Question about loop leaders?

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:26:23 +0100, "riverman"
wrote:



Hmm, a corollary to rejecting the Hinge Theory then might be to reject the
philosophy of not jumping tippet weights too drastically, then. The Hinge
Theory (as I recently gathered) isn't saying that the two loops will cause a
hinge where they interact (that is BS, imho), but its saying that if you
don't seat your line deeply enough into the base of the loop, that few
centimeters of flimsy material will make a 360-degree hinge and screw up
your casts.

The philosophy of not skipping too many tippet weights is supposed to be for
the same reason. I learned that, when you tie on a tippet, to push the two
different sides together and make the tippet curl in a section including the
knot. If the weights are not too far apart, the two pieces will both curve
and you'll have a nice semicircle. If one is too thin, then it will 'hinge'
at the knot, and the result is that the tippet won't turn over correctly. Is
this also BS?

--riverman


Any radical change will cause some sort of hinging -- whether or not
the hinge will cause a problem is another matter. My spey line
leaders are actually quite light, starting with 20 lb., then 15 lb.
down to 10 lb. (Maxima Ultragreen). The usual formula is 60%, 20%,
20%. Some anglers are just using a single piece of very long, light
mono -- not an approach I'd use.

Keep in mind that your leader/fly has some mass, some aerodynamic
drag, and some stiffness. A short leader/small fly won't cause a
poorly assembled braided loop to hinge as it doesn't take much energy
to turn over. Try the same thing with a 15' spey leader and fly, and
watch the hinge. Still, the fly gets out there so it's more form than
function. The biggest worry with a long leader, is that the whole
affair will run out of gas when fired into the wind. A poor loop will
do that to you since it can't transfer the energy to the long leader.
But to do that, the braided loop would have to be poorly fitted,
leaving a long, limp section and the fly line inserted into only an
inch or so. If there's a 1/4" or so braid without fly line, it won't
matter, but a couple of inches would.

Your test is a good one. I worry more about energy transfer than
hinging so well assembled loops make the difference.

Peter

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