Wrote this years ago, but I still use the idea in my demos and clinics. It’s definitely more dynamic when presented live with props, but I think you can get the idea without watching me tear a rotator cuff…

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Why is it that “beginners” always seem to catch the biggest fish of the trip? Through all the wind knots, leaky waders, impaled fingers, and size 8 Royal Wulffs, the beginner still seems to prevail at some point. How can it be? Simple: Beginner’s luck! Well, actually, it’s more like beginner’s casting. That 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock flailing that everyone has had to go through in their fly-fishing life is the secret. How so? Well, huge, open, energy-inefficient loops can make for surprisingly effective (if uncontrolled) Puddle Casts.

Puddle Casts (or Puddle Mends), with their myriad “S” curves, equal reduced or eliminated drag, and thus make for the quintessential “drag-free drift.” While everyone else was casting perfect loops and arrow-straight lines (and getting all sorts of drag), the beginner was flailing away, but often getting little or no drag on the fly. Sooner or later that size 8 Royal Wulff drifted perfectly over the largest fish of the trip!

What can be learned by that? One lesson is that “perfect” loops and “perfect” casts are not what they may seem at first. For absolute straight-line distance, a text-book “candy-cane” loop can certainly be a benefit. For beating drag, however, a loop that’s more open, aimed above the horizontal, and quickly retarded in its forward motion, can be the ticket. The next time you practice casting, try to make a variety of loops on your forward casts that you envision serving differing purposes (but keep your backcasts neat and clean)—it won’t be long before you get back some of that “beginner’s luck.”