Collapsing head / underpowered cast

Gordy - Let's see if I understand what you are describing:

You are false casting with the head and part of the running line outside of the rod tip. As you form the loop the line separates at the connection

between the running line and the head. When you find the head of the line it has collapsed in a pile. The only thing that is consistent is that the

part of the head that was connected to the running line is closest to where the cast was made from.

If that is the scenario you are describing then I've been having quite a bit of discussion about this lately and some experimentation to back it up.

Once the loop is formed the loop will continue to unroll provided there is enough energy in the line for it to remain airborne until it unrolls completely.

The piece of line, now straight with the running line connection end now closest to the caster, will begin to tumble and collapse to the ground. Since

you can't push a rope, the fly end of the line which is now pointing in the direction of the cast and is leading the rest of the line will be most affected

by chaos/tumbling affect of air resistance.

Gravity does act equally on all parts of the line but the rate at which they fall is subject to differences in air resistance. Two objects of the same

size, shape and density will fall at the same rate but if we change any of these characteristics they will fall at different rates due to different

air resistance - the greater the change in the characteristic the more noticeable the difference in the rate at which they fall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walter: That gives me a better understanding of what goes on in that scenario. (One could take issue with our, "grasping at gnats", but I feel we can all learn from some of these detailed exercises.)

Now .... what about the head which collapses with an underpowered cast with the thin running line still connected ? We have all noted that the back end of the head hits the ground first. One proposal was that the weight of the running line tended to pull it down. Another was that if the trajectory of the cast was in an upward direction, the back end of the head would simply remain lower.... but that didn't explain why this happens even when the trajectory is horizontal. A third thought was that the back end of the head differed from the front end both in diameter and mass and fell at a greater rate . ( ????????????????)

Another thing which occured to me is that in the event that that head was in loop form when the running line came off, that the loop would never unroll because there would be no resistance to the flight of the back end of it. Once you go to the next zip code to retrieve it, you would find it on the ground collapsed in a mess with the back end of the head on the bottom. (This is exactly what we found.).... but that doesn't explain why we found the same thing with an underpowered cast when the connection between the head and the thin running line remained intact.

I realize that when Spey casting, things get a lot more complicated since it would probably make a difference with resplect to whether the collapse happened early while some of the running line was still in the D-loop or whether it was later on the forward delivery.

Your math / physics background will help us, here !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Jerry Puckett :-

Gordy:

I was less than 10 feet when Steve cast a 5 wt. 124 feet plus. Did you discuss with him his shoot and thrust technique. I did observe on final shoot his stroke increased and was done with a lot of power! I would like to get a better "grip" and mental understanding as to how he does this and play with this in practice! It is awesome to watch!

Thanks Jerry

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Jerry

Steve Rajeff and I were casting in winds, yesterday, which were literally 34 to 40 mph on two different wind gauges. We were wind casting with a 11 wt. Loomis one piece Cross Current rod and a large, "tarpon toad" fly on a 10' leader. To make it more of a challenge, he'd under loaded his reel with a 10 wt. intermediate clear Airflo line.

The wind was so bad that at times I thought I'd be blown off the push-pole platform. Came back soaking wet with no hookups.

On that cast you described .... Steve says it was more a burst of SPEED than a burst of power, though it does take both.

Gordy

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

From Michael Gallert :

Gordie,

Hi, how are you?

I just finished the two day clinic, Two Handed Fly -Casting /Spey Clinic with Al Buhr. There is nothing about this I can tell you that you already don't know.

Al is one of the finest instructors I have ever worked with. His teaching, Identification and confidence is unique. His fly line knowledge was a true bonus.

He gave me quite anintroduction to two handed casting. We even headed out to take Stripers after class and damn the Rain and wind, we took fish, and mine on a two handed Rod, having only picked one up a few hours earlier. Now I did spend half the time re-rigging heads and tips and leaders, but I had a tight line before it was over.

Al has inspired me to be a better instructor.

Now on to the pages you sent out as the sample representative questions - WOW, what a resource, Thanks.

I felt better, then worse, than better. I have a way to go, but I'm in the neighborhood.

Trying to get to a prep class, probably just keep visiting masters.

You referred a couple of times to:"BE CERTAIN TO READ THE MASTER STUDY GUIDE"

Do you mean the pages on the FFF website?

Thanks for your dedication

Michael

Here I am with lil Striper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael... Yes, I do mean the Master Study Guide on the website. (We are in the process of up-grading it.) HOWEVER... I feel that a serious MCCI candidate should be certain to have the printed version which is complete with the attached articles. I've been told that this is still available from the FFF office for a modest fee to cover costs.

(Good picture .... but it didn't come through on my MailList Controller.) ...Gordy