Pendulum Casts

A Pendulum Cast is a soft cast primarily used for placing the fly under low overhanging bushes. The cast creates a horizontally configured loop that lies under the rod tip and makes the fly travel like a pendulum. The pendulum cast can be very useful on small streams. When the cast is under branches, the loop will often hit the branch, but since the fly is underneath the loop, it will often fall onto the targeted water. When the cast is exagerrated, the line and fly can lay down as in a puddle cast since the fly and leader travel upwards at the end of the cast.

Procedure

Think of the pendulum cast as a variation of the sidecast but softer. The rod is kept in a vertical position with the rod hand low. The swinging movement of the rod tip is in a saucer configuration in which the forwardswing has a small downward dip and the backswing has a small upward arc.
The result should be an upsidedown loop. The smaller the dip, the tighter the loop.