Casting question

This is probably a stupid question but here goes. I noticed on my last trip a week ago that when I was casting on the forward portion, my fly was getting caught in my leader-line loop. It was very frustrating, wasted a cast, as well as time trying to fix it. I messed around trying to find out if I could find anything, but couldn't. I checked out the flyfishing basics and they talked about a trailing loop, is that what this is? If so it looks like I was casting to hard, if not any help would be appreciated.
Drew

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A bum-legged old man and a drunk. That's all you got?
That's WHAT I got.

If its not a tailing loop its real close to one. The same thing happens to me when I attempt to change the direction of a cast in mid flight (not a good idea) the line hits itself and the logical place to tangle is in a knot (or in this case a loop).
When I practice casting I mostly concentrate on forming loops. When you know how to form a perfect loop you will learn how to stop it from tailing. HTH

[This message has been edited by Buzz (edited 20 February 2005).]

You definitely have a tailing loop! The good news is, it's an easy fix.

Drew,

Quick question... did you get those tailing loops during the false casts, or predominently on the delivery cast?

Cheers,
Hans W


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=== You have a friend in Low Places ===
http://www.danica.com/flytier

Hans,

I sometimes try to overpower my delivery cast and get a tailing loop as a result. Now that I'm aware of it I pay more attention....Please go ahead and explain the difference as to why you inquired whether it was a flase cast or the delivery cast...Always looking for a way to refine my casting.

Have a nice day,

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John G.
Albuquerque, NM

Zach,

You wrote:

"As the cast is completing, the rod butt should rotate upward, as though the axis were at your hand."

But in the diagram, it looks like the rod butt rotates downward. Did you mean to say "upward" or am I missing something here?

Hans,
I try not to false cast too much, it was usually on the delivery, and it wasn't very often, which makes me think there was a difference on those casts. Thanks for all of the help, I am going to try to work on it and see if I can force myself to get the trailing loop, then see what I did.

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A bum-legged old man and a drunk. That's all you got?
That's WHAT I got.

Drew,

I expected as much. Somehow we have a tendency to alter our casting stroke slightly when we set up for the delivery cast. We often try just a little bit harder, make the loop just a little tighter, or give it a tad more oomph. You may also notice that you may be one of many who ends up with a straight arm extended in front of the body after the delivery cast, a surefire sign of pushing the rod.

Something to test while you are practicing, just make a couple false casts, and then almost at the very last instance, 'change your mind' and have that false cast extend into a delivery. The chances of this 'regular' cast having a sudden tailing loop is very remote.

Next you can work on ironing out those pesky differences ;-)

Cheers,
Hans W


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=== You have a friend in Low Places === [url=http://www.danica.com/flytier:8b713]http://www.danica.com/flytier[/url:8b713]



[This message has been edited by Hans Weilenmann (edited 21 February 2005).]