bigfoot1 ~

Reread Sayfu's post. There are several very important stages to the efficiency of fly line in the distance cast. That's right. Break the cast down into stages, think about each stage and put them all together. Especially "the drift" stage. His word is Gospel.

Here's another rod building discrepancy in the engineering concepts of the mass produced fly rod. Used to be, you could find the first three guides from the cork were of the complete ring & bracket style, or stripping guides.

St. Croix takes the drag coeficient out of some of their rods by offering the first 2 guides to be just that...stripping guides. Check out the business end as well and you will find larger diameter snake guides as well as an over-sized tip top on several of their higher end rod series. They know the importance of applying the physics of line speed LEAVING THE REEL as well as line speed LEAVING THE ROD.

Because a guy can never have too many rods, I shop new products every Convention Season in January. Just to see where rod building is going.

When you know what you want and are pretty damn handy with tools, build your own rod from a blank. To date, there are seven (7) rod blank suppliers in Washington State alone.

This way, you engineer the rod you want, be it distance or presentation.

Could it be we have another budding Lee Wulf...

Fly casting...Here is another perspective to flycasting. Most of us look at it as a unique exercise unlike anything else. That is why I attempted to make it relate to using a bat, and the similarities. It is very much like a THROW. If you think of the throws that baseball players make a second baseman fielding a ball near first base, makes a shorter stroke throw to first, and a 3rd baseman fielding a ball deep in the hole gets his arm back, and makes a longer stroke throw to first, as does an outfielder making a throw. If you take your arm back as if making a long throw, it is very much like where the wrist should be on a longer cast. Distance casting has been described as a throw. And that is a big reason why tailing loops happen.... a caster trying to make to long of throw with too much line out using a short stroke. The length of drift lengthens the stroke for the necessary length of cast. A short cast needs very little drift, and little wrist power, and no need to over power tipping the rod tip over, and down, thus the need for Deeter's rubber band practice devise.

I would just guess that the travelling up is not the problem causing the tailing loop. It is not starting out low enough with a straight enough line to start...when the rod moves several inches the end of the line should move, thus you are using the entire stroke to cast the line. 2nd, you probably are pulling the line too far before forming the loop...pull, wrist power(without stopping the arm moving) forming the loop, and then moving to a stop...NOT PUUUUUUUUUUUULL, and then the power stop, which opens up the loop, and sends the line DOWN rather than up the angle on the plane you chose to cast on... / , or ----(if I could angle those dashes up slightly) are both up the ladder planes. The visual image is where the end of the line is on the water. The first steep angle is the plane when the end of the line isn't that far from you, and you want to cast short. The 2nd is when the line is farther out, and the angle becomes narrower, and up and back on that narrow plane. But both casts have to be made going up, and ending up, not up, and then down off the end of the ladder. And you are right, it is very difficult to evaluate when you can't watch the caster..Many times though the big loop is caused by the newbee not moving all the parts...the forearm, the upper arm and the shoulder moving the rod tip up and back... they are too restrictive, and stop the arm, and just roll the wrist. You couldn't get the ball from third to first doing that, and you can't make a good cast doing that either. I describe that as throwing like a girl, which in today's world is not very politically correct.

The fun part is the learning never ends hopefully. I am now just learning the spey casting concept, and then also applying it to my one handed rods. The knowledge and skill of creating a loop of line behind the rod a distance with the fly on the water(the anchor) out in front of me creates a very efficient, and effective roll cast loading the rod much better than the one handed rod concept of bringing the line back even with rod when making a roll cast. I am like a kid with a new toy watching that line roll out there. How long to cast decently? I had a job where casting good gave me more credibility because I got into flyfishing schools. That was the early on motivation. Not only casting good, but being able to understand the mechanics, and being able to describe them was all part of it. And I've changed that description over time. Early on, and for many years, I was very frustrated with the description many used, and still do use, of "moving to a power stop without using the wrist until the end of the stroke. Very difficult to prevent the big open loop, and line, and fly being sent to the ground using that description.