Fly Fishing: A Real Pain In the ...

Shoulder, not to mention the elbow and wrists. Turns out frequent fly fishermen suffer frequent pain from their endeavors. An interesting study documenting the upper body maladies associated with fly fishing.

Upper Extremity Pain Seen With Fly-Casting Technique: A Survey of Fly-Casting Instructors

Comments

[Asshat]

Izz true.
Often you'll see a fly fishermen staring thoughtfully into his fly box while standing in the middle of the river - he's not trying to decide what to throw; he's resting & trying to ignore the pain.

I think the growing popularity of fast action fly rods are a good portion of the culprit.
Fast rods require higher line speeds to load properly,all that frantic sawing away has to increase the stresses on one's elbows & shoulders.
The more moderate action rods almost cast themselves to a degree.
The fly tackle industry has'nt done the 'average' fly guy any favors by marketing to him faster & faster fly rod tapers ... the sellers of pain medication may see it differently.

[Paul Roberts]

Agree with Asshat -somewhat. I was going to say it's time to get back to the book under the arm method.

I've fly-fished for a lot of years often logging 14 hour days and never had a problem. But I tore a ligament in my elbow wrestling big bass on med spinning tackle. Go figure.

I think it's less fast fly-rods, than it is the type of fishing. Long casting with heavy rods as in coastal fishing I could see being a problem. But for trout waters? Buy a book, title doesn't matter lol.

[Paul Roberts]

I once had a short lesson with Steve Rajeff at a ff show. We were casting to hoops with a 9wt. I started out by ripping the air with double hauls, and he grabbed my shoulders to stop me and said, "You're gonna hurt yourself." He took the rod and keeping his shoulders square he nailed each ring to 75ft before handing the rod back.

There are times when you need that speed, but as Asshat observes, it's not what's usually required.