newbie casting help

hello there folks,

Well I did it. I got a fly rod and now I'm trying to learn how to
cast. I have a book (LLBean) and have been hanging out at the local
sunfish pond practicing my "loops".

I know that this is one of those things that is almost impossible to
"explain" in a literary sense, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

As far as I can tell, my backcast loop is not half bad (half the
time). It's tight but doesn't close up. However on the foward cast,
I find that most of the line piles up about 15 feet in front of me,
regardless of how much line I have in the air. Right now I can roll
cast farther than regular cast. I'm going to read my book a few more
times, but what do you guys think? Also, I'm assuming that - hearing
the fly "snap" behind you - is a bad thing.

Anyway - it's way cool and fun but very confusing right now. At one
point I got a sunny on there, and had to drop the rod, and hand-line
it in - entirely spastic.

Sam