The fly cast, by nature, is a blessing and a curse—an enjoyable and artistic activity in its own right, yet the utilitarian aspect of the fly cast should overrule aesthetics if your goal is to catch fish over catching a Hollywood director’s eye. Learning the roll cast is essential to having more success on the water. It is not a pretty looking cast so it won’t make the latest popular fly fishing movie, but it will allow you to catch more fish.

The roll cast. This is an essential cast to learn for many applications. It’s performed by slowly bringing the rod grip to slightly above and away from your ear, so the rod tip is pointed straight above your head or angled slightly back toward the sky behind your head. The fly line arcs in front of you with the bulk of the fly line still on the water. The rod is then accelerated quickly to a stop in front of you—at the same point the stop would occur on a normal forward cast.

The roll cast is useful when obstructions occur behind you, making a normal back cast problematic. It’s also helpful when an abundance of slack line has piled up at your feet. By using a roll cast you can uncoil the slack and cast it in front of you, then go into a normal back cast once the roll cast is performed.

Lastly, a roll cast is used to unsnag a foul-hooked fly from an obstruction in front of you—this is called an unsnagging roll cast. It is performed by an aggressive roll cast in the direction of the snag, ensuring you roll cast enough fly line past the snagged fly so the fly is dislodged.

Be sure to read onWater fishing blog posts to plan better and fish smarter and get more out of your fishing.‍

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