Casting to your Unfavored Side
by Captain Jim Barr on 05/02/12
As a fishing guide I constantly see anglers on my boat who are pretty good at casting, as long as the target is to their favored side. Translated, if the angler casts with his or her right hand they can hit targets in front of them and to most locations to their left. However if the water they are casting to is to their right, they are in trouble because they cannot make a backhanded or off shoulder cast. If you add wind to the equation that is a given in most salt water environments, whether on a boat or while wade fishing, the problem of casting to the "unfavored" or "weak" side is made even more onerous.
To be an effective saltwater fly caster, one needs to learn to cast in all directions. The link below will take you to a You Tube video featuring my good friend Peter Kutzer. Peter is on the Orvis fly fishing school staff in Vermont. He is a Certified Casting Instructor (as am I) and in this video he illustrates some of the techniques that a fly caster needs to master to be better at casting at different angles. I have had Pete on my boats in windy conditions and he is a joy to fish with and is the strongest caster I've seen. He can dump an entire fly line to his unfavored side, and do it accurately. It does help by the way to be 6'7" tall, lots of leverage!
