ol Al...
I agree with most of what you have written.
You are also correct in that ONE propelling force is found in the UNLOADING of the bent rod as it straightens. That, however, has been shown to give less transfer of energy to the fly line loop than the actual translational and rotatory movement of the caster's arm/hand.
An example of that lies in an old experiment done by Robert Crompton....where he made a, "casting machine" by placing a rod handle in a vise. He then drew back the fly line until the rod was heavily loaded and let it go. The, "cast" didn't go nearly as far as when the rod was moved by a caster and bent to the same or less degree. (Check out Jason Borger's book, ....THE NATURE OF FLY CASTING, p.11, Paragraphs 1 and 2.)
The load includes the butt section of the rod only when it's deeply loaded. When making short casts to close targets, most of that load (bend) is in the tip section. Some call that, "tip casting". Along with control of trajectory, (line plane) it's one of the tricks used in placing a dry fly in a target only 15' or so in front of the caster.
Al....my server won't let me send another e-message to the Group, today....so will you forward this string out to them for me ?
Gordy
Gordy
From: "Allen Crise" <flysoup@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Gordon Hill" <hillshead@xxxxxxx>
Subject: loops and 'wow's
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:48:59 -0500
Howdy GordyI am trying to put this in my words. I know that is a laugh to some. About 3:00 am I am typing along and pantomiming my casting stroke came up with this.The loop
When does the loop form and what is happening to the rod at this time? Some say you have to stop the rod to get a loop. No all you have to do is, after acceleration, is slow to accelerating slower. This allows the line to pass the rod tip. As soon as the line is at all pass the tip you have a loop formed, between the rod?s tip to the fly leg of the line.
The 'wow'
This change of accelerating can happen in a cast and looks like a vertical bump in the lines rod leg. The idea that the rod tip was bouncing after the stop is often thought to cause this bump or 'wow' in the line. When what happened was a change in acceleration in the loading of the rod. This loop might appear in the vertical plane if introduced before rod straight position forming the loop. It must happen just before the loop passes the tip forming the loop that we see traveling horizontally. If it happens sooner in the casting stroke we see the tailing loop as this bump turns over its self. The cure is a smooth acceleration throughout the lateral casting stroke and into axial rotational at the end of the cast.
Some thing Steve said triggered this.
The rod loading is the propelling force to the cast. We can look at the rod's bend and compare it to the loop starting point. If you look at video of a cast from the side you can see the loop is in the rod. With Steve it starts at the cork grip. Then at turn over that loop is sent up the length of the rod.
At the tip of the rod the mass of and stiffness of the rod is no longer there the loop continues down the line to the leader in a continuous loop of energy. This rolling loop was given direction from the rods path and energy from the unloading of the mass of the rod.
Now I know that If I spent time just working on my 'wordsmith' I might make all that clearer for some engineer but I do teach many that are just old cowboys. I like the term "dumb it down" that I think Tom Jindra used.
ol Al
Allen Crise FFF Master Casting InstructorSOC VP of EducationHawk Ridge Flycasting School2508 A County Road 1011Glen Rose, TX 76043254-897-2045geocities.com/rrdoctorflysoup@xxxxxxxxxx