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Hi Gordy,
I really enjoy checking out the videos on the tails thanks to Aitor. In the video the mistake really occurs early in the stroke if you put your mouse pointer on where the creep begins in the stroke. The pulse, wave, tail occurs early it appears to me. It is true that if the tail appears early it has much longer to propagate all the way down the line. It can be an ugly mess for sure.
When watching distance casters go for that little bit of extra distance, they often tend to punch it too hard toward the completion of the stroke. These mistakes late in the casting stroke, almost always throw the tail way out toward the end of the line (often in the leader). We are really looking at where does the pulse, wave begin in the fly leg to manifest its journey traveling down the line. When you manifest these waves late in the stroke, the fly leg is already accelerating faster which equates to greater line tension in the fly leg. Greater tension equals faster propagation of pulse/wave. Hence, I still am of the belief if the pulse/wave is early in the casting stroke, then the tail (crossover in two points) shows up early near the rod tip. The pulse/wave is late in the stroke, then it shows up way on down the fly leg (even leader). Now then, this is the exact opposite of mends. Mend late in the stroke, equals pulse wave near the rod tip. Mend very early, and the pulse wave travels all the way down the leader.
Maybe comparing tail placement with the pulse, waves to mends is not even a good idea for that matter which is what many (including myself) have done for a long time now. The reason being that mends are performed after RSP and the pulse, waves are done pre-rsp. Another way to look at it would be to say mends most of the time already have an established rod/fly leg. With tails we do not even have a loop established yet.
I have an idea on tails that I have noticed for over 30 years now and I am going to attempt to explain it briefly. It has to do with hands casting to get away from some of the misnomers of concave paths that is often times a lame explanation IMO. I for one get pretty tired of hearing one example for a save all cure when discussing tails. It tells me that there is much to be learned still for that individuals journey. There are far too many folks that are really missing out on some key components for the diagnostics of tails. We can influence a loop to tail when hands casting for the front/back cast instantly by going too fast. I think Lasse had a post on it a while a few threads back. Could it be that, when hitting it too fast for a given loop shape and amount of line carried that it bunches up with no relationship to concavity? In other words, the line cannot be fed into the loop size with an excess amount of fly leg speed? It goes back to what you were talking about with Tom White saying haul faster but keep the rod at normal stroke rate. The reason I bring up using the hands is because it helps to get rid of the flexible lever and also because the hands can throw the very best small loops when needed. The hands casting is what caused me to view this loop size and line speed balance.
Lefty, had a post on it by throwing the line into itself (which is very close related to what we are saying here). What do we need for solution ? It could be open the loop up for that amount of line speed. This is in part why there are many factors when discussing tails, you have a given loop shape determined from stroke, a given amount of acceleration you impart, and naturally we may not leave out timing. The six step really helps the most with the rod arc of the stroke. It becomes tougher to use the six step for telling us about timing and acceleration (analyzer for that). These are best done by experimentation. Hope that opens up a discussion for the group. I think we could make a great argument which advocates a maximum line speed for every given loop size! Exceed it (too much line speed) for specific size loop and we can force a tail. Happens all the time when watching someone attempting greater distance. Solution often times is initiate a larger loop at loop creation (because it will morph down smaller during travel), back off the line speed, or a combo of both.
There are many variables for sure when discussing tails which is no doubt why the sport has in general over the years attempted to have a few cookie cutter solutions for solving a complex topic. I really enjoyed Server's post a while back which brought "kick back" to the table. There was much truth in that paper as well!
Great topic Gordy!
Mac
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