Use: To free the leader and the fly of the possible tension and pull originating somewhere along the line of a straight-line reach cast.

Description: A heap of slack anywhere along the line all the way to the leader.

Execution: After stretching your arm out, slightly raise the rod tip and immediately drop it back to the same height but this time pointing towards the fly and not directly downwards. The idea is to launch a vertical curve that will travel along the line and collapse at some point along that path.

Controlling the variables:

• amount of slack piled up: - this depends on how far the rod tip travels to make the vertical curve. The further it travels, the more slack in the pile.

• distance of the heap from the rod tip: - this depends on how long you wait before flicking the rod tip.
• If you flick it immediately after the reach, the heap will travel down the line away from the rod tip,
• If you wait until the line is almost on the water, the heap will fall closer to the rod tip.

If it doesn't come out right, it's because…

• you haven't practiced the basic reach cast enough.
• you haven't practiced the deliberate heap cast (rat's nest) enough.