As I wrote on the first post in this series we already have a pretty good idea of how tails are formed; getting rid of them is another matter entirely.
I truly admire the insights of instructors from yesterday: reaching the conclusion that tailing loops come from a concave tip path of the rod tip wouldn’t come easily, specially if we take into account that there wasn’t high speed video available at the time. Today’s technology effortlessly shows that, in fact, it is a dip/rise of the rod tip what creates the dreaded tail. And this evidence renews my admiration for the amazing observation skills of those pioneers of casting studies, for although that dip/rise is somewhat a “concave path of the rod tip” it has nothing to do with those big bowl shaped tip paths so many drawings depict. For years those bowl shaped explanations were to me as perplexing as the tailing loops themselves: however much I looked whenever I saw a tail in someone’s casting I couldn’t see that big concave path everybody was writing about. Not even on the casting videos available. Reality is much much more subtle, so subtle that seeing with the naked eye the expected anomaly in the tip path -even knowing what to look for- is really hard. Here we have a tailing loop in full glory. It is played at a slower pace than real speed. The tail could be used to illustrate a casting handbook; can you see the “bowled rod tip” anywhere?:
Better to use a gif at 100 frames per second, that is 1/4 of the actual speed:
Observe how even at a pace three times slower than reality we just can catch a glimpse of some anomaly in the tip path. So let’s use a visual aid to see what is exactly happening with the rod tip:
This has cleared things up a little bit. Mainly two things come to my mind. First is that to get a tailing loop, even a huge one like that shown above, you only need to mess up a relatively short piece of the casting stroke. Second is a consequence of the previous observation and my main point so far: that this problem is so recurring due to the fact that a very small error, for just an instant, results in a surprinsingly big effect. It isn’t easy to feel, and then correct, things that happen in an instant, is it? It isn’t easy to detect for the caster himself nor for anyone else. The tailing loop depicted above is really huge. Let’s watch carefully another good one of more moderate size. Can you detect where in the stroke does the error happens even in slow motion? I can’t. The only way is playing the original video frame by frame to discover a veeery subtle dip and rise of the rod tip:
Dip/Rise of the rod tip. It is worth to emphasize the “Rise” part since that motion is key in the formation of the transverse wave in the fly leg that we commonly call tailing loop. But that, together with some considerations about what is the ultimate cause of tails, is the stuff for a next article. P.S. The tailing loops shown here are real ones, nothing staged for the camera but involuntarily produced. The caster is a really fine one who drove from 400 km away for a course to improve his technique (I felt flattered and, at the same time, worried: would I deliver as expected?) His hauled casts were really nice. Then I took the camera and asked him to cast with the rod hand only. Removing the haul wreaks havoc with line control, but it is a fantastic exercise to educate our rod hand.
More material on tailing loop issues:
Tailing Loops and the 180º Rule and Breaking the 180º rule and no tailing loop. Again
onemorelastcast.net 
Excellent post Aitor, once again. Here, according to me, the violent acceleration at the beginning of the casting stroke is the main cause for the dip/rise of the rod tip creating the wave in the line. And yes, removing the haul is a very good exercise to educate the rod hand ;-). Hope you are doing well and thanks for your blog.
Malik
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Yes, it is always about a faulty acceleration. Anyway, in my view, that surge in force normally doesn’t happen at the very beginning of the stroke, it comes later as a consequence of the opposite: a stroke that starts with a too low rate of acceleration.
I think to remember that is Bruce Richards’ point derived from analyzing lots of data from his Casting Analyzer.
Thank you for stopping by!
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Excellent food for thought Aitor.
Best wishes, Andrew
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Glad to hear from you, Andrew!
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Interesting and insightful thoughts.
Thanks for posting, Aitor 😊
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Thanks for stopping by, Trevor.
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fantastic as always Buddy. thanks ! i’ll share an excerpt of this on TLC 🙂
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My pleasure! 😉
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[…] not add more. click HERE for Aitor’s complete article including different gifs at different speeds and rod tip path […]
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Excellent stuff as always Aitor.
Many thanks.
Will
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My pleasure!
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what’s very noticeable, specially in the first gif is the caster isn’t making a smooth transition between the lift and the beginning of the stroke. this seems to be common among many fishers/casters, specially on grass.
i wonder if he does the same when on water ?
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There isn’t a lift, it is a false forward cast.
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what do you mean by false FC ?
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He is not lifting from the ground, the line was in the air in front. A false cast, you know? 🙂
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ok, strange way of putting it… 😛
anyhow, the line angle (on the false FC 😆 ) is very low. that’s why i thought it was a pick-up.
