Snap T 90 degrees

[Paul Arden]

http://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/snap-t-90/

[jarmo]

Greetings.

I was doing some snap-ts today, with a 15' rod. When the amount of fly line outside the rod tip was around 62' (excluding leader), I started to have trouble with the location of the anchor: after the snap, the tip of the line ended too far "upstream." This was on stillwater, though.

So, in the snap stage, I was unable to cast the body "far enough downstream." At around 62', the tip of the line was a rod distance from me, at best, after the snap. I tried different angles in the snap, stronger lift with weaker snap, weaker lift with stronger snap, but a rod distance away from me was the best I got. I tried to initiate the lift as far downstream as possible.

Any ideas on how to get the anchor closer to me / make this work with longer lengths of line?

[Paul Arden]

Hi Jarmo,

There is definitely going to be a length limitation. There is actually a solution to do two snaps but gauging length is always a problem this way. A far better solution is to aerielise the snap (snap over instead of under), sweep the rod around and then draw the line back into position with an on-shoulder snake roll. The line only anchors after the Snake.

I might need to make a video? It’s an elegant solution and causes far less disturbance on the water.

The Spiral/Snake can anchor just about any aerielised line configuration very precisely.

I’ve been meaning to make a video of this for ages. I’ll try this week. I’ve been promising videos for ages

Cheers, Paul

[jarmo]

There is actually a solution to do two snaps but gauging length is always a problem this way. A far better solution is to aerielise the snap (snap over instead of under), sweep the rod around and then draw the line back into position with an on-shoulder snake roll. The line only anchors after the Snake.

I might need to make a video? It’s an elegant solution and causes far less disturbance on the water.

Because I think I can imagine what your are talking about, the answer is yes, you absolutely need to make a video of this!

While waiting for your cool cast to land on our screens, I was fortunately able to find a solution with snap-t this morning.

And what a gorgeous morning it was. A bit of mist over the sea, light breeze, plenty of birds around to keep me company, no people around yet to interrupt with the natural questions. (Catching any with that piece of yarn?)

But I digress. This is what I did, and some sort of logic for each step. Here I am calling the two stages of a snap "lift up" and "snap down." This is a snap-t (not snap-c).

1. I initiated lift up further upstream. I can relate this to the double spey: if the tip of your line ends too far upstream, start the sweep closer to the caster / rod higher.
2. I lifted up purely with a rotation, and very slowly. (Typically I use some translation.)
3. I continued lifting up until the entire fly line was in the air. At that point rod rotation had created a good deal of angular change for the snap down. (Typically I may snap down while some line is still on the water.)
4. I then snapped down briskly in the downstream direction.

With these changes, I was able to move the tip of the fly line to my feet, so some 15-20' in the desired direction. Because the head of this line is 66', problem solved for this one. Next I will load up my XLT and see where the limit is now.

[Paul Arden]

That’s nice! So the tip path on the snap down is longer? I’ll try to have a play tonight. In the middle of loading my boat but stuck in a rainstorm

I’ll definitely make the video this week. Since you are playing with this stuff, what I like to do is to practise aerielisIng all the Spey casts. Even the Double Spey can be aerielised, or aerielised up until anchor point if you want an anchor. Personally I’ve never understood why we would put a Snap T onto the water only to lift it off again. Circle C makes sense - heavy flies and so on. But the Snap T I think should be kept airborne.

The trick (without a video) is to snap over the lift instead of underneath. You have to snap slightly inside to avoid a rod tip/line collision. And then you have time to sweep line around into place (or spiral it around).

OK it’s stopped raining but it’s getting dark!

Cheers, Paul

[jarmo]

That’s nice! So the tip path on the snap down is longer?

Yes. Physicists, please excuse my French, but while I was solving the problem I was thinking about keeping upstream momentum small while maximizing downstream momentum.

Personally I’ve never understood why we would put a Snap T onto the water only to lift it off again.

I use snap-t as an alternative to single spey in rough wind: positioning the anchor is more powerful (read "accurate" in wind), and when the anchor gets there it stays there. Then again, I have not tried your cool cast yet.

The trick (without a video) is to snap over the lift instead of underneath. You have to snap slightly inside to avoid a rod tip/line collision. And then you have time to sweep line around into place (or spiral it around).

I promise to try to replicate the cast with a DH after I have seen it on video.

[Paul Arden]

I will try self-filming off the back of the boat later this week.

[jarmo]

In the autumn, I had some trouble replicating my success with the longer-line snap-t method I outlined above. It was very inconsistent.

I thought about this during the winter, and aerial snaps gave me the idea of snapping over the lift.

Today I opened my double-handed casting season. I was casting a 66' head, 15' leader, with a 15' rod, so theoretical max. feet to fly 96'. By snapping over, the tip of the fly line landed at my feet. So that turned out to be a success, at least with a full floater and a piece of fluff. And this was on stillwater, with some wind and waves, so no initial tension.

I will try with longer heads later.

Holding the double-handed rod again, after this kind of a winter, was like meeting a friend.

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Jarmo, sorry I haven’t made this video. The road to hell... I will get it done. This is a very old PoD https://www.sexyloops.com/picofday/sexy ... ops7.shtml
There are numerous aerielised snaps in this video but no teaching.
You can choose to place the anchor in front, along side or slightly behind with this method. Also pretty much any angle change is possible. You can also Snap up and then Snake/spiral the anchor into place which has some benefits over the “Single Spey” Sweep, particularly with a longer line length and angle changes closer to 180 degrees. I think there are a few of those in the freestyle video. (But I am fucking around there with numerous Snaps and Snakes so it’s difficult to pick them out. Double Snaps (particularly in different planes!!!) and Double Snakes is just good fun really. But a Single aerielised Snap plus a Single Snake to anchor, that’s a fishing cast for me and it’s part of my ingrained subconscious cast selection. Ie it just happens when required for a shot and I frequently use it.

It’s also possible to aerielise the anchor (poppers do not like to be anchored) but they will sit there mid-air. That’s one of my free-rising shots.

Cheers, Paul

[jarmo]

Hi Paul.

I got the idea of snapping over the lift from one of your videos, but I do not think it was this one. I can not find the video right now, but it is somewhere on this site.

Anyway, it was another moment of enlightenment.