"Ian D" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 28 May 2007 00:03:40 +0100, Derek Moody
wrote:



Book a casting lesson with your local instructor and ask him (when you
book)
to provide a selection of rods and to suggest the best combination for
your
physique and the local waters.


Excellent advice there.
Personally for bank fishing I'd never exceed 9'6" for rod length, and
a maximum #7 for all round performance - a #6 or even a #5 is most
often perfectly adequate, but can feel a bit overloaded if you do much
fishing with sinking lines.

I'd also never recommend using a #8 weight line with a #7 rod as a
matter of course. Some rods could probably benefit, but as often as
not I'd go the other way and 'underline' the rod. It's imperative to
test out all the possible combinations before settling on one
particular line rating as standard for your style of casting and that
specific rod.

The type of line used can have a bearing on this as well - I'm
referring to WF lines and not getting into the WF versus DT argument.
The length of the head and the various tapers can make quite a
difference to how the rod feels when casting.

Cheers
Ian D
And more good advice here also, It is best to fish as light as you can if
you can, go as low as you dare in fly line sizes #, catch more fish.

As a foot note I would say avoid sinking lines when starting off, in fact I
would avoid them full stop, I have not found a stillwater deep enough to
justify using one. Its much easier and far better to use a sink tip line to
get the same or even better presentation and you can grease it to float if
the trout start to come on the surface. Dual purpose
If you want to fish deeper using a floating line there are plenty of
weighted leaders on the market, or just use a heavier fly, goldheads for eg.
sorted.