My Forearm Hurts -- First Time Caster Needs Some Help

[wily]

i spent about 4 hours opening day with my fly rod. The water at RR was high, and off-color, so I mostly fished a beadhead wooly under an indicator. i also tried a glo-ball, and various other micro-jigs.

I struggled and only hooked one fish on the fly rod. I think i was trying to cast too far. i may have had better luck in a smaller stretch of water and just drift thru the same 10 or 15 feet of water.

it was pretty windy, so detecting a bite...if there ever was one was difficult.

When i got out a lot of line...the indicator would drag, and i had a hard time lifting it out of the water to roll cast.

I have a 8' 5wgt st croix rod, and i found that i could cast a small unweighted wooly bugger without an indicator best. downwind of course.

what caused my forearm to hurt...it's the muscle on the side of my elbow, and top of my forearm???

what indicator do you recommend??? i was using a pinch-on foam type, and after a while it would water log, and be difficult to cast...it would also sink at the end of the drift.

What fly line would you recommend for a beginner??

any tips will be appreciated...thanks

[Danoinark]

Wily, I think your trying to hard. Since your new to casting a fly rod it may be that you are relying on to much wrist and not letting your arm do the work. Think hammering a nail on the forward cast. Let the rod do the work for you. Also you may be gripping the cork to tight. Loosen the grip some and I think that will make a difference. Its hard to tell what might be causing it without seeing your cast, but what I mentioned my be of some help.

As to indicators the palsa ones are fine. You can add a bit of floatant to them to help keep them from taking on so much water.

Mending line is something that you will learn to do and its more difficult with lots of line out.

Cast the distance you feel comfortable with. I start as close to me as possible to eliminate any fish that might be near me, thereby as you cast (fish) further out you don't spook as many fish with the line. As to flies for beginners, the wooley is probably one of the best. You can learn all of the techniques such as dead drifting them as a nymph and stripping them as a streamer. Now take what I say with a grain of salt do to the fact I am not a good caster.

Good luck on your journey.

Dano

[Rusty]

Your grip on the rod may be to tight. Loosen up just enough to keep the rod from rotating, or wanting to rock in your hand when you cast.

Keep in mind, my information is from personal experience and I am not a CCI, nor do claim to be a CCI, just some smoe that likes to fish. The best thing I can recommend is to get a book or two about the basics. One I have a really liked is the L.L. Bean, Fly-Fishing Handbook written by Dave Whitlock. A good casting video would benefit you too.

Line mending: It is always easier to mend with a longer rod. But fishing RR with an 8' rod, you should be able to mend just fine. I like to think of mending as a small roll cast, side armed but back up stream. You want to have your fly line and some or all of the leader behind your indicator (upstream). Same with fishing dry flies. If you are having trouble getting your flyline off the water to make a cast, I suggest that you use your line control hand and pull the slack out of you line as you start to make your back cast. You have to load the rod to make a cast, and if you have a lot of slack when you start your cast, you may not load your rod until you are at the 12:00 or 1:00 postition. That is not good.

What kind of flyline are you using?

[hoglaw]

I used to get forearm and wrist soreness from casting. I'm by no means an expert, but here's what I do:

Pin your bicep to your ribcage. Pretend you are pinching a $20 bill in your armpit and you don't want to let it fall into the current. This will force you to engage your core muscles and shorten your rod stroke. When your arm gets really floppy, you will overuse your arm muscles and your loops will get really big.

Use a soft wrist. Keep the rod from rotating, but allow your wrist to naturally flow up and down, but remember to keep the stroke short, your rod is probably travelling a lot farther back than you think it is. Every now and then, drill yourself on stopping the backcast directly above your head. The rod will continue to load behind you and will actually go farther back than you realize. This is similar to a golfer who thinks his backswing is paralell to the ground when in reality it looks like John Daly.

For some reason, I have always pointed my index finger towards the rod-tip on the cork. This is probably a big no-no among more prolific casters than myself, but it seems to jive with my whole-body philosophy.

[Terry Beeson]

The best advice is to get a lesson, preferably from a certified casting instructor or at least from someone at a fly shop who can give you good lessons. It will make all the difference in the world to have someone show you in person how to better your cast. You'll then be in on the secret that all non-fly fishermen never find out... They think it's hard work casting that thing all day. Truth is, it's very little effort at all when done correctly.

[flyfshn]

Ditto what these guys said.......maybe one of the certified casters on here will chime in with some additional info as well.

