wrist action

[fish0n]

How much wrist action is involved in fly casting? I am young but I do have some kind of Carpal tunnel/Arthritis in my rod hand. How much of a problem will this be?

[TroutGirl]

Well, there is some wrist action. Joan Wulff wrote a good book on casting. Mostly you want to be using your shoulder for the bulk of the work. You do use your wrist for the follow through and final placement of the fly. You'll also use your wrist for mending line. There are some good videos at most of the libraries. You might go to your library to see if they have a casting video.

You might want to take a casting class before investing in all of this stuff. Unfortunately, fly fishing is not cheap to get into. Its worth it to watch the club schedules for workshops and stuff so that you can learn from other flyfishers and maybe borrow equipment during the workshop. I've learned alot just borrowing someone elses setup for a few minutes during a class. Until you have a chance to use a few setups, all the information about "fast" and "slow" and loading the rod, and the "stop" will not make as much sense.

I'm sure there's more than this, but upcoming events

fly tyers rondivous in Troutdale on next Saturday
Sportsmans show with casting ponds and instructors the 1st weekend in February

[drbfish]

use your other arm! some people find it easier to learn the fundamentals of fly casting with their left arm because it does not have the years of muscle memory from casting a spining rod. This summer I taught my self to cast with my left hand up on my spey rod and after a bit it is second nature (ok, not second nature but I am getting pretty comfortable with it).

[Siwash]

Wow, interesting, never heard that suggested before but I guess it makes some sense. Except in my case, my "off" shoulder is already crap from thousands and thousands of yards grinding along in my former life as a swim team monkey... trouble even lifting it over my head for routine tasks like washing my hair. Can still crank small circles around waist level just fine, though.

The issue I do have on the casting side is less wrist, but more hand... feels like my grip is getting arthritic. My Mom's fingers are looking pretty gnarly these days, so I fear my digits may be doomed to a similar fate.:(

[TroutGirl]

Good Suggestion DRB

Doc told me to start fishing lefty too, cause my shoulder is messed up. A couple weeks ago, I was on the back of the boat on the yak and it really did work best for me to fish left handed. A couple hours and it was nearly as good as my right hand (and that does say something about how badly I cast. :( ) It was good to be able to switch off. It is awkward when suddenly I have a fish on, but I figured that out too. Tending line with the right hand and casting with the left is interesting. Now I have to work on mending that way.

Yep, and at the bamboo rod festival, the guys trying to fix my bad cast with my right arm started me over on my left arm. Left arm casts much more the way I'm supposed to. Right arm needs to learn the correct way from the left.

So complicated when you learn with bad technique in the first place.

[Riverkeeper]

Trying hard to refrain from humorous but off color response...:grin:

[gimmeumpqua]

Do yourself a favor and start out with a spey rod. It's easier than single hand rods, extremely relaxing and addicting, and much easier on the shoulders and especially the wrist.

Kurt