Away ....Answer / Style / Tailing loops

QUESTION: WHEN IF EVER WOULD YOU ELECT TO CHANGE A STUDENT'S CASTING STYLE ?

Regarding changing casting styles: I would suggest the student consider changing their style when the current style resulted in:

1. Inability to consistently perform the fundamentals,

2. Impeded their ablilty to learn new casts or improve on existing casts

3. Caused them some sort of injury or discomfort.

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I would add one other: 4. If the student couldn't execute a particular casting task demanded by the fishing circumstance, I'd have him change style to better serve that problem.

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From John Tarr on tails:

Gordy,

My two cents, or maybe event just one cent for the topic.

I have seen a big increase in tailing loops with the introduction of blunt, heavy front tapers (i.e. redfish tapers and integrated shooting heads). Normally, I find that the students are trying to carry too much line in the air, instead of shooting for longer casts. As the line startes to collapse, the student misapplies power, causing a really nasty tailing loop. I also find the same problem when casters are trying to cast heavy flies and carry them instead of shooting them.

As for the band-aid cures. I also tend to use them when trying to find the cause of a problem that I am unable to see clearly. The other time that I will use them is when I have a student that refuses to listen to the cause and solution; that time when you just have to finally tell someone what to do, instead of explaining it to them. The final time, like many others, is when I have a client on the boat and do not have the time for lengthy explanations and cures.

John
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The casters described in your first sentance are not able to handle as much overhang as they are allowing to escape the rod tip as they carry great lengths of line while false casting. When that happens loops deteriorate and the caster applies too much force early in the stroke which yields acceleration which he cannot maintain. This produces a dip and return in the path of the rod tip, ie. a concave tip path and leads to the tail.

True expert casters can handle lots more overhang than others. This takes perfect timing with respect to application of power and loop turnover combined with a straight path of the rod tip (SLP).

In the second example (casting heavy flies) the solution is often to open up the loop. Another solution is to use an eliptical cast as defined by a significant change of rod planes between the back cast and the forward cast. ("Belgian" cast, etc.)

I agree on your use of "band-aid" cures.