Like most casters, I know a tight loop when I see one. Either the path of the rod tip was straight, or it wasn’t. Although there is basically one rod tip path to make a tight loop, there are a number of ways for a caster to create that straight rod tip path. Some strokes are simply more efficient than others.
In contrast, there are nearly an infinite number of rod tip paths that are not straight. And for each of these rod tip paths, there are countless ways to spoil the stroke.
For this reason, figuring out the cause of imperfections in a loop can be challenging. There have been times when my rod tip spat out loops with a weird shape or path, and I couldn’t comprehend what the loop was telling me: No matter how much I tried translating the issue in my loop into a problem with my stroke, I couldn’t understand what was happening. Frustrating initially. In the end, maddening.
I have never been good at languages. I didn’t start talking until I was three years old. Worried, my parents even took me to a specialist wondering why I hadn’t started communicating verbally. Even now, no matter how many K-dramas Chi and I have watched, I can remember only a handful of words. Meanwhile, Chi doesn’t need the subtitles anymore.
Until recently, I would have sworn that the loop’s story was narrated in a different language – without subtitles. It was so enigmatic. Over the years, however, I have learned that the loop is really a tale of two stories. One is told by the rod leg of the loop and the other by the fly leg of the loop.
The story told by the rod leg of the loop is simple. It recounts the movements of the rod tip in chronological order after the rod straightens out (as the loop forms). An aerial mend is a good example. As such, this part of the loop doesn’t reveal much about the stroke that created the loop, but once you realize when this story starts, it’s fairly easy to interpret and to understand.
In contrast, the fly leg of the loop is all about the stroke that created the loop. But, there are two twists. To untangle a fly leg’s story, first, we must understand how it is narrated. Most stories start at the beginning. The fly leg’s story is different. Its story starts with what happened at the end of the power stroke – just before the rod straightened out. And as the loop unrolls, the story about the stroke proceeds in reverse chronological order… ending with how the power stroke started.
The second twist is more obvious. Although the way that a line turns over at the end of a cast is dictated by the way that the stroke started, it is also attached to the rest of the line and the rod. As a result, what happens as the loop finally turns over may require some interpretation: It’s what happened at the beginning of the stroke while being pulled towards the head of the loop.
Let’s start with a simple case to illustrate the general premise.
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