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So, I'm going to try something different this month. Rather than publish the newsletter as a pdf, I'm entering it as a post.
Let me know which you prefer, this or the pdf.
Recently while out practicing with a friend the importance of connections was brought home once again. I’m talking about connections in the fly line, and specifically the line/leader connection. In single hand casting a lot of thought goes into this connection, but most spey casters that I know don’t think a whole lot about it. Generally, in a spey cast we aren’t too concerned about delicacy or perfect transition of power: as long as the leader turns over and takes the fly along with it, we’re pretty happy, right?
For years I’ve been using a short length of Maxima Chameleon nail knotted to my fly line, then perfection looped to my leader. The connection was durable, the line and leader seemed to always roll out ok and I never really gave it much thought. I’ve been doing it like this for years and it’s just become a habit for me.
At the end of a long spey cast with a standard casting system everything seemed to turn over good enough, though I had noticed that fellows using a similar set up often had their loops open up near the end of the cast, the leader not turning over cleanly. But I hadn’t noticed this with my casting, so it must be a technique thing, right…?
While tuning some shooting head lines for an upcoming video shoot, I noticed something rather interesting: I couldn’t get my leader to roll out cleanly and consistently, which was annoying and mildly alarming. Unless my technique was flawless (and whose is on a consistent basis, right?) I would get this weird opening and looping of the leader near the end of the cast. This problem was made even more apparent if there was any headwind. So I worked and worked on my underhand technique because I presumed that after months of casting longer belly lines I was doing something wrong and needed to refine my shooting head method. While my casting improved, I was still having this problem with the leader. I went back to some of my personal video of some fo the best underhand casters in the world to see whether or not this problem appeared in their casting, and it did from time-to-time, otherwise their loops were great. And so I did a lot more thinking, a stressing. Had I lost my edge?
Several weeks ago I was out casting once again, this time with a video camera along as I wanted to see how the loops looked after weeks of practice. They seemed better from my perspective, but to really be sure I needed a side view of the outbound loop and leader at the end of a cast. Fortunately I had asked my friend Poul Bech along to serve as my videographer. Poul is the vice president of the Steelhead Society of British Columbia and an avid angler and spey caster. Actually that’s an understatement: Poul is among the top 10 steelheaders I know. Poul’s background in the sciences has made him an acute observer, and as the line rolled out he say things like “great!” and “beautiful” for the first few casts, and I was feelingpretty good about everything.
Then he got kinda quiet. One, two, three casts went out, and he didn’t say anything. Then after a few more casts he said” good” again and then was quiet for a while.
Uh-oh.
I knew what was happening. Like me, he noticed the leader problem and was studying it. We discussed it and I tried a bunch of different approaches to the cast but couldn’t completely eliminate the problem. I could make it less evident, but not eliminate it. I handed the rod over to him to see if it was a style thing, but the same thing was happening at the end of his casts. We then started to experiment with different leader combinations, compositions, and lengths, and things got better, but not by a lot. Late in our casting session Poul was casting and I decide once again to change the leader. Poul stripped in the line as I walked down to the water, and as he handed me the line tip he looked closely at the line/leader connection.
“Have you ever thought of changing that loop?” he asked, referring to the length of Maxima.
“No.”
I learned a long time ago to trust Poul’s intuition, so I clipped off the Maxima and watched as he folded the line tip over on itself and whip finished the tag end to the main line to form a small loop. We then looped the leader to this and I made one cast and Poul said “that’s it!” Even from my perspective behind the line I could see a tremendous improvement. The leader now rolled out as it was supposed to, a smooth tight loop straightening above the water before dropping. Then, Poul took the rod and cast so I could see the side view of the loop. The problem had truly disappeared. We figured that since the stiff section of Maxima was stiffer than the end of the line it was opening up the loop as the leader started to roll over, bleeding off power and defeating all the effort that went into the creation of a tight loop in the first place. Eliminating this connection eliminated the problem.
Here’s Poul’s method for creating a loop in a fly line. He tells me that he has had zero loop failures since he started using this method several years ago.
Step One: fold the end of the line over on itself to create a loop
Step Two: using a length of monofilament (Poul likes 10lb –15lb material, not too stiff) whip finish the tag end of the line to the standing line to form the permanent loop.
Step Three: before tightening the whip finish, pull on the standing portion of the fly line to create the desired loop size.
Step Four: tighten the mono wraps by pulling smoothly on the tag end and standing end of the mono.
Step Five: trim and you’re done.
This method works very well, especially in the field if you have a loop failure or any concerns about your loops. Poul can make a “Field Loop” as he calls them in about a minute with mono leader material he has in his vest. For a completely bomb-proof version Poul uses Fireline for the wraps and coats them with superglue.
Here is an image of the completed loop:
finished loop #1
And here are a few videos of the process:
Field Loop
Whip Finish
Let me know which you prefer, this or the pdf.
