I know it's a newbie thing, but I would like to know how many other people experienced this when they started fly fishing and what they did to correct it.

During my first week of fly fishing I lost a few flies to that occasional gymnastic tree that jumped out of nowhere and grabbed my fly. Seriously, I swear I would have known it if that tree was that close when I started my cast. I also lost one to a rock which I'm still not sure how that happend. It must have been one of those ACME flys with the exceptionally sharp hook. I even managed to loose one on a beautiful 10 foot rainbow. Strangly enough though, I must have lost the most amount of flys by just snapping them off. You know, that strange cracking sound you hear on your back-cast? The one that is generally followed by 2 or 3 casts where you swear your sunglasses have lost their polarity. You can't seem to see your fly even though your pretty sure you can see the leader.

I'm pretty sure you all know what I'm talking about, so let me hear your stories. What helped you fix your Indiana Jones cast? I have used the FAOL search function and got a few tips, but would like to hear some more.

Theoretically I know I wasn't giving my back-cast enough time to straiten out, but knowings not doing.

Cheers!

Jonathan