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Strange that a false cast is a strange concept to a CI. 🙂
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Hi Aitor,
thank you for this very interesting post!
In your last gif, it seems that there is a shock in the rod during the first second or so, that maybe is caused by the front cast finishing to unroll. in this case the BC starts too soon, it’s creep if I’m not mistaken, and that may be the cause of the tail.
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Traveling at the moment. Back to you on Sunday.
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Yep! That shock is the telltale sign of the loop straightening.
Anyway take into account that the cast is shown at a third of its real speed, I mean that in reality it is a really tiny fault in timing, if any.
Moreover the angle of the rod doesn’t change due to that “creeping” so IMHO it isn’t the cause of the tailing loop.
Specially when slo-mos prove that notorious creeping doesn’t create tails by themselves. Creeping isn’t mathematically equal to tailing loop. As shown here:
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Hi Aitor,
In this exemple, the power application is smooth enough to avoid the dip/rise of the rod tip which cause a TL if it occurs during the loading phase of the stroke. So, according to me, you are perfectly right : creeping is not “per se” a cause of TL.
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I think I get that creeping is not per se a cause for TL, but my opinion is that the energy from the schock is the real cause. that would in turn explain why hauling is good for tails, because controling the line with the hauling hand will allow some cushioning, dissipating a part of this turn shock energy.
does this make sense?
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If you mean that the bending/unbending of the rod due to the shock could be the culprit of the wave producing the tail… yep, it does make sense to pay attention to it.
Good stuff to analyze in high speed video.
Let’s say that I use the same rod and line (by the way, a Sage Method 590/Rio Gold Tournament #6). If I make a similar false cast and get the same rod shock I should have a TL, right?
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first just to check my understanding. you say : “the wave producing the tail”, but I thought that the tail WAS the wave. is that not the case?
second, you’re right. if the suggestion is correct that the wave/tail is caused by the shock (witnessed by the bending/unbending), then probably I shouldn’t relate that to creep, but rather to overpowered frontcast, wich is really a problem when the length of the line is fixed.
… and here’s where I have a lightbulb moment and understand maybe a little better one of the many things that are wrong with my cast!!
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Yes, the wave in the line is what we commonly call tailing loop.
Let’s say that that shock in the rod is the origin of the tail we see. If I film a cast showing the same rod shock I should get a tail, right? And if a tail doesn’t appear that would mean that we have to look for the cause in some other place, right?
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I suspect you have such footage, and I’m eager to look at it.
I’d say that obviously other parameters may come into play : stiffness of the rod, fly, leader and line design.
For instance, I seem to have noticed that the worse cases of TL occur with heavy and compact nymphs. Comparatively light but very wind-resistant pike streamers seem to make unintentional TLs very rare. I may be biased in my memories, though.
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Stiffness of the rod sounds the most likely: that gets us back to faulty acceleration.
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at any rate, slomo videos are a fantastic tool to understand what goes on. I’d love to see the last one of your post with the full line visible.
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I will shoot something but it will take some time.
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All right. It’s been already quite some food for my thoughts. But if you can show me a Method bouncing when starting a cast with a reasonably straight tip path without getting a tail, then I’ll have to confess once more to be at my wits’ end.
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Unfortunately I don’t have a Method (that one is 400 km away) but I have the same line. I will use some other rod.
It is an interesting experiment, thanks for the feedback.
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Brilliant post Aitor. In the last one, the dip happens with the tip just out of frame. Overpowered the previous forward cast or starting the back cast too early?
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IMO overpowered. Also I don’t think that dip is the origin of the tail.
Maybe I will have the caster around here in two weeks time, so will try to film some rod tip dips due to overpowered casts… hopefully without any tailing loop 😉
Thanks Vince.
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Hi Aitor, If you have your camera on during the summer I will give you some free tailing loop demos, courtesy of the sidra 🙂
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Great! 🙂
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Hello Aitor,
great stuff as usual!
Many sources of information on the www still claim:
“Creep is the cause for tailing loops.”
For me (and I know you agree) Creep is just a name for a movement in fly casting, which may be used for good, or which may support trouble for the next cast.
The most often cause for a tailing loop ime is:
– too uneven force application (somewehere within the casting stroke)
>> a partly concave tip path will happen (as your illustration perfectly demonstrates)
There are other causes like:
– too narrow casting arc not matching the applied force (and thus resulting in too much rod bend for the size of the arc)
This one I don’t see often. Most students use an arc significant bigger, than it would have to. Yes, even if they have creep included.
