I tried casting a RIO WC 6/7/8 floater on my Winston 11-foot 7-weight BIIx this weekend. A strange thing kept happening on the single spey cast an explanation for which I am hoping to get from one or more of you.
There was little or no wind, but what wind there was was up-river. The bank was to my left as I stood facing down-current. (Is that "river right"?) I have the end of the taper clearly marked on the line (this is a pre-two-color WC).
No matter how gently I tried to make the motion to form the D-loop, 90% of the time the "fly" ended up far up-river from me, and sometimes even up-river and behind me. I tried casting with the end of taper a foot out from the tip, a foot in from the tip, at the tip, in my hand, and a number of other variations, but the result were, pretty much always, the same.
A few times when the fly landed far up-river, I quickly did a double spey move -- dropped the rod down-river, made my D-loop move up-river, and then cast. The results were quite good (especially for me, since I don't cast too well) -- line went just where I aimed it for the full length of the taper plus 10 feet of running line shot through the guides. From this I concluded that the line, which I think has a Peter-S-C casting weight of 352 grains, was not too out of balance with the rod, a rod that Winston says should be matched with a line weighing no more than 300 grains.
I still cannot, however, figure out why I had trouble placing the fly on the single spey. I assume what happened on the single spey would be more likely to happen if the line was too light, but according to the data available, it appears to be 52 grains too heavy. If the line was too heavy, wouldn't I have to really power it back to form the D-loop and wouldn't it have a tendency to drop close to me? I thought it might be that my "dip" on the D-loop motion was too deep, too shallow, or too flat, so I varied that as well, but no improvement.
So, what's the answer? All ideas, except asking me to send the rod to you, will be appreciated.
There was little or no wind, but what wind there was was up-river. The bank was to my left as I stood facing down-current. (Is that "river right"?) I have the end of the taper clearly marked on the line (this is a pre-two-color WC).
No matter how gently I tried to make the motion to form the D-loop, 90% of the time the "fly" ended up far up-river from me, and sometimes even up-river and behind me. I tried casting with the end of taper a foot out from the tip, a foot in from the tip, at the tip, in my hand, and a number of other variations, but the result were, pretty much always, the same.
A few times when the fly landed far up-river, I quickly did a double spey move -- dropped the rod down-river, made my D-loop move up-river, and then cast. The results were quite good (especially for me, since I don't cast too well) -- line went just where I aimed it for the full length of the taper plus 10 feet of running line shot through the guides. From this I concluded that the line, which I think has a Peter-S-C casting weight of 352 grains, was not too out of balance with the rod, a rod that Winston says should be matched with a line weighing no more than 300 grains.
I still cannot, however, figure out why I had trouble placing the fly on the single spey. I assume what happened on the single spey would be more likely to happen if the line was too light, but according to the data available, it appears to be 52 grains too heavy. If the line was too heavy, wouldn't I have to really power it back to form the D-loop and wouldn't it have a tendency to drop close to me? I thought it might be that my "dip" on the D-loop motion was too deep, too shallow, or too flat, so I varied that as well, but no improvement.
So, what's the answer? All ideas, except asking me to send the rod to you, will be appreciated.