Switch and Spey Casting Primer - Shooting Line - Coils vs. Loops

When shooting line with a switch or a spey rod here's a couple of tips from www.deneki.com.

(1) Hold loops of descending size. Long casts require that you hold multiple loops of line – you’ll have a hard time shooting 40 feet of running line if it’s dragging below you in a single loop on the water. As you strip in your running line after a cast, count your strips and hang on to the line in descending counts. A simple pattern for a cast that shoots 7 strips worth of line might be to count 4 strips, hold a loop, count 3 strips, hold a loop, and then make a cast. Holding a couple of the same length is OK, but for some reason that our brains are too small to figure out, loops of ascending size tend to tangle. One pattern for a mega-cast might be 5-5-4-3. Many anglers have their own pattern that works well for them, but just make sure your loops are of the same or descending size.


(2) Hold loops, not coils. If each time you hold a loop, you place it in the same direction on your hand (e.g. front to back), you wind up with coils of line that that tend to tangle more. Instead, use an old climber’s trick and alternate the direction that you hold your loops – pass the first one front to back across your hand, the next one back to front, the next one front to back, etc. This will result in loops that lay cleanly across your hand, and are again much less likely to tangle.

Here's'a You Tube Video from www.deneki.com which shows the "Loop Method" as opposed to the "Coil Method". In this video it explains why the "Loop Method" is good and the "Coil Method" is bad.

Get out and practice this "Loop Method" and your distance will improve.