Boy did I get a good lesson today !

I'll give the fly shop a plug here and the owner since he was kind enough to
take the time to be an excellent mentor today. Wayne Walts and his business
is named "TroutFitter" located at 5008 Erie Blvd, East in Syracuse, NY. Ph
is (315) 446-2047.

I'll sum this up - It was me, not the line.

Rio demo line was 5wt. The first 30' weighed in at 140 grains. The demo line
is the Grand version (I mistakenly said the color was yellow - it's a lime
green)

He said no problem on returning the line but I wanted to know why I was
having so much problem with this line compared to other lines I have. He
grabbed a Sage rod and installed that line and outside we went. Part of the
lesson he gave me included him casting that line, into the wind with only
the top 2/3rds of that Sage Z-Axis rod out to about 60' without trying.
That's one helluva demo.....

He put the rod back together and was casting that line like it had a
heat-sinking missile attached to the leader. Obviously nothing wrong with
the line and right about then, I'm feeling pretty stupid to say the least.
He could sense that I beleive and then proceeded to give me a lesson in
casting. I had attended the Orvis class in the past, did pretty good so I
thought and was practicing what I've been taught. I do get decent casts of
50' and hit the target fairly consistently but he analyzed my technique (or
lack thereof) and had me make some significant changes.

Ok - so now I'm tossing that same *defective* line out there like he was
(well almost as good...). We went over what I've been practicing and in
essence, it was okay to a point but as I was finding out, I was hitting some
limits and then trying to overcompensate for my shortcomings. The devil is
in the details......

I'll be attending a class he holds just about every week to unlearn some of
what I learned in another class. While I initially thought what he was
telling me what I was doing wrong was exaggeration - it proved to be fact.
And after a few minutes of using his suggested techniques, I could not only
see the difference but also feel it in the line.

Needless to say, I kept the Rio line...........and I apologize if I offended
anyone's brand loyalty.

Thanks for your input, it helped me solve the problem,

Bob S.