Hauling. Everyone wants to do it: truck drivers, YouTubers, people who fly fish…. Since this is a post on fly casting, it will be useful to only some of the latter group and useless to everyone else. My apologies if I have wasted your time.
In fly casting, the double haul is revered by many as The Holy Grail. It is a requisite to cast far, and there isn’t a single great caster who can’t haul.
Back when Chris started to share “one more thing” with me, early on he told me to stop hauling. Well, I don’t remember if he told me to stop hauling, but he definitely said, If you want to be in the top 5% of fly casters, you must be able to cast your double-taper fly line to the 50-foot target without hauling.
I stopped hauling immediately.
Without a haul, however, I was unable to reach the 50-foot target on most casts. And when the fly somehow landed near the 50-foot target, it was never pretty. I remember that first evening because I wondered whether I had joined the top 5% after each of the three times that the fly landed near the 50-foot target. It seems ridiculous now, but if you didn’t know, most fly casters wear rose-colored glasses – including me.
Although all good casters can double haul, all casters who can double haul are not necessarily good. Back then, I thought that hauling elevated my casting. It made me feel like a good caster when, in retrospect, I wasn’t. Unbeknownst to me, it had been impeding my progress.
Double hauling had been masking flaws in my casting. Hauling was removing slack that was normally present in my cast, making my loops slightly less fat and increasing my line velocity… enough to reach the 50-foot target.
Working on my cast without hauling was a critical turning point in my journey. I was forced to address basic casting issues that hauling had allowed me to ignore or had concealed from me. And by solidifying my foundation, I was able to build on my casting much faster.
Sadly, I see my former self at the ponds constantly. Last month, a gentleman approached me who was trying to cast 70 feet. When I asked him what was so special about that distance, he replied, It’s for a certification. Aaaah, I answered.
I should have told him to stop hauling.
Everyone who fly fishes wants to learn how to double haul, and anyone can learn it. However, if you learn to double haul without a sound casting stroke, from personal experience, it will be to your detriment.
At dinner last month, Chris reminded me of this point, A caster using a weight-forward fly line shouldn’t start working on the haul until he or she can get out to 40 feet with a tight loop – without hauling.
Since the goal (before learning to haul) wasn’t clear to me, let’s go over it: one should be able to throw tight loops with high line-tension while the weight-forward fly line is under one’s finger, locked against the cork. The loop should unroll out to approximately 40 feet, and the fly should subsequently hover in midair for a moment. With an appropriate leader, the caster will feel a “bump” as the fly turns over.
You might wonder, Why is the threshold for learning how to haul different when casting a typical weight-forward fly line (~40 feet) compared to a double-taper fly line (~50 feet)? Due to the rear taper, the line in the guides of the fly rod has less mass for a weight-forward line compared to a double-taper. That lower mass makes the rod bend less, and thus, makes it harder to carry the same length of line as a double-taper fly line. This is especially true when using a softer rod.
For typical fishing distances with no wind, the double haul should make a tight loop without hauling simply travel faster so that the fly gets to the target more quickly. It shouldn’t be used to make a mediocre loop look tighter or go farther.
Several months ago, Simon asked me to write a post about the timing of the haul on the front cast. I wanted to recount my story before I answered his question. I’ve also decided to describe the timing of my haul, rather than write what I think that a caster should do. I’m trying to write a blog, not start World War III.
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