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Spey casting dynamics

Started by Malcolm, August 14, 2012, 02:04:46 PM

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Malcolm

Weird,

I was on the river a few times today. Most of the time spey casting with a WF line: when I let the line go I could cast it 30, 40 and more if I wanted. I thought I was merely adjusting the effort I was making. Clearly not, as I should have been casting the line was desigined to go. I know I wasn't casting 70 feet every time as the fly would have ended up in a bush 20 feet beyond the far bank.

Why should this be? 
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Wildfisher

Quote from: Alan on August 17, 2012, 11:32:57 PM
when you cast the head it takes say 2 seconds to drop to the water, if you release line to shoot in that 2 seconds it will go further with the same energy,
Which means when it didn't go farther you were inputting too much energy and dissipating it in another way.

Malcolm

Alan,

A 70ft cast can't be made with the same effort as a 35ft cast. Any normal day on the river shows this. If it did every 35 ft cast would have to be stopped or we'd spend all our time on the rivers casting where we don't want to cast! I change distance by changing the power. Many of my casts are low spey casts where the line travels very low to the water and the loop unfurls right to left or left to right. So I vary the power whether I wish to spey cast 35ft or 50 feet.


Now a "comfort zone" or "comfortable casting distance" is absolutely not to be confused with this and varies with the person and is a function of perception. Last week I suggested to my 21 year old son that we do a spot of fishing. Although a keen fisher at 14 he gave up. So we set up a rod and headed to the playing fields just to make sure he could still cast. He used to ne a bit better as a caster than me but he was a bit rusty so our casting standards were roughly the same. Yet his comfortable casting distance with the rod was about 15 feet further than mine. Why? Well he is bigger and much stronger than me so what to me was a bit of a squeeze mean't nothing to him - so not a line constraint - it is a constraint of strength (given that technical ability is approximately the same). 

Smooth so-called "effortless" power is much sought after in many sports. However we shouldn't mix up a reality with a convenient expression. Your "effortless" 70ft may translate to an "effortless" 50ft or 80ft for other people.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Wildfisher

I give up, this is just going in circles,  but you should contact The Dept. Of Energy  Alan.   I'm, pretty sure they would  be interested in these ideas. They could be the answer to supplying the UK's energy needs without having to build new power stations.  :lol:

Malcolm

Oddly enough I think I know where you are coming from Alan. Last evening I was out on a dusk session and spent 5 minutes finding out how much line shot from the rod rings before the loop unfurled.

Obviously if I don't stop the line with my left hand some shoots out. However even with the whole head out of the rings the amount of line that shot on a minimum power cast was only about 6-8 feet at this point the loop had straightened. I did try making longer casts without stopping the line shooting and it took considerably more effort to reach 60 feet. It shouldn'y matter but the rod I was using was a 9ft 6 6/7 with a WF8 line.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

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