Paul Arden wrote:I like to teach with a medium fast progressive action 6-weight rod with a normal WF line (no compound tapers!). But it depends. You have to deal with what they bring, unless is mismatched or unsuitable (which happens), or maybe it's a specialised lesson, in which case you need to gear the tackle to suit, or perhaps they're only interested in SW. Still having a well-balanced, not too stiff, six weight at times can be really handy - even when teaching SW guys (less tiring).
The nice thing about a 9ft 6 weight is that it's a good all-round compromise for all sorts of fishing.
Cheers, Paul
I'd agree that but use a short heavy line in the case of beginners, a Barrio SLX or similar but usually will just teach them with whatever they have.
I agree about the SLX Ben, it's a fantastic teaching line for beginners. As for teaching them with what they bring..... most of my students are beginners and Granpa's hand-me-downs should be in an antique shop rather than in the hands of a beginner. I let them struggle for a while and then give them a decent set up which they immediately appreciate.
Mike
it's casting Jim, but not as we know it, according to EFFA
Hi Mike,
in general it all depends on who am I teaching and what will be the exact goals to make.
For teaching beginners my favourite rod/line combination will result in a "good (medium) amount" of rod bend during false casting. You might ask me to define "good" here.
I want my student to be able to use a size of avg. arc allowing him/her to produce the desired line speed with ease and at the same time matching tip path without much rod hand path adjustments being necessary. So therefore I indeed may change the line on a rod he/she brings to make it a bit bendier (if it was a pretty stiff rod).
I often realized that we instructors tend to ask for something but mean something different. If I want my student to cast SLOWLY, I will ask him/her to do so.
If I want my student to cast with less force application I will directly ask him/her to do so.
If I want him/her to feel the line to fully straighten, I will ask for exactly that.
"Feel the cast" sounds like feel the abrupt stop to one and feel the line to straighten to others.
I found a lot of terms in my own teaching that needed to be changed in order to really tell what I want them to do exactly. That is something that I believe improved my teaching success significant.
For teaching I like to change the tackle he/she brings as soon as rod/line combination will not be fine.
I like to ask myself after the lesson: "Could the teaching result maybe have been little better if we would have used a different tackle?"
In the older times my answer quiet often was: YES.
It also happens that I will just change the equipment for teaching the double haul for half an hour. Afterwards I will go back to the original equipment.
In group lessons I finaly like to ask them to exchange their equipemnt to give a change of testing different combinations.
Greets
Bernd
p.s.: SLX really works well for teaching most beginners!
