I finally got to feeling good enough to get out on the lake today for a few hours. Haven't been able to practice my casting and it is showing. I don't know what I am doing wrong here, perhaps something in the mechanics of my stroke, perhaps something mental, maybe both. I noticed that while casting my rocket taper 5wt line on a 6'6" fiberglass rod that the loop on my forward cast was closing up. Not completley but getting petty close. When I put the same line on my 9' 5/6wt graphite now the loop is closing completely. On a couple of cast I actually got my tippet wrapped around the forward taper of the fly line.

For some reason I didn't check the loop on my back cast but I could hear my fly popping. Ok, I figured I am not giving the line enough time to straighten out and load the rod on the back stroke. So I slow my timing down. No more popping but the front loop still closed and only putting out about 50-60 foot casts instead of 70-80+ foot casts. I throw a lot of DT lines on my rods and usually can cast into the backing which is shorter than a WF line. Even so I usually throw nice 70-80+ casts with my WF lines. The only other variable is that I don't use the rod I used today very much. That may be huge as I may not be accustomed to it's action.

Probably a combination of these things?

Any advice and thoughts would be most appreciated.