April 22, 2025
By Ed Jaworowski; Filming by Ben Annibali
EDITOR'S NOTE: Casting master Ed Jaworowski takes a deep dive into the fundamentals of fly casting in his five-part series “Functional Fly Casting,” a series that runs in each issue of Fly Fisherman in 2025. For the full story you can subscribe at flyfisherman.com or you can find the magazine on sale nationwide at fly shops, Barnes & Noble, Hudson News, Walmart, and many other vendors.
This is the third in a series of five videos examining the physics and mechanics that determine the outcomes of all casts, based on Ed Jaworowski’s nearly 70 years of casting, testing, experimentation, teaching, and consulting with physicists, kinesiologists, and engineers.
During a conversation with a physicist 30 years ago, it became clear to me that the angle between the rod and the line coming from the rod tip, at the moment you start to load the rod, is of great importance. It may and should vary, depending on the amount of bend or load you require for each cast. This assumes, of course, that there is no slack in the line, and it applies to both the back and forward casts. At that time, I had not seen any discussion of this in previous angling literature, so I named it “the critical angle” to draw attention to its importance.
A critical angle of 90 degrees—meaning the line is at a right angle to the tip—is the least efficient, mechanically speaking, but may be adequate if you don’t require a deep rod load and are making short casts. The load or bend will be near the tip. On the other hand, a critical angle of 180 degrees—meaning the line comes from the tip in a straight line—assures the greatest mechanical efficiency, because as soon as your hand starts to move and rotate, the load will develop well down into the rod butt, storing more energy.
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There can be no fixed or predetermined positions or “times” such as 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock for starting and stopping the rod. By combining a wide critical angle with a smooth, efficient acceleration and stop, you can make 70- and 80-foot casts with no more effort than you use to cast 30 feet.
In the next video, I’ll be discussing the backcast.
