Walter & Group :
I just got chased in from tarpon fishing by a thunderboomer. I'll go back out when it's over.
Check out Walter's valuable message, here.......and note my answer below his.........Gordy
Gordy -
Another quick demo of how the line taper affects energy transfer.
Feed out line until you get the rear taper outside of the rod
tip. Now put the rod down - it isn't part of the demo. Pull the line
out in a straight line and then put it on the ground. Now pick up the
line at a point on the skinny running line. Wave this part of the line
back and forth quickly and try to transfer energy into the head of the
line so that it is shaking back and forth as well. There will be some
energy transfer but it is difficult to create large waves in the head
of the line by waving the running line. Now repeat this operation but
this time try to create waves in the running line by holding the fat
part of the line (i.e. the head) and waving it back and forth. What you
will see is that the waves in the running line were much larger and
travelled much farther than when you tried to make waves in the fat
part of the line from the skinny part.
This can be explained in a few different ways. From physics
the formula:
work = energy = force x distance
can be applied. It takes less force to displace the skinny/light part
of the line than it does the fat/heavy. There is less energy in the
skinny part of the line being transferred to the fat part of the line
which results in less displacement, or smaller waves, in the fat
part of the line. When the situation is reversed (waves travelling from
fat to skinny line) there is more displacement, i.e. bigger waves in
the skinny part of the line. The distance the waves travel is also
explained by the effects of friction, external and internal, being
greater in the fat part of the line.
Another way of looking at this is to look a the transition from skinny
to fat line as a damper. Energy is lost travelling due to the damping
action of this damper.
When false casting you are pulling on the line to impart energy to
the line and to form good loops. Eventually, friction and gravity, limit
the amount of line you can carry and still keep the line slack free, i.e
with tight loops.
I won't make a flippant remark linking the concept of pushing a rope
to "push" casting at this point. Ooops! I just did. :)
Cheers
Walter
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Walter...
Some real truths, here.
It's especially true with distance roll casting. A crude way of looking at that is that you need fat (heavy) line to always be turning over thinner (lighter) line.
Now let's use a demo to mimick the fact that the caster can have lots of overhang with plenty of skinny (light) line out of the rod and still make a good distance cast, IF :-
1.) The line is straight back from the rod tip before making the forward stroke.
2.) There is no slack in the system.
3.) The rod tip is way back in the direction of the back cast loop.
4.) There is sufficient loop speed that the back cast loop has not fallen too far.
5.) There is an almost perfect straight line path of the rod tip on the forward cast.
6.) The rod is loaded into the butt section.
7.) There is smooth application of power with uninterrupted acceleration.
8.) The rod is unloaded with the tip close to the oncoming line on the forward cast for a nice tight loop.
DEMO:
Stretch out about 70' of line way back from the rod tip on the grass. There can be no waves in the line.
Point the rod tip way back toward the fly with the tip at ground level.
Now make a perfect forward cast.
This will work fine even with a belly of 40' , leaving 30' of overhang !
Most decent casters can't carry that much line while false casting. As they get to their limit of line carried, they tend to waver and place waves in the line which behave as slack....and the back cast loop often starts to open up (which translates into even more slack). They usually can't get up quite enough loop speed, either...so the back cast loop starts to fall too far. The forward presentation cast will be a mess.
That same caster, however, can save the day by false casting until he has the max amount of line out of the rod WHICH HE CAN HANDLE PERFECTLY.....say 60'. On the final back cast, he can shoot 10' into the back cast, pre-load, and for that one back cast now has 70' out of the rod tip, including 30 feet of overhang. If he makes a good forward cast just as the back cast loop is almost fully unfurled, he can make the distance.
I've carefully watched Bill Gammel as he expertly carries 80' of that same line while false casting. He doesn't even need a haul. He has such a straight line path of his rod tip and so much loop speed that he does not need to shoot into the back cast and can come forward and make a beautiful 100' + cast.....with 40 feet of overhang !
.......I can't do that !
Gordy