reviews

Troubleshooting the Cast

Reviewed by Scott Richmond

Troubleshooting the Cast, by Ed Jaworowski. Published by Stackpole Books. 88 pages in an 8.5 by 11 inch format. Black-and-white with line drawings, (no photos). $12.95 from many fly shops or order on-line (google title and author).

t's difficult to learn fly casting from a book. That's why I recommend beginners go to a fly shop and get one-on-one instruction from an expert who (it is hoped) is also a good teacher. A person with average natural talent can usually learn to execute a decent 40-foot overhead cast and a workable 30-foot roll cast in an hour or two. Then they just need to get out on the water and do it.

But after they've been casting awhile, some problems don't go away: tailing loops, waves in the line, casts that collapse, line wrapping around the rod butt. Some anglers just live with these problems. Some live with them for years. And even expert fly fishers can have annoying little glitches in their casts-and either accept them or learn to work around them.

However, no matter how long you've been flinging a fly line, Ed Jaworwski probably knows how to fix your casting problems and bad habits. Jaworwski has spent years teaching fly casting to the full spectrum of anglers, from neophytes to old hands. And, to paraphrase the blues song, "No one knows the troubles he's seen." His philosophy about correcting casting problems is that the instructor must be able to duplicate the problem. Then he or she can understand both its cause and its correction.

He states in Troubleshooting the Cast, "I am convinced that the road from minimal competency to maximum proficiency is based on understanding the 'why' of each cast. . . The caster must know what he wants and when he has achieved it or not. . . Calculate your casts in a cold, analytical way. What do you want? Do you want the line to go straight or curve? Do you want the loop narrow or open? Once you know what causes these and many other things to occur, simply practice what is necessary to produce the effect."

Jaworowski goes on to explain four principles of good casting. Then he enumerates 32 common casting faults and their solutions. For each fault, he describes the problem, its cause, the solution, and (sometimes) a few additional comments. Two pages are devoted to each problem/solution, with simple line drawings illustrating each one.

The casting problems that Jaworowski focuses on include tailing loops, collapsing casts, shock waves in the forward cast, line tangling, line wrapping around the rod butt, and so on. Not all problems are caused by casting faults. Some are the result of wind or other factors. But regardless of the source, Jaworowski finds a solution and describes it in clear, succinct language.

There are probably a few fly casters out there who would not benefit from this book. They have first names like Lefty, Mel, Joan, Steve, Gary. But the rest of us will pick up anywhere from 1 to 32 useful ideas about fly casting. I know I did.

I'm not sure that the book would not have been more useful with quality photos and a companion video, ala Mel Krieger's classic The Essence of Fly Casting. But that would have upped the price of the book, and the drawings are adequate. Certainly Trouble Shooting the Cast is within the price range of most fly fishers and is a useful addition to any angler's library.

Bottom Line: Good technical advice for solving problems, but you'll always do better with one-on-one instruction. Reviewer Rating: 3

Scott Richmond is Westfly's creator and Executive Director. He is the author of eight books on Oregon fly fishing, including Fishing Oregon's Deschutes River (second edition).

Uploaded 07/05/2000.

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