WF or DT? - Which can you cast farther?

[slack]

Bernd Thanks for your reply and answer to my question on DT's. I am sticking with the WF's. How do you feel about the Up lining for single hand rods 9' and under for spey casting. slack

[crunch]

Yet that in itself means less flexibility. For example the Rio Steelhead works perfectly with a 48ft lift. However on shorter lifts - say 25ft - as we often require in practical fishing much less weight will be available as there is so much bias towards the rear taper.

Yes Malcolm, perhaps some flexibility is lost and you right short lengths out of rod tip a longer "spey" head does not feel good and it is even worse when shooting. But eventually angler has specific length for every imaginable stretch and then some... :glare:

[Bernd]

Hi Slack,
it's all in the situation.
Did you check the new shooting head thread on the new board?. Lots of good information in it. I just added a picture of a 20 year old shooting head recommendation paper of Göran Andersson.
It offered length and weight based on the room one had to make a D-loop.

"Uplining" might match on short heads and/or heavy flies to cast.

"Underlining" might match on long heads and/or small flies to present.

And then you have wind against you where a heavier head might help you a lot.

As a rule of thumb I stay in the same class the rod label recommends often.

Personally I prefer to think about head weight in relation to head length, density and the fly to cast instead of AFTMA (uplining, underlining or same class).

Greets
Bernd

[Ben_D]

Maybe about 10 sessions - I seldom fish full days. My usual fishing and the fishing I really love is on rough spate rivers but I do fish wider rivers with less variable flows from time to time. I've also fished these waters with an 18ft rod and 95ft head but that's because I like fishing the big rods rather than because there is any real need for it!

Sadly I won't manage up to the meet this year. There always seems to be something else on and that is a particularly busy time of year for me.

Same Malcolm, I'd rather be out with the single hander somewhere small & intimate but still like the big stuff. Going to make a point of fishing my 17' Alltmor more this year with a proper line. Space for that on the Beauly just about

Shame you'll not make up again this year, should be a good meet. Maybe 2014.


Cheers

Ben

[Malcolm]

There is a magic about the small rivers for salmon and seatrout that can't be matched by anything else. It's the whole experience of having to have the brain engaged all the time: overhanging branches before and behind, upside down and sideways loops off spey casts are par for the course. So are lost flies - get through a day without a lost fly and either you aren't fishing correctly or you are casting like a god!

Then on the next pool it's a 70ft spey off the wrong shoulder into a pocket of water and maybe one in three casts are right on a good day. For me the WF is the only way to go to give that flexibility, the extra shooting capacity when necessary off a short D loop seems to me to be the best all round compromise.

Sometimes I pray for just an extra bit of line for a longer cast but for me there is only one line that stands out to get a line out and the flies deep enough and that is an aggressive sink tip. and the best I've so far found is the Orvis Streamer Stripper which is meant for quite a different purpose. Lines like the Rio Steelhead and other dedicated spey lines are just too inflexible for this sort of fishing - marvellous as they are for for long long speys when there is plenty of space for a big D loop. I'm fairly impressed with he Barrio SLX and the defunct iLine and with an aggressive sink tip would be excellent, in the best high water conditions full floaters are a waste of time despite making casting so easy! It's just so tempting to fish a floater and light flies but they just don't catch very many.

I'd still like to try a line with a short sinking taper and a 42 ft level head though. Of course it may be crap in practice.