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“Slide-loading” and minimal contact

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Paul Arden
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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#11

Post by Paul Arden »

Well that took a while to edit! A bit more info on this shot here...



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Paul Arden
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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#12

Post by Paul Arden »

I should mention that the first two metres of fly line have no zebra marks and then there are 11x1ft black strips separated by one foot intervals. And next week I nail the bastards.

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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#13

Post by Graeme H »

I like the video Paul. It shows the line movement very well.

I can't really remember how long before the trip I started practicing this specific cast. I guess it would have been 6 weeks prior to leaving that I got serious about using it, and by about three weeks, it was looking pretty good. Tweaking after that involved more "slide-loading", longer translations and later rotations.

I do remember having a head start in that I often slip line on the lift anyway, so that part wasn't hard to incorporate into the final cast.

But it really fell into place nicely when I bought a SA line (Tarpon?) that had a textured running line. The audible cues worked very well because I knew I had to be hearing the line move through the guides more than not moving through the guides. Maximising the total duration of noise before I formed the loop was the goal ...

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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#14

Post by Mangrove Cuckoo »

About the "Snake Head stroke"

Just to clarify...

You are not suggesting that slipping line at the beginning of the back cast stroke is a better way to make all casts, right? This is useful only in the case where you have a minimal amount of line outside the rod tip?

Dusting off some old math I figured the maximum amount of line that you could possibly slip is around 12 feet, given you are moving a 9' rod 90 degrees, and you are not slipping through the entire arc.

It would have to be more efficient to just have that extra 12' of line outside the rod tip first, and not slip at all until you shoot line into the back cast.

Or is there some magic?

(This is just me being skeptical... I'm still not convinced that sliding into "power position" before the forward stroke is more efficient either, but I know there are many who do. I chalk it up to valuing max distance over efficiency.)
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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#15

Post by Mangrove Cuckoo »

Graeme,

I found a similar value in textured lines when I fought through my distaste of all the "noise" and realized it was another sensory tool to "feel" how I was casting.

But ya know we are not supposed to talk about "feel". :D
With appreciation and apologies to Ray Charles…

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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#16

Post by Graeme H »

Mangrove Cuckoo wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 12:34 am
It would have to be more efficient to just have that extra 12' of line outside the rod tip first, and not slip at all until you shoot line into the back cast.

Or is there some magic?
The more line there is outside the tip, the longer it takes to lift off the water and the harder it is to make large changes of direction. That back cast is aimed directly away from the fish (as much as possible). With more line out, that angular change is difficult.

Slipping line during the forward stroke increases the amount of line outside the tip at the moment we begin accelerating that line, so we can make a longer cast (we've accelerated more mass, so we can shoot further.)

We can actually get a little more than we'd calculate because we have been shooting line on that back cast and that should still be happening as the forward stroke begins.

I'm not actually a fan of the strongly textured lines but I do like to hear the line slipping and shooting a little. Feel? Yeah, that's a good way to put it. ;)

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Re: “Slide-loading” and minimal contact

#17

Post by Paul Arden »

Hi Gary,

When chasing adults with babies I do sometimes lengthen the line outside the tip in preparation for a longer shot. You can see this in lots of videos; babies appear at distance and I “mend” the line length in preparation for a longer shot. It is certainly possible to cast further from a longer pickup, no question. However there isn’t always the time to make this adjustment with adults/babies and there is *never* the time to make this adjustment with free-risers. Free-risers can appear anywhere from right next to the boat (usually spook, but sometimes they are looking the other way!) up to whatever distance you can quickly reach. It’s always better to go from short to long than long to short! Generally I’m looking at an area of about 270 degrees (but I’ll take the full 360 if I can get through the boat) anywhere from next to the boat to my maximum shot which realistically ~20m would be a long free-riser shot (generally it’s better to close the gap and wait for the next rise).

The other considerations are, as Graeme points out, speed and angle changes - these are far better executed from a slipped short line than a longer pickup.

When I first started working on this shot for free-risers, I compared the speed of the cast from a longer pickup vs a shorter pickup slipping line. It is undoubtedly quicker to slip pickup than pickup the equivalent final line length off the water. (Of course it’s possible to rip the line off the water but this is generally not a good idea, especially with a popper which always dives under and comes out with an enormous “Bloop”). The advantage of a longer pickup of course is that you can slip even more line on the lift and shoot considerably more again on the backcast, so it’s actually the same technique, just more of it!!

So here it’s 1-2 second shots. Free-risers you never know quite when or where they will appear. With babies/adults you get a small warning usually when the babies appear first. You let the adult rise and then you have 1-2 seconds to start blooping the fly. It must be accurate; in front of the fish by 1 metre or so. Too close fish spooks. Too far away, or short, and the will ignore your blooping and rise spooked the next time it breathes.

The interesting thing of course is if you apply these techniques to your normal cast you save one false cast. I’ll get the tape measure out this week and film some longer shots. They’re starting to free-rise and I have some footage of that too.

Fly-in-hand is out and false casting is out. Both are too slow. Most of the time even the snakehead shot is too slow!

Cheers, Paul
It's an exploration; bring a flyrod.

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