In article , John
wrote:
On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:21:31 +0100, Derek Moody
wrote:

In article , John
wrote:

It's the weight of the line it is designed to cast...

You don't know what measurement of weight they are using for this do
you? Is it still in pounds? So an #8/9 would be for 8 or 9 lb lines?
I'm hoping things haven't got metric in the last 17 years, that would
confuse me.

Er, no... it's the weight of the first 30 feet of line (specified in
grains) taken from an arbitrary scale - don't worry about it until you are
skilled enough to start designing lines.

The fly line acts to load the rod instead of a lead weight - so the weight
of the line in use becomes important.

A heavy line hits the water with a big splash - a light line with a little
splash and a carefully cast light line with very little splash at all - your
leader is intended to present the fly somewhere beyond the point at which
the spashiness of the cast ceases to bother the fish.

Whilst lines are measured accurately the numbering of rods is something of a
bone of contention. With very few exceptions the manufacturers put
ridiculously low values on their products. We have to assume that's because
they're avoiding insurance claims from bad casters.

Mike Connor posted an excellent set of articles on the topic here in mid
2002, deja/google for them.

Most nominal #8 rods will handle a #12 line, some -need- a #12 line to load
them properly: of course if you do that you void the warranty...

....I have caught decent bass in a tideway with a #5 rod, casting a #12
shooting head.

[You may want to file this for later - after you have had some practice:
For small stream work a line around #4/5 is at the heavy end of 'right'.
You will not often have 30' of -fly line- outside the rod tip so you don't
need a genuine #4/5 rod - a #2/3 would do. Very light rods tend to be
better specified but don't buy one unless you can try it. The vendor will
insist on a #2/3 line, again for warranty, so you'll have to apply
judgement and you won't be able to do that until you have experience.
]

I have been taking a look on the web at a few places in Yorkshire to
have a few casting lessons. One of the main ones up in the Dales
though is booked up until July so I'll have to find some other place.

This is their busy season. Any instructor will do for the first couple of
times - tell him what sort of fishing you intend to do before the lesson or
he'll assume you want long casting, tell him 'accuracy and delicacy' and ask
him to supply a range of tackle and suggest what would suit your physique.

Look in one of the mags - order some dirt cheap mill-end lines that you
won't mind ruining - then abuse them by casting into every snag-pit - by the
end of a season you will no longer be damaging lines

I'll have to pick up a couple of magazines this coming week. Which are
the better ones you'd recommend?

Pretty much of a muchness ime. I always used to get Trout and Salmon for
the adverts but they, like all the mainstream mags, fall into the angling
journalism trap. I have a standard rant about this on:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/begin/mags1.html
(Aimed at angling mags in general but applicable to flyfishing.)

Have fun, let us know how you get on.

Cheerio,


--
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