Dave Southall is always looking for the perfect presentation for his fly. Having discovered the Italian Style of Casting he has added more techniques to his repetoire and his catch rate has risen even further. He shares his findings below.
I am a great believer that good presentation is nine tenths of the game in fly-fishing. I am therefore always looking for better ways of achieving as near as is possible the perfect presentation. Tenkara has resolved many of my presentational problems, as has French Nymphing/Leader to Hand. There is, however, a third technique that has revolutionized my approach to the problem of presentation in challenging situations; that is the Italian Style of casting as taught and developed by Massimo Magliocco, one of the world’s outstanding casters.
I tend to be lazy: I rarely tie any flies that take more than five minutes to construct: I virtually never practice casting: I’m not keen on driving long distances to my fishing: so why have I bothered to learn a totally different style of casting that has involved many hours of practice and that will involve many more hours in the future? The answer of course is presentation. The Italian Style allows me to present dry flies and small nymphs in situations where Tenkara and other styles are ineffective. So why is this style so effective?
- Many of the casts facilitate a fly-first landing. This has several advantages over the more conventional cast where the line usually lands first, followed by the leader and finally the fly. Trout use their pressure receptors on their lateral lines to detect vibrations from food or predators; so will focus their attention on the first thing to land on the water which should be the fly. Furthermore, once they have focused on the fly they are less likely to be spooked by the landing of the leader and then the line. In addition, drag can only set in once line and leader have settled onto the water, so a fly-first presentation delays drag.
- Many of the casts introduce controlled amounts of slack in the leader, further delaying drag. This is particularly true of the Slowed Down Angular Cast and the Overturned Cast. The style was developed for fishing fast, mountain streams with complex flows and pocket water.
Manu Gonetto fishing pocket water on the upper Tees (using the Slowed Down Angular Cast).
- It was also developed to facilitate casting deep under low overhanging trees and the Totally Under the Tip Cast and Low Parallel Cast answer this problem better than any other casts that I’ve seen.
Casting deep under tree cover (using the Low Parallel Cast).
- It generates very high line speed and very tight loops that not only help when casting into a wind, but permit me to use long leaders (5 meters plus) and light lines (3 weights and less) thus helping to reduce the risk of spooking fish. I often fish with a fast action 2 weight rod, 1 weight line and 6 metre leader. I have also found this style to be great when I need to achieve extra distance when casting the mono leaders used in French Nymphing and Leader to Hand.
The result of using the Italian Casting Style.
So how is this style different from conventional casting?
- The casting stroke involves a much-extended stroke that incorporates a drift on both the back and forward strokes. This helps to dampen any rod tip oscillations that might occur after the ‘thrust’ or ‘tap’ phase of the cast. There is no distinct stop and the forward stroke commences immediately after the rearward drift is completed which helps to maintain a high line speed evident in the Italian Style.
- Although this style can be used with most rods the optimum set up is a 7’ 6” fast but progressive actioned 4/5 weight rod teamed up with a double taper 3 weight line and a custom built tapered leader plus tippet at least 5 meters long. The latter helps to dissipate all the energy of the cast so that the fly lands delicately despite the fact that the cast is targeted at the water and not a meter above the water as in conventional casting.
Manu Gonetto with the rod fully loaded during the ‘thrust’/’tap’ phase of the back cast (of the Angular Cast).
The end of the ‘drift’ phase of the forward cast (of the Angular Cast).
This is not a lazy man’s/woman’s casting style. It is a dynamic, high energy, style. Furthermore it involves quite a bit of hard work to learn all the casts. I found that it took me five days of intensive training to break my old muscle memory and get the basic casts up to a passable standard. Having said that, it is well worth the effort if you fish dry flies or very small nymphs and want outstanding presentation in challenging flows. On a trip to the upper Tees, Manu Gonetto and I compared Tenkara with the Italian style (I fished Tenkara) and we caught fish for fish (over 100 each). The two styles were equally effective in the complex pocket water, however Manu had to work much harder than I did. Tenkara is great at close range, when it isn’t too windy and when there aren’t overhanging trees, but the Italian Style when Tenkara won’t work.
FFM UK run frequent courses at very little cost (we are not a profit making organization) and will be doing demonstrations and coaching at the 2015 BFFI Fly Fair. If you are interested in learning more about this style you can:
- Check out You Tube FFM UK
- Check out our Facebook page Fly Fishing Masters UK
- Check out the FFM UK website www.flyfishingmasters.co.uk/
- Contact Philip Bailey (FFM UK’s top instructor) via the website
- Purchase the two FFM UK videos available via the website
We hope to follow this article with follow up articles on the specific casts, their dynamics and raisons d’etre.
Dave Southall is based in Yorkshire and has fished for over 50 years. He is involved in many associations in his area but has travelled across the globe in search of trout. He is also an avid Tenkara angler and is now also an instructor in the Italian Style of Casting.