Roll casts (By any other name)

My only question is, "At what point is a single stroke cast no longer a "roll cast"? No offense toward anyone who developed nifty alterations to basic casts (or those who use them on a regular basis), but maybe we need to differentiate the technique by calling it a different name?

It's interesting that I don't see mention of the rod's own inertia as a contributor to loading...

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Good questions ! You bring up some good points. Here is the way I see it. (As a non-engineer or physicist.)

In the casting common lexicon, the term, ROLL CAST is usually used for a family of casts made by starting a forward stroke with the fly on the water in front of the caster such that the fly, leader and some of the fly line yield a measure of resistance or inertia contributing to the bending or loading of the rod to which is added the inertia of line already behind the caster.

Simply put, the idea that we are casting with a load from in front of the caster and one from behind at the same time, serves to separate this family of casts from the straight line, "overhead" casts the most basic of which is the, "pick up and lay down" maneuver.

This is, then, an alteration of a basic forward cast. The alteration is the set-up. The, "different name" happens to be, ROLL CAST.

That is an important thing to note as we teach it, since once the roll cast, "set-up" is accomplished with some line in front and some behind, we can have the caster simply make a good forward, "straight line"cast.

Now, if we really want to get super technical, we may consider that for best results there is a very slight difference in timing of the application of power with the roll cast. (THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING, Jason Borger, p. 156, fig. 9-3b.)

Of course, grass, sand, a wood floor, a, "roll cast tool", a clipboard, etc., etc. can be substituted for water when water isn't available.

As you intimate, any time we bend a rod we load it against its own internal inertia. While I accept that as a, "given", it is certainly part of the equation. We might add, as well, some additional resistance provided by movement of the rod against the resistance of the atmosphere.

The term, "ROLL CAST" may not be a good one...... but has been used for so long, that to change it would, I think, yield some real problems. One reason it is less than perfect is that some casters look at it as requiring a sort of, "rolling move" of the rod and tip thus producing a very wide loop due to the convex path of the rod tip.

Tom White taught me a great way to overcome this tendency when the student could make a good basic straight line forward cast but would achieve a very wide loop with his every attempt at making a roll cast.

He would tell the student: "You are not making a roll cast." Then he'd stretch line out back behind him and simply have him make a good forward cast.

He'd, then, make the roll cast set-up for that student and tell him: "DON'T ROLL CAST. SIMPLY MAKE YOUR BEST FORWARD STROKE."