Posted by Jim E (24.116.99.140) on September 25, 2003 at 14:09:55:
Beginner Rods
What rod to start with?
A beginning caster should always start with a medium action rod. This action promotes easier casting by allowing the caster to better feel the rod flexing from the weight of the line, the most important factor of casting. Today, all of the hype is about fast action rods and the manufactures trying to make them even faster. I’ve nothing against fast action rods, I own a couple myself but they are not for the novice caster.
Fast action rods can really boom out the line, even in windy conditions. But, they require more precise timing to make them sing. This is why medium-to-medium/slow rods are better suited for a beginner. The timing isn’t as critical therefore allowing for some slight timing discrepancies. A “buddy” or fly shop salesman that tries to sell a beginner a fast action rod as their first rod is doing them a real disservice.
Start with a medium action rod and get the feel of the line loading and unloading it. When you start getting the feel for it and are able shoot some line try double hauling. I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that can’t double haul a medium action rod to consider getting a fast action rod. Timing is so much more critical with a fast rod that I think being able to double haul would be the deciding factor when its time to try one. This is from experience!!! My first fly rod was a fiberglass rod that was more like an old truck CB antennae. I wasn’t very serious then and did the ol’ fast false casting 20 times and then only lay the line out about 15 feet. Later I upgraded to a moderately cheap med. action graphite rod and started to figure out some of the casting dynamics, mainly being “what goes forwards must go backwards” i.e., waiting on the back cast. Continuing to get more serious, I later took a bigger plunge and invested in a more expensive “fast” action rod, spending more than $250. Being disappointed that my casting performance didn’t improve all that much with this nice rod I continued to use it, at least enjoying the lighter physical weight it had. After many hours of casting I got to where I could get the timing right about 60% of the time but hardly ever when I “REALY” needed to. It wasn’t until I went back and started to cast a medium action rod again that I learned to double haul. After learning that feel and timing my casting with the fast rod started to improve greatly. Before, I had tried to double haul the fast rod but most often I would loose all timing and therefore end up with a totally bumbled cast. It was an exercise in futility.
Now, if you ended up with a fast rod as your first there are a couple of things you can do to help. First, if your rod is rated for a 5 wt. line (for instance) try casting a 6 wt. line with it. The extra weight won’t hurt anything and will slow the rod down a little. Also, you might try a bass taper fly line. These lines have very short front taper, a short and fat belly then a short rear taper. All of this makes for the majority of the lines weight to be concentrated towards the end of the line, causing the rod to load and unload more noticeably.
Hope this helps someone and maybe his or her learning curve won’t be as long as mine was.
Thanks for reading. As always, if you have any tips that you would like to share just email them to me (you will be given full credit). Also, feel free to comment.
Jim Enns <*))))))))><