Twisting tippet – casting problem?
- This topic has 16 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Sep 27, 2006 at 12:53 am by
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Hope someone can offer some advise.
I’ve been having a lot of problems with my tippet twisting in incredible knots while fishing dries on 7x Cortland tippet. I’ve never had this problem before and think that maybe I got a bad spool of tippet but want to make sure that I haven’t done something in my casting that would cause this. Has anyone experienced this problem before?
Thanks
JohnI’ll bet you 10-1 the fly is too big for that 7X you’re using. Every false cast compounds the problem, but I bet the root problem is the fly.
I love these debates! There just aren’t enough of them to go around for my ornary arse! 😉
Before we speculate more, maybe we should find out what kind of fly he was using. If it’s a large dry fly, I stand by my answer. If it’s a big streamer like you used all bets are off as I’m sure the momentum of such a large, weighty fly would negate much spinning.
Sure casting in ovals causes twists as does having too much extra line out. But you’re talking at max 1 twist per stroke. The man has ‘incredible knots’ in his tippet. For your answer to work he must make an incredible amount of false casts.
How do I know? Been there… done that! Not too far off in the distant past either! One touch of laziness combined with big dry fly and light tippet a birds nest does make. Trust me on that! 😮 😉I’ve had the same problem several years ago until I quit using those larg dry flies with the big synthetic wings. They look purdy but create the “helicopter effect” when casting and kink my tippet. The flies look good to the fisherman but they haven’t impressed the fish to any significant degree…as far as I can tell.
Great information!
To start off, I was fishing a size 14 dry so I don’t think the size of the fly was at fault. I’m leaning towards Zach’s suggestion that I’m causing the twist with my cast. On the small streams I fish, I normally can’t overhand cast, it’s all basically side arm. And though I don’t false cast but once or twice on each cast, I don’t always shoot line because I’ve been trying to fish closer while working up stream to aid in accuracy. Many times I just pick up the line and fling it back out.
One thing I have noticed is that my cast has changed and I’m blaming it on switching back and forth between my 3wt graphite and my 6wt bamboo that I spent ten days casting while in Colorado just a couple of weeks ago. This was only my second time out since I got back and I think I might be overpowering the 3wt due to getting used to the slow action of my bamboo.
Thanks so much for the info. I’ll keep using the Cortland 7x and try to remember to shoot line on the forward and back casts!
JohnI try not to add input unless I’m pretty sure of my answer.
I’m sticking with my original response… with some of Zach’s tossed in for good measure.Guys,
If he was fishing something like a wolf (where one wing sits farther back than the other) or elk hair caddis on that small tippet it, would twist,I know, it’s a big GNAT. But for some reason the native browns in my home water like em’ that big.
I promise to fish nothing larger than a size 18 on 7x again, Thanks for all the info guys.
JohnJohn… did you solve the twisting problem?
I meant no ill will on the #14 gnat thing… I just never saw one that big.
I’ve seen #14 Griffith’s Gnats and a variation called a Crackleback do very well in Missouri, for some reason.
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