Watching instructors demonstrating creep (and creep only) leading to a tailing loop, I mostly saw them a) extremely creeping and b) stopping pretty high. Thus shortening the arc on both sides. Also fair to say: often the rod was lifted just prior the stop in addition or uneven force application was added as well.
Besides all this not waiting for the line to unroll or having slack in the system also may lead to increase the wave in the fly-leg. As a stand alone cause for (serious) tailing loops I hardly ever see this performed by students.
Cheers
Bernd
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I fundamentally agree, Bernd.
In practice I never see too narrow casting angles; that is the exclusive stuff of instructors’ demos of non existent problems.
Just a caveat: starting the cast before the unrolling of the loop or slack in the line aren’t per se conducive to tails. Both issues will require more force from the caster, but if that force is correctly applied there won’t be any problem.
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Bernd I see “insufficient arc” as a cause of tailing loops when people try to cast longer but don’t increase their arc – usually intermediate casters and that’s about the one time it appears. More line, more force, same arc = TL caused by too much acceleration compressed into too short an arc. Its an issue with those who have fished much the same length of line with the same rod for too long, and when they want to throw further…………I have also encountered a few “punchers” who use mostly stroke and little arc, but probably only half a dozen in many years of teaching. They are a rare treat for an instructor. My step son was one, but he’s a good caster now.
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[…] an attachment to the previous articles on tailing loops (here and here) now an exercise on diagnosing a common casting […]
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G’day Aitor
I’ve recently had cause to reflect on TLs (yet again!) while getting to know a new rod. It’s a savage beast and trying to tame it into producing maximum distance has meant retuning acceleration, and consequently other things. The beast, of course, only responds to the caress and reacts violently against any sign of aggression.
In that context the “what” part of causing TLs was not really addressed until I focussed on the “why” part – why do I/we overpower? That begs a long answer but a shortish version is that I/we tend instinctively to treat casting like throwing where further and faster generally means throwing harder. The default causes the fault. The longer the cast, the longer the stroke, the greater the risk of throwing TLs. As you say, it takes so little to do so much harm. Not much original in any of that but it gives the background.
My partner used to be a ballerina. Movement is something she understands and grace, she once told me, is economy of movement. The American poet Emerson once said, “The line of beauty is the result of perfect economy.” I have adopted this as my casting mantra, as a state of mind for the *whole* of the cast. It’s where form marries function. Ties in too with your earlier post:
Understanding the mechanics of what causes TLs is helpful but as you point out, it doesn’t mean we won’t make them anymore. My contribution might not be to everyone’s taste but I hope what helped me might be useful to others.
Cheers
Mark
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Excellent points Mark!
The economy of motion is key IMHO. Economy not only in motion for that matter. I remember a conversation with a fishing mate about how good certain reel was; so many parts so beautifully crafted, he said. It isn’t about having many parts, but as few as possible to give the same performance.
You say:
“…the longer the stroke, the greater the risk of throwing TLs.”
Humm, I would say the opposite 🙂
Thank you for your contribution.
Aitor
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WordPress seems to have clipped my link. The earlier post was Feb 16 “To Straighten or Not to Straighten.”
Cheers
Mark
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Excellent post, Mark.
I observe very often that more the caster loses contact with the line (loss of tension) more he/she tends to overpower his/her cast in the (vain) purpose to recover some control on the casting stroke.
Best regards
M.
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completely agree with Malik (hi Malik !) and this is why i personally think that of the Five Essentials, Slack or rather, Line Tension is the most important element/the one that should be worked on most in order to get the other 4 correctly.
many fellow instructors don’t agree with giving priority to a specific element of the construct but i don’t mind… 😉
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Exactly Malik!
Here is an example I have recently uploaded:
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Thanks guys. I wasn’t really expecting a warm reception when talking about grace and beauty.
Loss of tension = loss of control = overpowering? Agree absolutely. Guilty, your Honour. :^)
And despite Aitor’s “opposition” the longer the movement the greater the risk of compromising control. It’s economy that gives grace and grace control.
Somewhat counterintuitive to creatures whose instinct is to seek control through domination. Making no apologies for my gender, Joan Wulff was onto something when she said that ” [C]asting is beautiful, it’s graceful and it’s feminine.”
Cheers
Mark
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Hi again Mark,
I agree more that you think! 😉
You say: “And despite Aitor’s “opposition” the longer the movement the greater the risk of compromising control. It’s economy that gives grace and grace control.”
