MCCI study-terms / Tension

Walter & Group......

From Jim Penrod (referring to Jim Valle's advice to MCCI candidates):-

To all potential MCCI candudates,
   Heed the below words well.  It, indeed, is a journey that once you have begun you will find that there is no end point and that is the very best thing about it.  Be warned that it just doesn't happen that one feels that way. You must immerse yourself in it. And even when you know you are ready strange things can sometimes happen and you may have to try again BUT it is not a failure-IT IS LEARNING (And I am speaking from expereience)
Jim

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From Liam Duffy (In answer to my communication with our Irish candidates years ago) :-

Hi Gordy,
             What a memory!!. Yes you are 100% correct I did look for definitions and explainations re various terms used in the U.S. which we were not familiar with here in Ireland.  The one that sticks in my memory was "Pantomime" which over here is a stage show put on at Christmas for children i.e "Snow White", "Jack and the Beanstalk" etc., imagine our confusion when we read the word "Pantomime" in the syllabus!! over here we would use the term "Mime" You've got American English, the Brits have "English English" over here we use "Hiberno English" similar to the English but with a lot more culture (and swear words!)
I agree with you it's good to practice faults but only intentionally!!!

Liam Duffy

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Liam....

As you know, our Aussie candidates, "down under" have some delightfully different expressions and explanations.....They have, "tucker" rather than lunch.  They refer to the Brits as, "pommies" and don't discuss the Irish at all in polite company !

Gordy

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From Lou Bruno:-

Gordy,

I’ve been reading the different comments about Tension from the group and I am reminded of what Joan stated about “constant pressure timing” I think what she stated relates to what we are discussing. She calls it “constant pressure” Joan states,

“a feeling of the line on the rod tip, through every inch of the cast, and instant recognition of its loss.” Page 55 – Fly casting Techniques.

 

Lou

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Lou,

Note the words, "....and instant recognition of its loss."

This is what Ally Gowans meant when he mentioned the momentary loss of the feel of tension at the end of the back stroke at the start of back drift with straight line casting.

If I use high loop speed and shoot line back and then drift, for me that momentary loss of tension is more obvious than when I cast more slowly and don't shoot line as I drift back.

The greater the difference in velocity between that of the rod tip moving back at the drift and that of the rod leg of the loop, the more tension is maintained. (With a rapid back shoot, my rod leg of the loop may move somewhere between 20 and 60 M/sec.  I doubt that I can make my rod tip move back anywhere near that fast on a back drift.)

Gordy

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From Mark Kreider:-

Hi Gordy,

The 'families of casts' concept is fascinating and I think it could become a good teaching/learning tool.  Anyway, it made a light bulb go off in my head.   Instead of considering the whole panoply of casts, a sub-set feels less mentally cluttering, more focused and more accessible.   Each family would have some unique characteristics only common to the family with accompanying unique techniques, problems, remedies and teaching tools.  I think it would be easier for me to wrap my mind around this concept and might be of good use to other intermediate casters.  Of course, this would present a huge problem (as always) for those who would have to choose and decide.  

Mark

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Mark ....   As soon as Ally introduced us to that concept, I embraced it.

This is one reason that the Two Handed Casting Committee has decided to work on their own glossary.

 

Gordy

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Here's a question on tension while fighting a fish from Jim Penrod:

 

Gordy,
  I have a somewhat mundane question regarding reel drag or resistance. As I have read as more line and backing come off the reel the resistance or force on the line increases sometimes resulting in the tippet breaking. I am not sure that I really understand why  that is. I have the feeling that it has something to do with decreasing area resulting in increasing pressure (way back in the recesses of my brain from physics was Pressure=Force/Area) assuming theforce remains the same or increases).  Anyway I would like to appreciate this a bit better.
Jim
P.S. I  really liked Jim Valle's comments to the MCCI candidates. 

 

Jim

 

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Jim...   Not mundane at all ..... and a subject dear to my heart !

 

  Tom White and I had a detailed session on this at our last MCCI prep course in Marathon as we discussed the rationals for the use of large arbor reels for big game fishing.

 

During a long run, as the backing melts from the spool, the diameter of the remaining line on the arbor decreases.

 

As it does, its radius necessarily decreases.

 

That radius can be considered a lever arm to which the running line is attached. The mechanical advantage of that lever increases as its length decreases.  As that happens, it requires greater force on the line to turn the spool which, in turn, revolves ever faster as the fish runs. This translates to increased tension on the line to the point that the tippet breaks.

 

Take a large arbor reel full of line and backing.  Set the drag and use a scale to measure the force needed to pull line off the spool.

 

Now, without changing the drag setting, strip off the fly line and about 200 yds. of backing.  Test the force needed to pull more line off that reel .   You will see that it takes much more force to do that.

 

With either large diameter (large arbor) reels OR wide spool reels, that diameter decreases less as the fish pulls line/backing off the reel, so the increase in drag is not as great and the tippet less likely to break.

 

When fighting tuna and other long running fish on standard fly reels, the trick was to purposely decrease the drag setting as the fish ran out to kingdom come.  (Took guts to to that because, intuitively, it just seemed wrong. ....... but it worked.)

 

Of course all this is just part of the story.  All this tension on the tippet is magnifiied greatly by the increasing resistance to the fly line and backing against the water, especially if the fish changed course.

 

It was amazing to me, during our big game classes, that many students had the idea that one could be, "spooled" as a big game fish ran out all the backing right to the arbor knot leading to loss of all line and backing.  Of course, that never happens, because the tippet always breaks first.

 

This situation is well described in, FISH ON ! a guide to playing and landing big fish on a fly, by Floyd Franke, pp. 52,53 .

Also see, LEFTY KREH'S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO FLY FISHING, p. 387.

 

Gordy