Walter & Group...
From Ally Gowans:
Hi
Gordy,
You said
-
What REALLY makes the difference in
presentation is the way the fly line and leader turn over ..... the rate and
completion (or not) of energy dissipation as the loop
unfurls.
This, in turn, is almost fully determined
by the MASS PROFILE of both the fly line forward taper and the
leader.
Your
statements are not untrue but that are not complete because turnover can be
greatly influenced by the caster even with the “perfect” leader set up and
sometimes, by skilled caster when the setup is not ideal. When I was a child
learning to cast there were three rules – quite different from today’s rules but
the rods and lines were also different. The rules were stop (the back cast at
12:00), hold a bible under your upper arm and aim the cast at least 6 inches
above the water or if the wind was favourable 2 ft above the water. Aiming above
the water so that the line extended completely in the air allows the fly to
alight gently. I now know that I can induce turnover at long distances by
carefully lifting the rod tip (up mend?) to take the sting out of the cast and
following through gently to lay it down. This can be done with surprisingly
heavy tackle if you get it right ie a 700gr DWE shooting head and a brass tube
fly. The converse is also true, even a perfect setup with the wrong trajectory
can smash leader and fly into the water. In order to control turnover and
presentation the whole of the line must be airborne at turnover, I mention this
because especially when Spey casting with bad technique the line belly lands
first and quickly and then there is no opportunity to soften the landing.
Best
wishes,
Ally
Gowans
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Ally .....
Absolutely true that the presentation depends a great deal on what the caster does. I was writing about leader behavior and how it relates to presentation. I do believe that the casters action is far more important than the leader design. The tacit assumption was that the caster's actions were the same, but the leaders were of different design.
The caster can do many things to change the behavior of the fly line and the leader. One example is the cast made with perfect ingredients for a tailing loop..... yet that tail may be aborted by the caster who dips the rod tip down sufficiently at the end of the cast at just the right point in time. The fault is there, but no collision occurs.
Gordy
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Leaders for salt water fly fishing
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From Bill Hoot:-
Dear Gordy,
From Pat Damico :
Gordy,
In keeping
with the "KISS" principle, would choosing the leader butt section be acceptable
by hot gluing the tip of the leader to the end of the fly line and then holding
one in each hand, form a "U" to see if the bending is similar? This will
immediately identify a leader that is too stiff or soft compared to the tip
section of the front taper. In the field, a loop to loop connection can be
treated in the same way. I tie my own saltwater leaders and have used this
technique to select the butt section, then use the same leader material to
complete the process.
Pat Damico
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Pat.... I have done that as well as taking a split shot and placing it on the end of the fly line and the leader material, then holding each at the same length from the shot .... say 6 ".
This does give an idea of the relative "bendability" or stiffness of the leader material relative to the fly line.
After doing that many times, one gets familiar with butt section materials which are pretty close to the stiffness of most of the fly lines we use.
That leads to some simple " rules of thumb" ..... like the use of 40# soft nylon mono for most leaders used with 7 wt. or 8 wt. rods and lines, and 50# soft nylon mono for heavier equipment as Lefty has taught us, for most salt water outfits.
Another factor which helps determine the way a fly line leader will turn over, is how steep you make the taper. The steeper the taper (greater differences in the diameters, lb. test, and mass) between segments of the tapered sections, the more aggressive the turnover.
Having said all we have up to now on salty leaders, it is true that when we get to designing them for big game, considerations of strength become primary to the point of overriding many other design considerations including those related to presentation.
Another strong consideration, is the use (or not) of so-called bite tippets or shock tippets between the class tippet and the fly.
Gordy
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Quadriplegic Fly Fishers
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A great message from Pat Damico, Ed Felker and David Folkerts . (The video is a MUST SEE !) :-
Click on the fly fishing video. It is incredible!
Pat
Damico
Deep South PHWFF coordinator
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:35:04 -0500
All,