I totally agree with that. But the problem is that the shorter the stroke the more force we must apply to get the same line speed. And more force is harder to control. As with so many things in casting it is a question of balance.
Thanks for your insights!
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Hi Aitor. The long and the short of it – we are in furious agreement! I understood where you were coming from with the shorter stroke comment and that your “opposite” was not oppositional. :^)
As ever, love your work mate. Appreciate the sensibility as well as the analysis.
Cheers
Mark
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See, I knew we were agreeing! 😎
Too long or too short are related to different control issues.
Given that my article was about TLs it is the too short motion what applies here: difficult to control force application in a short distance. I like to think of it as trying to start moving your car as fast as possible from a still position just by balancing the gas and clutch pedals.
Too long a stroke poses control issues in keeping a good tracing of the rod tip.
Glad to have you here, Mark. 👍
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Rise more important that the dip? In that case making a tailing loop with a broomstick would be a piece of cake, we know it isn’t, the dip is the acceleration into the tail wave, the rise is the deceleration and not that important 🙂
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that’s interesting Lasse. would it be safe to say that the deceleration still has an importance in the sense that it’s slack would be the major cause of the nasties that can happen when a tail occurs ?
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Interesting view that of an unloading rod as decelerating. 😜
Some slo-mo experiments are in order. 😀
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“Some slo-mo experiments are in order”
Mwahahaha 🙂
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Hi Aitor, bad choice of words, the rod tip is accelerating the line while it dips, then it accelerates when unloading up because the line is already travelling faster, so it’s playing catch up…
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You could be right Lasse. I’d love to understand the issue totallly.
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Me too Aitor, me too!
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Lasse’s “tip accelerating on the unloading” makes a lot of sense. me like !
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In the first video of the tailing loop it is very hard to see a concave motion in the rod tip, but what can be seen is power application too early in the casting stroke. This definitely creates a concave tip path.
If power/load is maintained or increased through to the stop in the stroke there would not likely be a tailing loop.
As for the tip adding line speed during its deceleration after the stop, it is not possible. The flyline passing the rod tip indicates it is moving at a greater speed than the rod tip. The counterflex of the rod tip may increase bottom leg speed and can influence the shape of the leading edge of the loop.
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If the ro tip decelerates it obviously can not add any speed to the line.
The question is that after starting the deceleration of the rod butt the tip accelerates up to rod straight position.
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There have been some studies done which would suggest there is some further acceleration of the flyline as the rod comes to straight position. As the shortened flexed lever straightens to its maximum length it extends the total casting stroke. Is the energy stored in the last foot of the rod greater than the resistance of the line moving through the air? If yes – it can further accelerate the line. If no – its main function in straightening is maintaining and controlling at Straight Tip Path (STP) or Straight Line Path (SLP) for best loop formation.
The majority of fly line acceleration happens during the translation portion of the casting stroke and only a minor amount from the rotation part. The advantage of the flexible lever is mostly in shortening the lever length to the flyline at the rod tip making it easier for the caster to transfer energy to the flyline. Shortening the lever through deflection makes the moment of force smaller and does store energy in the lever during the rotation of the rod in the casting stroke.
Imagine the effort required to stop the flyline from moving during a casting stroke if it were coming off the rod at the lowest stripping guide. Now imagine the effort required to stop the flyline from moving if it were coming off the rod from the tip top.
This is why distance casters use a virtually flat rod angle to begin their stroke – the translation part – and delay the rotation portion until the end of the translation. Theoretically it can extend the stroke length by the length of the rod to achieve maximum stroke length.
Additional stroke length is achieved through body lean back and forward, and through arm/hand extension back and forward. Using the power of the legs and torso at the beginning of the translation is very efficient and why it is so important when casting with longer rods, i.e. salmon rods.
Hope this helps and I look forward to more casting discussions!
Dave
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Quote
“The majority of fly line acceleration happens during the translation portion of the casting stroke and only a minor amount from the rotation part.”
End of quote
If that were true casters wouldn’t use a lever, for levers always work due to rotation.
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Although it is true that you don’t need a lever to cast a flyline (see Lefty Kreh and others demonstrations) using a lever is an effective way of achieving greater translation (distance) at the effective point of applying force in a casting stroke. Since most casting strokes aren’t used to achieve extreme distance, rotation of the rod butt can often be enough to achieve the translation distance at the rod tip. Casting rotation doesn’t just happen at the rod/hand connection, it happens in a progressive manner up the rod as it straightens out.
