Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 9 August 2025
This is the greatest concept in fly casting that you probably don’t know. It will help you solve a lot of situations and why you hit yourself with the fly sometimes. We all know about the 180 degree rule. It’s more like a guideline and the Hedman Arrow tells you when you shall break it and what happens when you break it. I’m quite sure that you have been smacked by the Hedman Arrow a couple of times. Like you have been wanting to make a cast with the wind blowing in to you with no possibility to put the line on the other side of you so you still tries to get away with some sidearm cast to keep the fly far away from you but the fly seem to seek you like some kind of heat seeking bug. The fly gets closer to you than you would normally expect in that scenario, and it might not be the wind it might be something else.
The forward and the back cast draws an arrow. This happens in both the horizontal and the vertical plane so the sum of the two arrows gives the final direction of the arrow. So in the case where you had the wind blowing into you and got smacked by the fly you were probably sending both the forward and the back cast away from you trying to create a bit of extra room between you and the fly. When you were actually directing the fly towards you. You should have been sending the cast a little bit behind you on each cast to keep the fly away from you.
There are some other useful cases for the Hedman Arrow. Making a long cast from a boat? Then you can get stopped by the fly smacking the boat, think of the arrow and lift the fly over the boat. Having some kind of obstacle where you stand or behind you, think of the arrow and keep the fly away from the problems. Ticking the water when waded out? Back cast and forward cast a little down and you will lift the fly away from the water. Getting caught in weeds behind you? Send the back cast low close to the weeds and forward cast a little lower to keep the fly away from the problem.
Some examples:
This will open up the loops. Like the beginner going full windscreen wiper to keep the fly away. But we don’t have slack in our cast, right?, and aren’t just flopping around with our wrist. We have control so we compensate for the wider loops with speed and power. We get the loops to morph. Totally not as efficient as a perfectly 180 proof cast but still good in most of the situations and much more efficient than collecting a stuck fly.
The next time you smack yourself in the ass with the fly you know why. Go out and explore the Hedman Arrow and you will be finding yourself solving a lot of new fishing situations.
Inspiration for this post is
https://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard/viewtopic.php?p=51758 and talking to Stefan about the Hedman Arrow.
Cheers, Rickard