No I am not referring to any of my students over the last ten years, however some have suffered from it.  Widely referred to in the Fly Casting world, “Creep”, is a condition which plagues most entry level Fly Casters, and can progress into Intermediate Level Casters if left un-diagnosed.  Simply put, “Creep” refers to angular rotation of the Fly Rod early in the Casting Stroke with little or no application of power.

A number of factors can be looked at which can cause this condition, but is easily recognized by a quick ramp up in the application of power, almost too late, and inefficient loop formation usually ending up on the water in an un-straightened heap.  Sound familiar?  I thought it might, and if you were to view it on the “Casting Analyzer” graph, you would see a shallow hump followed by a relatively long depression, and suddenly the line on the graph would rise significantly.  A sudden surge in power application.

For this writing I will suggest that one of the causes is likely the presence of slack Fly Line somewhere along the length of the Fly Rod or beyond the tip.  Consider this, that if no slack line were present and the Rod was held parallell to the casting surface, a load would be placed on the Fly Rod immediately by simply lifting it.  From this initial lift a smooth application of power could be applied to a point where the Rod should be stopped in either the forward or backcast.  On the “Casting Analyzer” the graph would appear as a fluid continuous upward curve, no rapid rise, indicating considerably less effort to accomplish in effect more work.  Sounds simple, and it really is, however as mentioned, there are a number of other factors that could be involved as well.  More on the subject to follow….  

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