Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre

The Roll Cast: with Video Download @ bottom


Step 1: To begin the Roll Cast point the rod tip at the fly line and remove as much of the slack as possible. You don't want to start with a large belly on the water. You can see from both views that the line is fairly straight.


Step 2: Start lifting the rod to a position roughly about one o' clock on an imaginary clock face. You can see the rod is at about eleven o' clock now. This should be a smooth lift.


Step 3: Stop the rod at the one o' clock position with the hand at about the height of your head. Allow the line to droop behind the rod as can be seen in the side on view. This is the line we are going to use to cast the rest still on the water.


Step 4: Chop down in a cutting/pushing motion to load the rod. Loading the rod is very important as is coming to a sharp stop at about the ten o'clock position to allow a good transfer of energy from rod to line. It will take you a few attempts before you start to get the hang of this action.


Step 5: The loop flows through the line picking up the slack off the water and laying it out flat in front of you as you can see in this photo. You can get a very gentle presentation with a little practice.

The Roll Cast The Roll Cast is something that we all must learn at some stage. It allows us to throw a line where no backcast is possible either because of a strong tailwind, trees or some other obstruction being behind the angler. It is also used a means of picking up the line for a traditional cast in situations too numerous and detailed to mention here, we call this a roll cast pick up. The roll cast can be used in all sorts of fishing conditions but we recommend that you practice it on stillwater. Find a small lake, pond or swimming pool and practice. The reason we want to learn it on water is because you need some tension on the line to perform it correctly (line on the water). A stillwater is ideal as it allows you more control when initially learning this cast not having to contend with currents as well. As you get better at this cast practice shooting some line as well. Simply release line from your line hand as the loop rools away from you. This will take a little more time to perfect but it does not take all that long to gain a feel for when to release the line with the left hand (right hand caster). Download the video for some footage of roll casting on our lodge lake.

Click Here to Download the Roll Cast Video 2.64 Meg