A study of fly rod action and casting mechanics by Marc Fauvet
“My experience is that for a given line length (and weight) the caster uses almost the same stroke regardless of the action of the rod. Different rods certainly feel different, but there is little or no adjustment to or matching of the stroke going on.”
(Grunde Løvoll)
How many times have we heard or read that we need to change the casting stroke depending on a rod’s action ? The typical explanation given is, for a slower rod we’ll use a slower stroke and a faster stroke with a faster rod.
Well, this happens to be incorrect and is a classic example so common in the fly casting world where ‘what we think we do and what actually happens’ don’t always meet up.
The rods and fly line used in Vimeos:
Bendy rod: Berkley Grayphite 8 feet 5/6
Stiff rod: Sage TCX 690
Line Rio tournament Gold 5 weight
To make up for the difference in length, the rods where taped together so the tips where aligned
The Berkley rod is 75% glassfiber and 25% graphite, has an IP of 97 grams and a AA of 65 (so really according to CCS it’s fast) and a MOI of 76. The sage is full graphite, has an IP of 167 grams, an AA of 74 and a MOI of 70.
Several things to learn about tackle here. One of them is that a lot of ‘experts’, many rod designers and people in the tackle industry just blindly repeat what they’ve heard without giving it any thought and don’t seem to try these things out on their own. Especially when they’re so simple to observe. Thank goodness for people like Lasse, Aitor, Grunde, Paul and a host of others who don’t live in a box.
Someone asked what would happen if there was more line out of the rod tip and Lasse shared a variant of the first test, this time extending line whilst double-hauling. The quick answer is: nothing different than if it had been done with only one rod/line.
The casting stroke widens, the pause lengthens and every other aspect of a basic cast remains the same. See for yourself in these following Vimeos.
[vimeo id=”35513634″ width=”620″ height=”360″] [vimeo id=”35524148″ width=”620″ height=”360″]