If you were casting a broomstick with rotation only at the stick/hand connection, then the stick tip follows an arc. The effective translation distance of the stick tip would be the length of the sector it has moved through. That is the energy that will be added to the fly line to move it in a straight line. The extra energy to move the stick tip through the arc is wasted from the standpoint of moving the line straight and is consumed in creating a loop.
A fishing rod will deflect, or load, during translation acceleration of the rod butt. That is the effect of overcoming the inertia of the flyline and fly rod mass, and air friction resistance.
Note – rod tip acceleration is necessary to maintain and/or increase the load in the rod.
If the stored energy in the bent rod, when released, is greater than the resistance of the rod and line mass, then the stored energy can accelerate the rod and line mass. This is the magic of taper design, rod mass, modulus of elasticity, etc.
Simple rotation will cast a flyline. Go back to the ‘traditional’ instruction of holding a book between your elbow and body, with 2 – 10 and 10 – 2 rotation of the fly rod at the wrist. A ‘softish’ rod will deflect enough that the actual tip path through the sector could be traveled in a relatively straight line.
Add the up/down movement of the elbow (per Joan Wulff and Mel Krieger) during that rotation and the tip path gets closer to the straight sector line for the rotation arc – but the book falls out.
The cost of progress.
Is this helping?
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Nope! 🙂
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Quote
“Is the energy stored in the last foot of the rod greater than the resistance of the line moving through the air?”
End of quote
If the rod tip straightens during a cast it is because the force it is applying to the line overcomes line’s inertia plus air drag. So every time that you see your rod straightening the line is being accelerated; at least the part close to the rod tip, that is.
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If you don’t rotate your rod the length of the translation at the rod tip is the same as rhat at the rod grip: the lever is useless in that case.
Moreover, without rotation the rod tip speed is the same as your rod hand speed. Again using a lever would be useless.
Pretty basic physics.
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This would be true with a broomstick but not a flexible lever like a fly rod.
Any movement at the rod/hand position – translation and/or rotation – results in deflection of the rod. The stored energy in the bent rod is given to the rod and the fly line when it straightens.
If the rod hand doesn’t translate in position but only rotates the rod, the rod tip ‘translates’ through the arc – horizontally; and rotates circumferentially. The translation distance is greater at the tip than at the hand.
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“The translation distance is greater at the tip than at the hand.”
Yes, but only if you rotate the grip of your lever. Moving it without changing angle achieves nothing in terms of increasing the distance your hand has moved, consequently doesn’t increase the speed of your hand. And a third class lever was devised for that: to increase the speed your hand is able to get without that machine.
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Hi Aitor,
If there is no movement – rotation or translation – at the rod grip then there will be no movement of the rod tip.
As soon as there is, inertia of the rod mass alone will cause a deflection within the flexible lever causing the rod tip to travel further than the hand. The length of the lever and the distribution of the mass within the lever will determine the deflection and consequent distance the rod tip will travel – in translation and rotation, and its greatest velocity.
Rod hand speed only comes into play when you mostly translate the rod hand. It is a component part of a casting stroke but what we’ve been discussing is the final rod tip speed, or more importantly, the force exerted by the rod tip on the fly line.
Ideally we’d like to think that maximum rod tip velocity, and line velocity, is when the rod is completely straight. Some sort of machine might achieve this but the human and physical tools can’t.
Dave
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Rod deflection is due to a force, obviously. But motion alone doesn’t exert a force, only an accelerated motion does: F = m . a.
No force = no deflection. If you move the rod with constant velocity there will be a very small deflection due to air drag, but not a deflection due to rod+line inertia.
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No – sometimes the bent rod is just moving at the same velocity as the flyline. The bent rod has enough energy to straighten itself but nothing to give to the flyline.
A consideration for you.
I’ve seen/participated in demonstrations of holding a fly rod vertical and then pulling back on the end of a flyline extending from the rod tip. The rod is bent, or loaded, and then the line is released. Most people are amazed that the line wasn’t cast as expected.
Why?
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Not enough line speed to make the cast. Did the line get acceleration when released?
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Yes. The rotation alone of the flexible lever is not enough stored energy to cast the line. It moves it but doesn’t cast it. Translation of the rod is needed to effectively cast the line.
Dave
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Translation is an important part of the casting stroke, but not where the main energy application by the caster happens. That is the reason for the use of a third class lever to cast: to increase the speed the caster is able to attain with his bare hand. No rotation of the lever no benefit in that regard. Levers always work by rotation
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Try it with a rod that is pointing in the intended casts direction instead of straight up, a position rarely used to end a rod motion for a cast, and see the line be cast….
