Learn the Double Haul and Improve Your Fly Fishing Skills

Pat Straub

April 26, 2024

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7 min read

Even if you've been fishing for 20 years you can still learn something new every time you go fishing. You may or may not remember a time when an upstream wind or a tailing fish outside of thirty feet made your knees shake. If you know how to double-haul, chances are those things no longer make you nervous, but if you do not know how to double haul, then take some time to learn this valuable skill to increase your success when you are fly fishing near you. ‍

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What is a double haul?

A “haul” in its simplest form, is making a quick pull on the line with your line-hand during the casting stroke. A “double haul” is pulling on the line twice—once at the end of the backcast and again at end of the forward cast. When these two pulls are made during the casting stroke, the resulting increase in a faster flying fly line is called a “double haul.”

How is it accomplished?

Practice, practice, practice—I first learned to haul as a kid. I was sitting in an airport waiting for my charter flight to a small bonefishing destination. My traveling companions were veteran anglers and when asked “how was my double-haul?” I responded, my “double-what?” They treated me like I’d never heard of Brad Pitt standing on a rock shadow-casting. But since part of being a good fly fisher is cherishing the ideal of sharing knowledge, they took the time to show me.

One of the oldest in the group sat me down in a chair. The rods were all packed in the back of the small plane, so we didn’t have a rod to use. He then had me make fists and placed my two hands in front of my chest with my knuckles touching. He told me to make a back cast with my rod-hand, which I did. Then, move my line-hand down to about my belly button, stop it, and then quickly bring it back up to my rod-hand—which was being held near my face where it normally would at the pause on my backcast. Next, he told me to come forward with my rod hand in my forward cast. After stopping on the forward cast, bring my line-hand down again to about my belly button and then back up to meet my rod hand where it was stopped after my forward cast. “Back, down-and-up. Forward, down-and-up.”

Another older angler brought a cold beer and said “with your line hand, be sure to always go back up, so then you can go back down on your next casting stroke.”

“Easy-peasy,” said my initial friend. “Practice this without the rod the whole flight and when you next put a rod in your hand, you’ll have it.”

Why is the double haul so helpful?

Before learning the double haul, I had struggled and avoided some difficult situations. But, my friend who taught me was right—I practiced the “back, down-and-up. Forward, down-and-up” rhythm at length on the plane. Once on the flats, after a few minutes I was casting into the wind. This allowed me to fish through a variety of angling situations that I otherwise would have struggled with. A double haul generates more energy in the cast, producing greater line speed, which makes fishing easier.

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