Fishing can be a funny, and unpredictable experience
You don’t need a perfect cast to catch a fish, you don’t even need a “good” cast, but understanding how to get a good cast on a tenkara rod will open up more opportunities to catch fish.
I wrote about the advantages of tenkara in a previous article, which you can find below…
Being able to take full advantage of the benefits that fishing with a tenkara rod offers requires a “good” cast - that is a cast that accurately delivers the fly in a way that allows us to suspend the majority of the line off the water.
We (the heritage team) are big advocates for practicing casting. We have seen how developing those casting skills can lead to more successful fishing. Being able to make difficult casts, or knowing how to manipulate the line during a cast can allow for an angler to place the fly into spots where other anglers may not be able to, increasing their chances of finding a trout that is willing to take the fly.
Of course, this all comes from practice, and no one angler simply has these skills right from the start. These are built up over time, and it’s important to remember that we all start from the same spot - not knowing how to cast.
Before I go much further, I think it's worth mentioning that, in this post, we are focusing on casting a single fly.
The Fundamentals
All the different casting strokes and skills build off of a basic cast, and good fundamentals. As mentioned earlier in this post, being able to accurately deliver the fly is one of the biggest goals.
To achieve that accuracy, we want to have the ability to cast controlled loops. A small bend in the line will allow an angler to drive a single fly to the target location without much air resistance. When one can achieve this, it’s easy to change the cast to allow for variation in the size of the loop and the speed at which the fly travels to the water.
In order to get a tight loop, we want to be able to load the rod in a way that causes the rod to do the majority of the work. We achieve this through the back cast. With smooth acceleration and transitions, we build momentum that translates to energy stored in the rod blank as it bends, which, in return, flicks the line to the opposite direction as the energy is released, ultimately “slingshotting” the line toward the target.
Learning to Cast
Describing in text how to cast can be a challenging task. Many writers have attempted it, but it truly is something that is best learned in a “hands-on” setting. I remember when I was learning, I didn’t have anyone to show me how to cast, so I had to resort to finding videos online and practicing when I could.
With that said, there are plenty of great videos out there, and plenty of them that show the masters casting during demonstrations at events. In fact, the YouTube channel “Tenkara From Japan” has a video where Dr. Ishigaki covers the basic casting technique. We wrote about this channel a while back, and even made a playlist that organizes the videos in their progression. You can find the post below
We suggest watching the casting video if you’re just starting out, and maybe don’t have someone to learn from in person.
Practice!
The best thing anyone can do for bettering their casting is to practice. Regardless of what skill level you are, taking time to practice will greatly improve your abilities. I think it’s also important to mention that you shouldn’t wait until you’re on the water to practice your cast. You can practice almost anywhere - a parking lot, the park, even at home. The amount of time you put into practicing will pay off in the end!
I’ve seen how starting to understand casting really opens up more opportunities for anglers to catch fish with tenkara. While casting can be a big hurdle when starting out, once anglers don’t have to focus so much on how to get the line to deliver the fly to where they think a fish may be, they get to start directing their attention to learning more and more about fishing through catching fish!
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