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“So every time that you see your rod straightening the line is being accelerated; at least the part close to the rod tip, that is.”
The only way for the fly line closest to the rod tip to move without the rest of the line moving is because of stretch, or some weird slack – NO – just stretch.
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Yes, the question is that acceleration is a change in velocity, and velocity is different than speed. So while the rod tip accelerates the line close to it in the direction of the cast, the rest of the line might be increasing its speed in a different direction.
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Velocity and speed are the same in my vocabulary.
If there is acceleration at the rod tip, it may be able to accelerate the fly line. I think more likely, it is maintaining tension only.
Introducing a non-linear fly line creates all sorts of different variables including casting line slack. That will be of more concern in considering the aerodynamics of the fly line moving through the air.
A bent rod (force = mass x velocity) can straighten without accelerating the rod tip or accelerating the fly line.
Imagine a vehicle travelling at speed pulling a trailer with a rope – it’s equivalent to the portion of the fly rod which is bent and the attached flyline.
Take your foot off the accelerator and the vehicle begins to slow – decelerate – at a greater rate than the attached trailer. The trailer starts to move closer to the vehicle and then passes it because of its sustained greater velocity.
The fly rod is straightening during deceleration without transferring any force to the fly line. The force (M x V) of the rod tip is consumed in defeating friction in itself and the mass it is attached to. Although it might look like the fly line is accelerating because its passing the rod tip, its only because its deceleration, relative to the rod tip, is less.
Dave
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Force is mass times acceleration: F = m.a.
No acceleration means no force exerted. Momentum is m.v but that is another concept.
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Hi Dave,
Nothing like experiments to see what actually happens.
I am traveling through Europe at the moment so I can’t check it now. In his Nature of Fly Casting Jason Borger has some interesting drawing. It is an overlay of the different positions of a rod taken at regular intervals during an actual casting stroke. The bigger the distance covered by the rod tip between two adjacent positions the higher its speed. You can check visually whether the rod tip accelerates when straightening or not.
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Hi Dave
Let’s see if we can come at this a slightly different way – side stepping the physics for a moment. If I go back to the slowest of the clips above, the one with the red dots tracing the path of the rod tip, and enlarge it on my screen what I see doesn’t line up (cough) with your account of leverage, rotation, acceleration and thus tails.
Where does the rod compress/dip and rise again to produce the tailing wave? During rotation or during translation? What I see is maximum rod compression during rotation.
Physics mode on. If that is right then it fits with my understanding that the greatest acceleration of the rod tip and thus line occur during the greatest changes in angular velocity (rotation) rather than in linear velocity (translation).
For my $0.02AUD the operational effects of leverage and rotation are observable in the subject clip. Tails, as we would all agree, are a consequence of operator error.
Cheers
Mark
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Hi Mark,
Ozzie dollars now!!
I don’t know what illustration or slo-mo video you’re referring to.
The initial part of rod movement – translation or rotation – serves to bend the rod and deflect the rod tip. For the tip and line to accelerate in a straight line, additional power needs to be applied through the rod to maintain the deflection through to the rod tip. If the additional power is inadequate then the rod and tip begin to straighten – unload. When this happens early in the stroke you will see a convex path for the rod tip – the classic argument for the creation of a TL.
It is this ability to maintain load and accelerate the rod tip through to the end of the casting stroke that defines loop speed and shape formation.
Most too early applications of power occur through rotation error and is the usual cause of a TL – the ‘wristing’ error early in the casting stroke. You’ll also see the ‘weak wrist’ error when the wrist isn’t capable of sustaining rod load through to the STOP in the stroke. This also allows for the rod tip to rise, finishing in a convex line.
You’ll have likely seen Paul Arden’s video demonstration of distance casting where he exaggerates the very late application of rotation power in the casting stroke, or Tim Rajeff doing the same thing. Both achieve maximum acceleration by keeping the tip moving in a straight line – no dips, rises or wobbles.
Does this help?
My $ 0.02 CDN
Dave
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I have seen quite a few tailing loop demos by Paul Arden. I have even filmed Paul in slo-mo some time ago. What I can say is that the alleged cause wasn’t the one doing the damage. Slo-mo is great for that.
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I notice that the loop shape bears a striking resemblence to the rod tip path .
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The transverse wave we know as tailing loop is like the “dip/rise” of the rod tip but amplified.
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