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Fly Casting Skills Development

One of the best ways to improve your fly fishing success is to improve your fly casting skills. Being able to put the fly where it is most likely to find fish or to actually target a rising trout or cruising bonefish will make it more likely to connect. Fly Fishers International (FFI) has been developing the Fly Casting Skills Development program (FCSD) to have a set of demonstrable, real-world fly casting skills for you to work on and master. The program has three levels of proficiency, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, that you can progress through to improve your fishing experience. We have implemented this program at PFF and encourage you to come out and assess yourself against the criteria for these levels. In our program, we provide instruction to PFF members on each of the techniques required for each level. All of the skills are ones that you will find useful in real fishing situations.

Bronze Level

This is a basic foundation of casting skills that you can measure yourself against and work towards whether you have been casting for years or are just starting. The skills for Bronze are the following:

Pick up and lay down the fly to a 4 foot target at 35 feet distance on your dominant side (Right or Left Shoulder)
Pick up and lay down the fly to a 4 foot target at 35 feet on your non-dominant side (over your opposite shoulder)
Pick up and lay down cast in a horizontal plane with the fly landing within 4ft either side of the center line.
Shoot line from 35 to 40 feet to the 4 foot target at 40 feet distance
Hit 4 foot target rings at 25 and 35 feet
Roll cast to at least 35 feet
Cast to 50 feet

All of these casts are relatively basic, but they are an objective, measurable set of skills to achieve. The Silver and Gold levels are increasingly challenging, building on these fundamentals.

PFF’s Fly Casting Skills Development generally meets monthly on the Saturday following our monthly General Meeting. We meet near the parking lot at Erckenbrack Park, Niantic Drive, Foster City, CA 94404, from 10 am to noon.

Please check the Event Calendar to confirm our casting clinic is being held on the Saturday you wish to attend. You must register in advance (PFF members only, no fee charged) to participate so our instructors have an accurate count of attendees. There are NO walk up registrations. If there are no registrations by the Friday evening before the Saturday session, it will be canceled that month.

So come out and work on your casts! It is fun and will greatly improve your fly fishing. You can learn more about the FFI FCSD program here. You must be an FFI member (which PFF strongly encourages) to view or download the casting resources detailed program description and certification requirements for the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.