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Help me here please. On my left side snake roll and double spey I have a persistent snap that I can eliminate sometimes - but I simply cannot isolate the cause - there may be several things going on. A list of causes would be a good place to start as I'm guessing there's more than one......

Are you referring to a sound that is made during the forward delivery

Hi Morsie,

Without knowing more it sounds like your anchor is too short or hasn’t made contact. Consequently as you accelerate forwards the line end accelerates backwards before going forwards. A bit like starting the forward cast too soon on an overhead cast.

You can test for this by fully aerielising the cast deliberately (everything can be aerielised - the interesting thing is you can actually get away with this and without the crack by starting your forward cast slower).

[Also it’s worth mentioning that casting with a short or poorly tapered leader, particularly without a fly or fluff, especially with a heavier Spey line, can also cause the same problems.]

Cheers, Paul

Yes Lee, popping the leader on the fc.

Leader construction is fine Paul, its 14ft long, 10ft of butt followed by a 2 section taper and a bit of fluff on the end - there's no cracking on the rhs.

Not a lot of information about this "out there", just occasional references and its really pissing me off that I can't nail this down.

Quite often it’s simply having the confidence to wait a little longer before delivering the cast.

What cures do you use when casting RHU?

It just very rarely happens on the right Lee.

There is so much contradictory advise around Spey. "Letting the anchor settle a bit" seems to work, but it also seems to be a hair's breadth of timing - perhaps I'm just a lot more relaxed on the right. I got ticked off in my THCI last time round for having too much anchor on the snake roll so have been very conscious of anchor shape and size. Its possible that this has led to me rushing............. Would more than say 50% top hand (difficult to measure I know, but at a guess) be a contributing factor, ie rod tip travelling up at the start of the fc and this both overpowering and lifting the anchor? When i can watch I do notice that the fluff does fly backwards and crack but some casts it barely moves at all. Is this a Dloop alignment issue?

Hey Morsie

I'd suggest two possible issues:

1) Timing as mentioned above.
2) The other thing is something Aitor has in one of his videos, and which has been helpful to me: If the angle of the portion of the D-loop coming off the water is too steep, that can result in a slipping anchor. I think this can be caused by lifting too high/too soon into the D-loop. Thinking about this has helped me especially with really short (Skagit) heads, where I kept blowing anchors no matter what I did with timing. I flattened out my tip path during the sweep a little and that seems to help a lot. The other advantage of curing this is that you might end up with a wider casting arc, which helps the cast really fly!

You have my deepest sympathies in trying to sort out a wayward LHU cast! Videoing has helped me pick up unconscious differences vs RHU

Cheers

W.

This is Aitor's video as mentioned above. A pretty extreme example! :-)

https://vimeo.com/376915700

So you don’t have the issue in switch, snap-t or single spey?

I would first check that key position and power application on fwd cast are the same in the problematic casts as they are in the ok versions. That would eliminate fwd cast issues.

As for setup, I would

• check anchor length and position (should be same)
• decrease sweep power
• decrease sweep angle (of attack).

No issue on SS, Switch or Snaps. There's just something on with the other two. I had looked at the too steep incline on the anchor but will revisit it. I suspect its a witches brew of small faults that accumulates into one pop. Will get some video done, weather has not been suitable.

Thanks.