There are many variations in the styles of the roll cast:

• The standard style taught in the UK is 45 degrees angle at start of backcast, with a wristy stop, attempting to cast the line into the air where it straightens out, hovers some two to three feet above the water, and all lands simultaneously

• The rest of the world seems to have a tendency to rotate the stroke further forwards (starting rod position much nearer the vertical) forcing the line roll across the water as opposed to in the air above it

• Sometimes a particularly useful style is roll casting off the side: the most effective technique here is to keep the elbow close to the body, the forearm vertical and rotate the wrist so that the rod is horizontal. A variation of this is to start the cast with the tip low on the backcast in order to cast upwards on the forward stoke

• Emphasis can be made with the stop component by pulling the tip backwards as opposed to purely stopping, very narrow loops can be formed this way, however a slight change of casting plane between the forward stroke and the backward stop is required to avoid collisions of line and rod

• Using a combination of the last two techniques immense power can be achieved

• There is a direct correlation between the amount of line in the D-loop and the amount of force required to sucessfully complete the cast: the more line - the less effort.

• Narrow loops are formed by straight paths of the rod tip. Controlled open loops can be formed using a circular path of the rod tip, either by turning the rod tip over more at the end of the stroke using the wrist, or by emphasising dropping the elbow more on the forward stroke.