How to Roll Cast – Fly Fishing Video Tips

If you want to know how to roll cast in fly fishing, consider these tips from the pros to make your casting more effective.

Basic Roll Casting

From MCI Fly Casting, this clip was filmed in slow-mo plus set to music (without verbal instruction), this under 2:00 minute video gives a great visual overview of the basic roll cast, with different camera angles to illustrate a quality cast.  The steps are clearly illustrated:

• Loading the rod
• Stop and drift
• Create D-loop
• Start forward cast (and shooting line)

Roll Casting Techniques

From Fishhound, this clip under 6 minutes covers:

• Comparison to spey casting
• Anchor point on water
• Good illustration of body mechanics and position
• Overhead drone shots
• Common problems / mistakes and how to avoid
• Snap-T to reposition line
• Illustration of roll cast while fishing with a trout landed at the end

Accurate Roll Casting

Yet another quality video by the Orvis fly fishing school, in less than 4 minutes:

• Body position for accurate casting
• Practice pause before casting
• Stop rod tip at eye level, don’t push into water
• Illustration of each step
• How to practice, key tips

Mastering Roll Casting

From Bumcast in association with OnTheFly Productions, this video on Mastering the Roll Cast has a bunch of great clips that cover not only the basic roll cast, but how to extend it:

• Best description of why roll casts are important of any film we’ve seen – many many reasons
• Single vs. double handed roll
• Practice on grass before water
• D-loop transition to forward cast (like standard roll cast)
• Start slow, finish fast
• Pointers and tips, such as bigger D-loop fir more line
• Larger D-loop with a haul on backcast

Roll Cast And Its Variations

From Mad River Outfitters, a mid-western fly fishing outfit, this video is about 15 minutes long, covering not only the basic cast in more detail than most videos, but also variations:

• Basic roll casting, similar to previous videos above
• Break wrist to handle larger flies or line under water
• Variation for high stick heavy nymph rig / Euro nymphing
• Cast from downstream to upstream position
• Technique for streamers same as Euro nymphing
• Emphasis on how correct technique makes cast easy
• Variation: Roll Casting Pick Up – strip line in from pile, shoot
• Illustration applied to Bonefish in Bahamas, double haul
• Winter how to clear guides of ice

How To Distance Roll Cast

Another video by well known The New Fly Fisher, this less than 2 minute video shows you how to push the limits of power and distance with roll casting:

• More active line
• Allow line to plant

The Snake Roll Cast

Also by the Orvis fly fishing school, the snake roll cast helps you change direction from downstream to shooting it out in front of you:

• Uses a spey rod to help set up for steelheading
• Lower case “e” (swirl) formation with rod and line
• Accelerate through casting process