Losing the bob fly!

[piscatus absentis]

Here?s one for the casting experts -  I?ve been casting off my bob fly!

10 ft. Altmor, 7wt intermediate and 10 ft cast with two flies.  I?m a right handed caster.  Brisk wind over my right shoulder so I cast over my left.  Casting distance around 15 to 20 yds.

The first time it happened I replaced the fly and carried on.  The second time I replaced the dropper.  Third time I changed the cast.  Fourth time I changed the cast and nylon.  Fifth time I stuck with one fly.

When I went to another part of the loch with the wind from my left and was casting normally the problem disappeared.  However, I regularly cast over my left shoulder with a wind from the right and have never experienced casting flies off.

Suggestions please - I?m running out of flies.

[alancrob]

Just caught up with this thread.
I did the same twice yesterday on the Eden (Fife). I know I was not letting the backcast straighten because of the trees. Could this be the cause? Why not the tail? I just assumed either that I had not tied properly or that I had caught the trees!
That was all I caught in the chocolate torrent.
Alan

[polecat]

I recently bought some wychwood leader material from GAC, looked good, low diameter, clear. Persevered for a couple of hours- fankles, kinks and breaking off- swapped back to my usual drennan subsurface and no probs. Gave the wychwood stuff another go with a single dryfly the other night and still didn't like it. Not sure if it's too limp or easily traumatised but I'm not going to use it again anyway!

[sandyborthwick]

I reckon it's  the Wychwood I stopped using it unless I was fishing single fly some time ago. It's bloody useless for droppers. I got totally pi**ed off with it had even the smallest of trouts breaking the droppers - switched to Magic Line co-polymer stuff - result no problems with the droppers. I will use the Wychwood still but only with a mind to presentation when using single small nymphs.

Sandy B.O.

[greenwell]

/quote]

         P.A.,
               Not necessarily.  On the back cast the LAST fly to straighten is the tail one, the FIRST is the bob. If you make the forward cast too early the only flies likely to crack off would be the ones already straightened out on their droppers. I suspect you are making the forward cast while the middle and tail flies are still travelling backwards. The bob fly is already on the point of straightening on it's dropper and so will be the one most likely to be affected by the sudden forward movement of the rod. In addition you are probably, though perhaps inadvertantly, putting more power into the start of the forward cast than you would if you were casting off your " normal " shoulder. This may explain why the problem goes away when you revert to casting off the right.

                                                                          Greenwell