Practice "fly" size and shape

[askel]

Yesterday I went out for fly casting practice session and had to cancel it due to "fly" issue. It would make a spiral about a foot in diameter and caused line to collapse way before the loop unrolls.

It was Sage XP 596 with Rio Gold WF5F and self-tied leader which I guess didn't matter in that case. The "fly" was like an inch and a half of synthetic yarn folded in half with piece of 20# backing and glued at that spot to make it a cone with hard top and fluffy bottom. I guess I didn't trim it evenly enough but there wasn't obvious way-off asymmetry in it. May be it was way too big for the line.

What's the usual size and shape for non-exotic practice fly?

Thanks,
Alex

P.S. Although I'm not a great caster but I can do double-haul which actually didn't make things any better and only resulted in helicopter-like noise.

[Paul Arden]

I think you’ve been unlucky there, Alex. I generally pay less attention to detail and I haven’t had this issue. Perhaps the fly was too large for the diameter/mass of the tippet as well as being trimmed unevenly?

A few times I’ve tied the fluff lengthwise as opposed to crosswise for distance championships. I really haven’t done enough experiments to know if it makes a lot difference whatsoever! I also use Bivisible accuracy flies with the hook cut immediately before the bend.

But mostly I simply knot the tippet using two granny knots each time looping over the fluff, followed by looping over again and then finished by making a tucked half blood - it’s unscientifically ugly

I have had fishing flies spin on me of course, many times!

Cheers!
Paul

Ps I’m sure you’ll get much better advice than this

[Graeme H]

Mine is just a piece of yellow polyester "wool", folded over on itself and tied in with a Eugene bend, then trimmed with scissors to be the appropriate size for the line being used. It's usually trimmed about 1cm from the tippet for the 6wt line I practice with.

Cheers,
Graeme

[askel]

I have had fishing flies spin on me of course, many times!

I've never had that with real flies. I guess because saltwater flies are often weighted and line is 8 wt or heavier so fly's aerodynamics do not affect casting that much.

[askel]

1cm from the tippet for the 6wt line

Graeme, that explains it. I used like 2.5cm long "fly" with 5wt line. Also, when I got home and tried to trim it more evenly I realized a superglue that I used on its "head" penetrated one side of the "fly" more than the rest of it so even the shape was more or less symmetric only one side of it was hard and that caused spinning.

[Paul Arden]

It can happen with flat winged spent flies. I have a foam bodied termite that has to be tied just right. But I’ve also had it with hair wing flies, and smaller streamers. Foam floating fry patterns are a bugger for spinning as can be suspender buzzers (ball in stocking variety) and can’t be fished on droppers.

Cheers, Paul

[Thomas]

Hi,

There are a lot of dryflys that easiliy will spin a leader if it has a long and thin tippet. I stay away from such patterns like the plague.

/Thomas

[nicholasfmoore]

Hi Alex,

Sounds like your tippet is far too thin for the fly you are using

I use a piece of veniards glo bug egg yarn, flouresent green, cut to the size of my thumb nail for teaching and practicing. You really don't need a lot. The stuff as it comes is too thick in my opinion, so I use about 3/4 of the rope strand. For a leader I use Rio's 9' 10lb power flex which works very well, needle knotted into the fly line. I then use a uni knot to connect fluff to the tippet.

All the best!

[Geenomad]

What's the usual size and shape for non-exotic practice fly?

Hi Alex
Can't say what the usual size is generally. In my case it's about 25mm. Standard practice combo is 5wt. The "fly" is doubled piece of orange builders string with piece of pink builders string clamped between the double and all held together with a wrap of tying thread coated with super glue or UV resin.The string is teased out below the wrap to be nicely fluffy.

I have stuck with this because it's visible at considerable distance and when dry the weight is about the same as a #10 wet fly. When wet it matches a bigger fly when that's wet. If that makes sense.

For the spiral thingie, it's hard to say exactly but as Nick suggested it does sound like a leader issue with tippet too thin.

Cheers
Mark

[askel]

Sounds like your tippet is far too thin for the fly you are using

Being mostly a saltwater guy I don't even have too thin tippet material. The finest I have is 10lb fluorocarbon.