Hello. From Florida.

paulrad · #1

Hello. My name is Paul. I grew up in Florida (southeastern USA), lived in Colorado for about 15 years, and now I'm back in Florida. I work in IT (my advise would be don't get into IT in case anyone is curious). Other than fishing, I spend a lot of time surfing and shooting guns. I mostly fish saltwater flats of Mosquito Lagoon or backcountry type creeks here in east central Florida. On the flats I'll generally use an old, leaky canoe. I hate the canoe so I'm currently working up the nerve to spend a bunch of money on a fishing kayak. In the backcountry I'll use a johnboat with a 9.9HP.

I really enjoy casting a fly even though I'm not especially great at it. Sometimes I'll even practice my casting!

I have gone in a couple casting competitions and thoroughly enjoyed it even though I'm not in any danger of winning.

One thing I've been looking for is some kind of chart showing various loop shapes and how they are formed. I notice on my forward cast an odd sort of shape (definitely a fault of some sort) that I'd like to figure out. It's a bump on the bottom leg of my loop. I'd think that a handy chart giving me some ideas on fix actions might be helpful.

What else??? I used to have loomis crosscurrent GLX rods in 6, 8, 10. I realized they didn't fit my casting style and I now have Hardy proaxis one piece in 9 and 10 and a Scott Meridian in 7. I much prefer these to the CCGLX's. But the thing is that I don't really understand why. I just know I cast them better, and they don't feel like I've got so much mass I'm having to deal with.

Anyway, that's my intro. Thanks for reading. I hope to be a net contributor here.

Graeme H · #2

G'day Paul,

Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you're doing okay already. That bump in the rod leg of the loop may not be a fault. Does it look anything like the shape you see in the logo above? If so, carry on: that's a great cast.

Cheers,
Graeme

jarmo · #3

paulrad wrote:One thing I've been looking for is some kind of chart showing various loop shapes and how they are formed. I notice on my forward cast an odd sort of shape (definitely a fault of some sort) that I'd like to figure out. It's a bump on the bottom leg of my loop. I'd think that a handy chart giving me some ideas on fix actions might be helpful.

Welcome!

I have had the chance to enjoy these bumps, so here is my diagnosis in hope yours might be similar.

When this happens, I am not smooooth enough in my forward stroke. A minor spike in power takes place when I engage a new muscle/joint, be it triceps or wrist.

Paul Arden · #4

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the Board!

Is it just one bump? This is normally caused by counterflex after the rod unloads.

Cheers, Paul

Paul Arden · #5

Does it look like this?

Cheers, Paul

Paul Arden · #6

You can see how the loop forms which the bottom “bounce” caused by tip counterflex. Sometimes you’ll get a few of these kicks which is failure for the rod to damp well. There are some things you can do to try to counteract this, such as use less effort or try to be smoother. But a really good rod shouldn’t do this; when I test them I shock them to see how they behave.

Cheers, Paul

paulrad · #7

Hi guys. Thanks for the responses.

Regarding the loop I'm throwing...
If the sexyloops logo looks something like this:

: penelope-cruz-cover-shoot.jpg (45.22 KiB) Viewed 6401 times

...then my loops look more like this:

: hilldabeast.jpg (6.97 KiB) Viewed 6401 times

I'll see if I can get a picture in next day or so. In the meantime, happy Easter everyone!

Paul Arden · #8

Fortunately it's possible to go from Hilldabeast to Penelope Cruz. Happy Easter!

Cheers, Paul

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