So when you first learn to cast the instructor tells you to straighten out the line, and now that you've learned to cast straight he tells you to mess it all up again. Son-of-a-bitch.

There are a few different techniques used to create a wriggle in the line:

• The wriggle cast (or snake cast) just has to be the obvious first choice. This cast depends on shooting 'S'-shape wriggles down the line on the forward cast. Here's how to do it:

  • Make your normal overhead cast and stop the rod

  • Shoot some line and as the line is shooting out waggle the rod from side to side (a 'waggle' is of course a big wriggle)

  • Lower the rod

  It is very important that you shoot the line as you make this cast, otherwise the fly bounces back and you end up in a right mess.

  The application of the wriggle cast can be taken a stage further in as much as we can choose where to place the wriggles:

  • If you want to form wriggles at the end of the line: waggle early

  • If you want to form wriggles nearer the rod: waggle late

  We can also choose how big the wriggles are:

  • For a few big wriggles make really big waggles - reach from side to side: you can even extend your arm

  • For lots of small wriggles make smaller waggles - or is it wriggles

  This cast works better with a double-taper line, and after a few beers.

  The snake shoot, for want of a better name, follows exactly the same principles as the wriggle cast, but instead of waggling the rod tip, we draw large circles. I can't think of any major benefits but it's more fun.

  The bounce back cast is where we overpower the line just as the leader is turning over: give the line a short sharp pull, either with the hauling hand or the rod tip, and the leader will straighten out and then bounce back on itself creating slack line in the leader.

  The low backcast, as you know (!), also creates slack line. We spend much time, effort and money in learning how to cast properly, and now we have to relearn what initially was seen to be a fault! The low backcast works, of course, because it forces a high forward cast, which straightens out at an angle above the horizontal and descends in nice attractive wriggles. The lower the backcast: the higher the forward and the more slack we create. Which neatly brings us to: