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Was out fishing the other day and a local river rat - (pinner turned spey geek )asked me how he should he should handle a wind blowing straight at him in the face; and how he should cast if he had a wind blowing straight at him from behind. Didn't have much of an answer at the time but here is how I'm guessing it should be handled assuming the caster is facing his target.
Face on Wind: The D Loop formation will be super charged by the wind. “Sail filled by the wind analogy comes to mind”. The caster should temper the wind formed D Loop by sweeping back with less power else there could be problems forming an anchor, additionally the forward cast power applied by the caster should be applied slowly and smoothly accelerated to avoid tailing loops since the wind assisted D Loop will tend to load the rod more than "normal" (read- practice very good form in the forward cast). Some reduction in distance is typically noticed with wind in the face situations. If the wind is so heavy that an anchor can't be formed (could skip or not land at all in heavy wind) its time to go home and tie flies.
Wind from Directly Behind: The D Loop formation will tend to be retarded by the wind trying to blow the D loop down. Pay particular attention to the anchor size, a little more lift may be needed at stop at the key position to lessen a larger anchor grip from the slumping D Loop. Typically no need to apply a lot more power into the sweep for the D Loop because loss in power from a smaller/shallower D loop will be gained back as the wind blows the forward cast out. If the wind is so heavy that a reasonably small sized anchor can't formed (heavy wind could blow down any/all D loops) its time to go home and tie flies.
IS this the correct text book way to handle these situations?
Face on Wind: The D Loop formation will be super charged by the wind. “Sail filled by the wind analogy comes to mind”. The caster should temper the wind formed D Loop by sweeping back with less power else there could be problems forming an anchor, additionally the forward cast power applied by the caster should be applied slowly and smoothly accelerated to avoid tailing loops since the wind assisted D Loop will tend to load the rod more than "normal" (read- practice very good form in the forward cast). Some reduction in distance is typically noticed with wind in the face situations. If the wind is so heavy that an anchor can't be formed (could skip or not land at all in heavy wind) its time to go home and tie flies.
Wind from Directly Behind: The D Loop formation will tend to be retarded by the wind trying to blow the D loop down. Pay particular attention to the anchor size, a little more lift may be needed at stop at the key position to lessen a larger anchor grip from the slumping D Loop. Typically no need to apply a lot more power into the sweep for the D Loop because loss in power from a smaller/shallower D loop will be gained back as the wind blows the forward cast out. If the wind is so heavy that a reasonably small sized anchor can't formed (heavy wind could blow down any/all D loops) its time to go home and tie flies.
IS this the correct text book way to handle these situations?