These are Bill Gammel’s Five Essentials of Fly Casting. Bill is one of the most gifted instructors that I have ever met. Arguably no one has done more for flycasting instruction. A great guy and fun to fish with; I look forward to the day when he and his sons come over to Malaysia to fly fish for Giant Snakehead with me!

Bill has also written two brilliant must-read articles for Sexyloops:
- http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/billgammelsguide.shtml
- http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/adjustmentsonthefly.shtml
In this video you will also find various practise drills:
- Tracking http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/tracking.shtml
- Bill’s “One-foot-at-a-time” practise drill
- Varying Casting Planes.

There are very many important points in this video, I particularly like the last one “Intended Tip Path” (which Bill likes too!):
[small disclaimer: this video was shot some time ago before instructor associations made the requirement that tailing loops be demonstrated using only one fault at a time. The tailing loops in this video start out with too narrow a Casting Arc and then become a faulty force application. Tailing loops will be covered in more detail shortly!]
And finally, if you want to resolve the Five Essentials down to One Essential, then I would agree with Rick Hartman, when he says that the most important Essential is the proper application of force. We will be talking a lot more about Rick later.
Many thanks to Bill Gammel for the incredible service to fly casting instruction that he has given us with his Five Essentials.
Got a question? Need some help? Try here on the Board: http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard/viewforum.php?f=45
Or ping me an email: paul@sexyloops.com