by Carl McNeil of On the Fly Productions

like the title says, here’s two methods of of presenting the line with a curve near the end of it. as Carl mentions, the curves can be used to go around obstacles but they can also be used as we would with curve mends to reduce or increase drag during the drift on flowing water or when using the wind to drift our flies on stillwaters. and those are just a few examples, the world of presentation casts is about using your imagination to adapt to the situations at hand.

i’ll most certainly agree that the Underpowered curve is a tricky one to use while fishing and even if there’s no wind. practiced as we may, being accurate consistently just doesn’t happen and even if we get it right, we’re left with an enormous amount of slack that needs to be tightened up if there’s a strike…
however,  i really recommend practicing the Under-powered curve as an exercise in power application control. since most people over-power their casts, this one teaches them to do the opposite !

the Over-powered curve cast is closely related to the Tuck cast but we’ll notice that the difference between the two isn’t just about the plane in which they are performed.
the Tuck is performed with the fly leg parallel (over) with the rod leg and with the Over-powered the fly leg swings under the rod leg. we can see this clearly on the head-on shots.

next time you’re out practicing give these a try and you’ll see how easy it is to make these so-called ‘trick-casts’. if you do them, say, in a yard with bushes and other obstacles (and better yet a cat !) you’ll get the feel for their purpose right away while having fun.

try different casting planes and try to remember that even though it’s called ‘over-powered’ it does say ‘hit it like a brute’