (as opposed to straight back behind you). That’s OK. Adjust by converting your regular casting motion into a sidearm casting motion. Everything is the same accept you will tilt your rod to a nearly horizontal plane on your right side, and then begin your forward and backcast as usual.

Off-shoulder Cast (also called back-hand cast) - Sometimes positioning yourself so the crosswind hits you on your left side is just not an option. When you have a right side crosswind, you’ll want to try an off-shoulder roll cast. With the rod straight up in the air, tilt it over your head at an angle so that the tip is pointing over your left shoulder on your downwind side. Push your rod elbow slightly out to the right, and bring your hand in so that your forearm/fist is now on an angle, pointing toward your head. Then perform a roll cast.

Because of this new rod angle, you are now basically casting from the left side, but still using your dominant right hand, and the wind will blow your line away from you.

With the next article covering fly fishing in the wind, I’ll discuss casting into headwinds and against tailwinds.