Connections
by
Dana Sturn
speypages.com
copyright 2005 all rights reserved
by
Dana Sturn
speypages.com
copyright 2005 all rights reserved
Recently while out practicing with a friend the importance of connections was brought home once again. I’m talking about connections in the fly line, and specifically the line/leader connection. In single hand casting a lot of thought goes into this connection, but most spey casters that I know don’t think a whole lot about it. Generally, in a spey cast we aren’t too concerned about delicacy or perfect transition of power: as long as the leader turns over and takes the fly along with it, we’re pretty happy, right?
For years I’ve been using a short length of Maxima Chameleon nail knotted to my fly line, then perfection looped to my leader. The connection was durable, the line and leader seemed to always roll out ok and I never really gave it much thought. I’ve been doing it like this for years and it’s just become a habit for me.
At the end of a long spey cast with a standard casting system everything seemed to turn over good enough, though I had noticed that fellows using a similar set up often had their loops open up near the end of the cast, the leader not turning over cleanly. But I hadn’t noticed this with my casting, so it must be a technique thing, right…?
While tuning some shooting head lines for an upcoming video shoot, I noticed something rather interesting: I couldn’t get my leader to roll out cleanly and consistently, which was annoying and mildly alarming. Unless my technique was flawless (and whose is on a consistent basis, right?) I would get this weird opening and looping of the leader near the end of the cast. This problem was made even more apparent if there was any headwind. So I worked and worked on my underhand technique because I presumed that after months of casting longer belly lines I was doing something wrong and needed to refine my shooting head method. While my casting improved, I was still having this problem with the leader. I went back to some of my personal video of some fo the best underhand casters in the world to see whether or not this problem appeared in their casting, and it did from time-to-time, otherwise their loops were great. And so I did a lot more thinking, a stressing. Had I lost my edge?
Several weeks ago I was out casting once again, this time with a video camera along as I wanted to see how the loops looked after weeks of practice. They seemed better from my perspective, but to really be sure I needed a side view of the outbound loop and leader at the end of a cast. Fortunately I had asked my friend Poul Bech along to serve as my videographer. Poul is the vice president of the Steelhead Society of British Columbia and an avid angler and spey caster. Actually that’s an understatement: Poul is among the top 10 steelheaders I know. Poul’s background in the sciences has made him an acute observer, and as the line rolled out he say things like “great!” and “beautiful” for the first few casts, and I was feelingpretty good about everything.
Then he got kinda quiet. One, two, three casts went out, and he didn’t say anything. Then after a few more casts he said” good” again and then was quiet for a while.
Uh-oh.
I knew what was happening. Like me, he noticed the leader problem and was studying it. We discussed it and I tried a bunch of different approaches to the cast but couldn’t completely eliminate the problem. I could make it less evident, but not eliminate it. I handed the rod over to him to see if it was a style thing, but the same thing was happening at the end of his casts. We then started to experiment with different leader combinations, compositions, and lengths, and things got better, but not by a lot. Late in our casting session Poul was casting and I decide once again to change the leader. Poul stripped in the line as I walked down to the water, and as he handed me the line tip he looked closely at the line/leader connection.
“Have you ever thought of changing that loop?” he asked, referring to the length of Maxima.
“No.”
I learned a long time ago to trust Poul’s intuition, so I clipped off the Maxima and watched as he folded the line tip over on itself and whip finished the tag end to the main line to form a small loop. We then looped the leader to this and I made one cast and Poul said “that’s it!” Even from my perspective behind the line I could see a tremendous improvement. The leader now rolled out as it was supposed to, a smooth tight loop straightening above the water before dropping. Then, Poul took the rod and cast so I could see the side view of the loop. The problem had truly disappeared. We figured that since the stiff section of Maxima was stiffer than the end of the line it was opening up the loop as the leader started to roll over, bleeding off power and defeating all the effort that went into the creation of a tight loop in the first place. Eliminating this connection eliminated the problem.
Here’s Poul’s method for creating a loop in a fly line. He tells me that he has had zero loop failures since he started using this method several years ago.
Step One: fold the end of the line over on itself to create a loop
Step Two: using a length of monofilament (Poul likes 10lb –15lb material, not too stiff) whip finish the tag end of the line to the standing line to form the permanent loop.
Step Three: before tightening the whip finish, pull on the standing portion of the fly line to create the desired loop size.
Step Four: tighten the mono wraps by pulling smoothly on the tag end and standing end of the mono.
Step Five: trim and you’re done.
This method works very well, especially in the field if you have a loop failure or any concerns about your loops. Poul can make a “Field Loop” as he calls them in about a minute with mono leader material he has in his vest. For a completely bomb-proof version Poul uses Fireline for the wraps and coats them with superglue.
Here is an image of the completed loop:
finished loop #1
And here are a few videos of the process:
Field Loop
Whip Finish