I recall a recent debate about whether or not to stretch your line before fishing. I found the perfect solution today. Just decorate a tree on an early back-cast. Then gently pull on the line, it gets stretched and the memory will be removed. If lucky, you won't have to tie one a new fly.

I did close to the same thing, but I managed it on my third cast and on the forward cast. Unfortunately, tying on a new fly was necessary. I'll try the backcast next time for variety.

I also learned that filamentous algae wrapping itself around your pile of stripped line can cost you casting distance...sometimes all of it.

My deep philosophical question of the day is; when you flub a cast do you go ahead and fish it out or pick up & re-cast, I tend to just go ahead and fish (since 98 % of my casts are flubbed up).

As fer line-stretchin' I recall it being said that its a good idea, but lotsa stuff I don't do is a good idea.

Jack Ellis says to fish it where it lands. If it's good enough for Jack, it's good enough for me. I used to be really bad about picking up a cast and trying to force it, which usually resulted in it landing 6 inches short and 3 feet to one side of where it was in the first place.

And all this time I thought that was a good cast

Stretch it

I guess I'm lazy because while I will always stretch leaders, I don't always stretch my floating line. If I'm fishing the mini-tip or a shooting head line, those have to be stretched or I end up with piles of overlapping, interlocking coils and a lesson in "knot theory."

As for re-casting, I'm a repeat offender. I know I ought to leave it alone, but way too often I'll pick it up and cast it again. I'm working on it, though.

simple, elegant, timeless. Like a trench coat or a 65 Mustang or a black & white photo. Now we all have the secret!

"Trench coat"

LOL! Get back to practicin' for your Texoma Duel sire

I was told not to use leader stretchers...the guy at a fly event said that it made your line weaker by stretching it. Who knows for sure, but I don't do it just in case he was right. (the line does get stretched anyway by a stuck fly as previously mentioned, might as well not make it worse)

I agree with him, and here's why: heat damages monofilament. By using a leader straightener, you can squeeze tight and add a great deal of friction that heats up the mono and you don't feel it. (it acts like an oven mitt) By using your bare hands as a leader stretcher, you can achieve the same thing, but your nerves will make you stop before you heat the leader up enough to weaken it.

When using knotless leaders, I generally stretch the butt section on its own (because you can tug on it pretty dang hard), the tippet section on its own, but more gently, and then the tapered section with repeated squeezing strokes to add some heat and release the memory.

I try to always stretch the first 20-30 feet of my floating line when fishing fresh, and more like 50' when fishing salt. Besides shooting better, a straighter line also floats much better.

I managed to break a nice Orvis rod doing that once.

Not sure how that could happen. In my case, the rod played no role in the pulling. It was just pointed at the tree.

It wasn't intentional. Caught a tree on a backcast and when I went to finish the cast, the rod broke. I think it was defective.