Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
My question is: Does anyone know what I was doing wrong to cause this severe of a twist? I literally went through 3 leaders in a half hour span at one point. I have not run into this problem before.
The problem typically happened when I was fishing a Light Cahill Spinner in a fairly large size, they were taking sizes 12 and 14 very eagerly. I was using a 6X leader/tippet combo on a 5wt rod. I tried switching to a 5x then a 4x leader and tippet with the same results. I also tried different brands, so it wasn’t like I had a bad batch of leaders or tippet. I do not normally have the opportunity to throw that large of a fly and I was also casting pretty consistently to the distance limits of my abilities. Anyone have any suggestions of what my problem might have been?
UPDATE: Great answers and it led me to do some research this afternoon. (It was just another excuse to go fishing really.) I believe the first answer is correct. The big issue is indeed the fly. Here are my steps and results:
1) I started today with a big Elk Hair Caddis, I figured that the big wing would stabilize the fly somewhat when it was in the air, and began casting as far as I possibly could. Kept it up for about a half hour, no issues.
2) I switched to the same Light Cahill I was using over the weekend, within 5 minutes, I was knotted horribly again.
3) I then tied on the same pattern of Cahill in a smaller size, bought at the same shop and time as the big one. (presumably by the same tyer.) The small fly produced the knots, but not as badly.
4) I tied on the same pattern of Cahill, but one that had been bought at my home fly shop, I had no problems.
I did make things worse by speeding up my casts but I believe the bigger cause was the fly.
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It’s your fly. The hackle is wound on either clockwise or counterclockwise. As it travels through the air the wind causes it to spin like a pinwheel in the opposite direction of the winding of the hackles. The spinning fly is twisting your leader.
If you tie your own flies, wind one hackle clockwise and the other counterclockwise and you won’t have that problem.
In the meantime, in between casts, allow your leader to hang free straight down for a few seconds. You’ll see your leader unwind itself.
Sounds like the fly would be the problem to me too. It seems to be the only consistent thing you were using. If not the fly then it would have to have been something you were doing yourself, or something involving the conditions, either wind or water.
There is a good possibility its you’re fly, but also you’re casting stroke, SLOW things down, Ive seen my son do this when he tries out a stretch of water he has never fished, a heavier fly can help, but obviously you’re fishing dries so there is only a set amount of weight before it turns into a nymph. Also was your fly line twisted, if its been stored on the reel for a while or is poor quality line, it will have twists in it which Ive seen causing this, without actually seeing you’re casting i cant be certain of the problem, there are some things o solve it, firstly a fluorocarbon tippet, its stiffer and reduces knots, also a poly leader can help if you can get one, they attach by a loop to loop connection and can help eliminate twist as well as presenting you’re flies better. Also what were the weather conditions like, often one wind knot can lead to hundreds in the same place and weaken the tippet. Obviously i wasn’t there to maybe see you’re mistake but you were so look at this and you might find where you were going wrong.
Also what type of fly line were you using a WF or a DT?