I like the palsa indicators, but when it is really windy, I use the small cork indicators (pear shaped) that you insert a toothpick to hold in place......and sometimes you will have to use them regardless of the wind conditions, for heavy/weighted flies.

Fishing in very windy conditions is difficult and like Dano said, start out casting a short distance and continue out, so you do not miss out on any fish in front of you.

[Greg_s]

I learned to cast with a hard cover book under my casting arm. It's the same idea as the $20 bill. As my casting progressed, I learned you really don't need to put a lot of power into casting as the rod will do most of the work for shorter distances. I also use the "thumb on top of the rod" grip as I think I can feel the rod load better.

For indicators, I like the Lightning Strike footballs. They cast well and a small amount of floatant will increase bouyancy by quite a bit.

For casting practice, get a cheap line in the next weight up and cast in the yard. I have a 9' 5wt St. Croix Avid that will shoot a 6wt SA GPX line a country mile and you can really feel the rod load when casting the heavier line.

[Ol Al]

Howdy Black.

The pain you feel is the start of Tendinitis. STOP casting that hard. Get help as Terry said.

Next: You are now using a state of the art casting tool. It does require some adjustment in the casting Stroke. You are no longer casting a weight at the end of the rod but instead a weight 30 ft. long. The first 30 ft of line is the Weight to load or bend the rod. YOU have to get it all going the same direction before you form a loop. The STROKE is the key to getting this done. Move the hand more Do not rotate the rod or wrist until you have made this movement. Check the Terms above.

Now the Two other things you need to learn is to STOP the rod. This is the transfer of energy from the bent rod to the line in the form of a LOOP. I will bet you are throwing the rod. Not stopping.

Of course until you are shown or some one helps this does not make a lot of usable information.

This same casting stroke and stop is what make the loop for a mend. If you are not moving the arm and hand you are losing much of the loading of the rod.

If you can have a good caster or CCI help you will save much pain and aggravation.

ol Al

[Greg]

I'll echo what Terry said - lessons from someone that knows what they are doing are invaluable. I taught myself to cast a long time ago. And I got to where I could cast pretty well. But when my wife and son took the free lessons a few years ago at bass pro the instructor (who was very good) pointed out a lot of flaws in my casting. Things that I still remember and work on. One of the things was that I was gripping the rod too hard which caused me to have some pain very similar to what you are experiencing.

Most any good fly shop will help you with casting. Also bass pro has regularly scheduled casting classes for free.

Regarding indicators - I don't like the palsa ones just for the reason you mentioned - they tend to waterlog and don't float a beadhead nymph very well. I think the best indidcators (at least for me) are either the "football style" indicators with a slit down the middle or the little round or oblong ones with a hole in the middle that you secure with a toothpick. The fooball ones are easiest to reposition but the ones with the toothpick are more durable. I like both in the smaller sizes when using smaller flies. Larger sizes when you use larger flies and/or splitshot.

Just about any good WF (weight forward) fly line will work well. I would stay with one from the major brands - Rio, SA, or Cortland.

Keep at it. The more you cast and fish the easier it will get.

Greg

[drew03cmc]

Ok, let me say this once...this pain is why I fish fiberglass.

Graphite IMO (and a few others I am sure) causes your body to have to do more of the work of casting rather than letting the rod work. These rods (well not the new broomsticks) are designed to flex and load and release the line. What model St Croix are you using? I had an 8' 4wt Premier, and have right now (my only plastic rod) a 9' 5wt Avid. Both load well on short casts with the appropriate line. If it is your first time casting with your first rod, you might get one of the Rio Mainstream lines or the SA Headstart lines. Both have a short front taper designed to maximize the input you give the rod. With fly casting the line makes the difference. Do not cheap up on your line. You can economize on reel most of the time, but rod and line are two essentials.

Now for the stroke, you have been told 10-2 right? That is only partly true. You are stopping the forecast at about 1030ish, and on the backcast, do not pass 1230 or 100. Also, if you watch your line unroll behind you you will see when to start and stop your stroke. ALso, on the stop, you need to STOP. STOP it as solidly as you can. If when you stop, if your hand keeps moving, that is called creep, if it goes backwards on the backcast, it may add distance, but that is not the goal here. When you reposition your hand forward on the backcast, it shortens the stroke of your cast and therefore kills all forward momentum on your cast, killing your loops. Practice, practice, practice.