VLoops

[Morsie]

Its not a 65 ft hd. It's @ 65 ft. So leader (13ft) plus line (38ft), plus rod (14ft), and I like to run with a minimum of 3ft of overhang, so plenty of margin. I'm getting on top of it, had a good session today. Put more "slope" into the tip path and focused on getting this anchor placement first, rather than focusing on loop shape.

[springer]

Its not a 65 ft hd. It's @ 65 ft. So leader (13ft) plus line (38ft), plus rod (14ft), and I like to run with a minimum of 3ft of overhang, so plenty of margin. I'm getting on top of it, had a good session today. Put more "slope" into the tip path and focused on getting this anchor placement first, rather than focusing on loop shape.

Ok that makes more sense, good luck.

[Morsie]

Cheers mate, plenty of time with the current lockdown and I have a lake 5 minutes away. Part of the problem was pointed out to me be by a local fellow MCI and that's a little slack at the beginning due to the stillwater. Nothing quite like the line tension that flow gives you.

[carlz]

Part of the problem was pointed out to me be by a local fellow MCI and that's a little slack at the beginning due to the stillwater. Nothing quite like the line tension that flow gives you.

This is a golden nugget of information. It should be obvious, but having someone state it so clearly might make it stick in my head.

I'm just starting to work on two and casting but making a repeatable dloop is my main area of focus. This thread has been really helpful.

[Morsie]

I'm using body shift to eliminate that slack before I do anything else Carlz. I realised I'd developed a habit (from teaching) of separating the lift and whichever move comes afterwards, in order to set the pattern of "lift first" for my students. Robert Gillespie's incline exercise is absolutely gold in this process.

[Morsie]

Had a chat to a fellow MCI Shaun Ash, who is also working toward his THCI and he gave me this nugget of advise via Carl Zarelli for the V loop, and it works perfectly. The rod tip needs to be coming forward and already over the anchor as it touches down. Yep.

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Morsie

Why does creeping help you in getting a loop shape that is mostly due to rodtip path during the acceleration?

Cheers
Lasse

[Morsie]

Tension, stopping the anchor leg from sagging and point P dropping back well behind me. Its not creeping because it's deliberate. Works a treat.

[Paul Arden]

Do we agree that the apex of the V originates from when the line passes the rod tip? That apex then runs down the flyline from the rod tip to Point P which may not have touched down yet?

If that’s the case (and that’s how I see it) then there are two parts to the V-loop. The “rod leg” and the “anchor leg”. The anchor leg is controlled by the path the rod tip follows up until “loop formation” is what Lasse is describing. And the rod leg is controlled by the connection (tension & tip path) between the rod tip and the V’s apex, after loop formation, ie what Morsie is describing.

We often talk about “anticipating the line landing”. And I think we often, in fact almost always, start the (Overall) Casting Stroke prior to the anchor touching down. Aitor had a video about this many years ago which showed the Casting Stroke itself *beginning* before the anchor touched down! And I think that’s mostly what happens for a kiss and go cast.

Cheers, Paul

[Morsie]

I find its a very interesting and challenging exercise Paul, especially the requirement to have Point P level with you - or in front of your position. I only have stillwater to practise on and that absence of tension from current flow reinforces the fundamental necessity for tension right from the start. I remember sitting back and watching Gawsey in BC on the Bulkley and in that current he would happily pause at the top of every lift. It was momentary, but do that on stillwater and you're going to struggle.

There's so much going on in these touch and go casts Paul, they look simple but........ Great Spey casters seem to have an ability to make that apex suspend, or hover. I'm guessing we maintain that tension through moving the rod tip in the right direction at the right time. If we don't, the whole shebang drops and Point P very quickly moves behind us, and the amount of anchor increases in the blink of en eye. I have learned enough to know that most of the time I'm going too fast (with most of the things I do in life).

In my sustained anchor casts I have learned the importance of the lift (which is a form of "mobile pause") which gives time for the Dloop to mature and for the Dloop to pull that anchor into line. That lift is the equivalent of a pause, and it's the same kind of tensioning pause you use on a 170 when you lift your rod hand straight up before coming forward - it also puts your hand in a better position for the FC. This coming forward early for the Vloop is initially a drag move, but certainly it's also rotational, if drag can have rotation as a component and still be socially acceptable. It works very well for me, was throwing loops like nails the other day when I finally got around to applying it. Anchor was the right shape and in the right place and Point P was level with me. I'm assuming the V's were tight enough, but they felt bloody good. Very happy.