So I had something happen last Friday, a first for me. While casting a bunny strip diver (6" or so long) I buried the hook in my forearm. I remember feeling like something was off in my casting stroke the cast before. I tried to fix it on the next cast and apparently it didn’t work. I drove that hook in my arm. Luckily I had all the tools to deal with the situation and it wasn’t too terrible. A good bit of “magic words” and a lot of pulling…plus 45 minutes later I was able to remove the hook and finish out my day. I thought it would hurt a lot more than it didn’t, actually it wasn’t bad. Not that I want a repeat experience though.
Anyways, it got me wondering. How fast does a fly like that travel? I know it varies by caster, set up, fly pattern, etc. but what do you guys think the average is? If it helps I was casting a 12 wt rod with the SA coastal express 350 grain.
The lack of information when you do a Google search leads me to believe there has not been a lot of research (at least not formal documented research, not to be confused with over a cool adult beverage on the lawn research) done. One of the facts I remember from physic is 88 ft./seconds equals 60 miles per hour. You can use that for a basics for doing some basic research.
Obviously, the speed is adequate to bury a sharp hook in human flesh and justify the purchase of impact resistant glasses for fishing. I have a friends who both he and his wife have had to have hooks removed from their lips and nose.
Ouch! I can relate to that as I buried a barbed hook into my finger a couple of weeks ago. Just curious, did you use the old method of pushing the hook through and cutting off the barb or did you try the newer method of pushing down hard on the eye of the hook and “snatching” it out backwards with a length of strong twine or wire looped though the bend of the hook? Because I was hooked with one hook of a trebel hook, I didn’t dare try the push and snatch method as I was concerned about burying several other of the hooks into my hand in the process. Like you, I found that the whole experience actually didn’t hurt very much. I did end up getting a tetenus shot though which I would strongly recommend if you haven’t had one in the past five years.
Sorry I can’t answer your question about how fast a fly is traveling since it depends on many variables, but having been hit in the head with weighted flies before, I would estimate that it’s easily in excess of 100mph.
p.s. I only fish with barbless flies. The treble hook was on a Rapalla that I had carelessly left on top of a cabinet in my garage.
I went in to the clinic the next morning. Sadly, because of another very embarrassing incident I have gotten a tetanus within the last 5 years :oops:
I actually pushed the hook as far as I could with the fly in tact then clipped the hook as far up the bend as I could. Then I clipped a pliers on it and pulled…and pulled and pulled and pulled…for probably close to 30 of just pulling. I couldn’t get the barb to poke out of my skin.
I generally fish with barbless (well, hooks with smashed barb) hooks. This one had been smashed but it wasn’t all the way down, so when I tried to pull it out the way it came I had a second of intense stinging/burning. It was significantly less painful even though it took a total of 45 minutes to push it out than it was for that split second of pulling.
I thought for sure I was going to be really sore in the morning, but I actually can’t feel it much at all. Only if I really push on it it’s a little tender. I have a pretty good bruise though.
I’ve seen fishermen suffer with hookup in themselves, despite my recommendations they follow the approach shown in the attached link. This works and is a LOT less painful than poking the hook through. http://www.bishfish.co.nz/articles/general/hookout.htm
Based only on my recollection of how it felt being hit by japanese beetles while riding a motorcycle, I’d say the speed of a fly is easily over 60 mph. Purely anecdotal, and not very scientific, but dang those suckers hurt.
Not as bad as bees in the neck just over the collar. I agree a fly must be moving over 60mph especially on a powered fwd. cast. It’s not relevant to the discussion,but that dreaded snap on your backcast is the fly going supersonic
Anybody have a high-speed camera? Maybe we can go “Mythbusters” on it. Get a big wall, and paint alternating white and black vertical stripers, 1" wide. Set the camera up, and have someone do some false casting with a fly, positioned such that the caster is between the wall and the camera, and you can see the fly traveling past the wall. Just count the number of inches in a second of video to get speed.
Hope the fly was barbless, but since it took 45 minutes, I suspect not.
As for line speed, there are way too many variables to just come up with a fixed speed. The action of the rod is a big factor, the weight of the line, the weight of the fly, the amount of wind you are fighting, the distance you need to cast, regular cast or single haul or double haul…so many factors.
However, it would be interesting to know the range of speed a fly or fly line can have based upon all those variables.
Naw, sounds like a lot of work, just go fishing instead.
Whatever. I always compared it to the crack of a whip where the tip goes supersonic. I guess it’s all relative because the fly usually goes off on it’s own unattached.
As for the speed issue, this site http://hiviz.com/PROJECTS/towel/towel.htm#2 is fascinating because students wanted to see if a snapped wet towel broke the speed of sound. These kids showed that the towel tip could, but usually didn’t, exceed the speed of sound. (To follow the experiment click on “Design” at the bottom and then links at the bottom of each following page.)
We can suspect that a tight loop on a hard hauled back cast might reach the speed of sound, but large loops and most other casts will not achieve that speed.
I just watched a young competitive fly caster casting for distance (he made a 115 ft. cast, counting rod, backing, line & leader) his cycle time was 2.34 seconds, that is roughly 230 ft. in 2.34 sec or 98.3 ft. per second which I calculate to be about 67 MPH.
The barb was pinched, but I guess not good enough. So I had to push it through.
Thanks Uncle Jesse. I think that is close enough for me. Approx 60 mph is where I’m putting it. Probably a little less since I’m not anywhere close to a competitive fly caster …obviously.
The 500 frame/sec video below with an expert caster casting a 5 wt 9 ft rod, max velocity is about 24 m/s which translates to about 53 mph. I suspect your fly was traveling slower.
…obviously.