Walter & Group...
On Balanced Flies from Mark Sedotti :
Gordy, Gary,
Weight balancing is my
concept.
I hadn't found it covered or mentioned by anyone
before ( I realized the concept in 1991 - from reverse engineering and
analyzing my giant flies. I wanted to find the reason why they casted
so surprizingly well), nor have I to this day, and it's an axiom
of fly tying and casting too. It's simply vital to flies that are
castible, no matter what size they are. It's what makes flies
castible.
A fly needs a certain amount of weight in it (this can
come from anything in the fly; the hook, added weight, absorbed water, the
materials themselves) to overcome the wind resistence of it's materials.
Too much weight, and the fly cats sloppily, and without control. Too little and
it drags noticably. When that weight is just right (you,ve hit the weight sweet
spot) that fly will cast as well as it can be cast - and the drag will
have the least amount of effect on that fly that it can. As you go up in
wind resistence you must go up correspondingly in weight. Less wind resistence,
less weight needed. When this is done precisely then the fly is "weight
balanced". When you think about it, ALL flies that cast well (and all those that
cast easiest) are weight balanced. They HAVE to be.
I plan on
doing a fly tying DVD soon, perhaps even starting in the next two weeks,
that will cover this. One place you can find something on weight balancing is a
recent article by Johnny King in Fly Fishing In Saltwaters. He covers one
of my big flies (Sedotti's Slammer) - along with three other flies from
different tyers - and it was done from an interview with me.
I
will also be doing a fly casting DVD that will cover, besides other things,
casting really big flies, and casting "heavy" flies, which are, of course, un
weight balanced flies that are on the heavy side, rather than those that are on
the "dragging" side.
You can cast them ("heavy" flies) with tight
loops, if your technique (and timing) is good across the board. Again, that
"heavy" fly simply reveals all you do well and all you don't do
well.
Mark
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Mark.... You make the concept of balancing wind resistance and weight clear.
Now this leaves me wondering :
1. How is this weight added for most of these big flies ?
2. Is the position of this weight, ie. at the head, near the rear or evenly distributed, etc. of great importance ?
3. Do you approximate the wind resistance of the fly or do you have a method of measuring this ?
Gordy
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From Nial Logan :
Gordy,
A little late with this but thought
that I?d share it with those who are familiar with the
technique.
One of the other ?tongue in cheek?
descriptions of the technique required for casting heavy flies, which I believe
originated in New Zealand (I may be wrong) where they use Crazy Charlie type
?bombs? tied with the biggest barbell eyes and two wraps of the heaviest lead
wire on the entire hook shank when fishing for snapper in deep water.
To help avoid the pain of a strike
in the back, the technique used is called ?chuck (throw) and
duck?.
Regards
Nial
Logan
Gordy,