In article , Tom Nakashima
wrote:

I was wondering if anyone here owns and cast a 10' 7wt. fly rod?
I've tried a 9'6" and thought that was a bit long. Most of my fly-rods
are under 9'. I was wondering about the casting control of the 10'er.
Heard the extra length was good for mending characteristics.
Comments?
-tom

I've owned and used a 10' 6-7 Bruce and Walker boat rod for many (15?)
years. I don't use it that often - it's made for a particular Irish
speciality - fishing the wet fly off a boat. I quite like it, because
it has a very slow, lazy, easy action, which is quite right for the
particular circumstances of fishing on the very big lakes you get on
the west of Ireland. The length is not for long casting - you're often
working the wet fly quite close to the boat - , but for line control,
which is important in these circumstances.

But the fact is that while I could use it on rivers, I don't. If I'm
fishing for salmon on spate rivers such as the Finn in Donegal, I'd use
either a 9' or a 9' 6" Hardy (6/7) with an extended butt, or, more
often, a lovely 12' double handed rod made by Bruce and Walker (also
6/7) - the Silver Stream (long discontinued, and I mention its name
with reluctance, as I'm looking for another on ebay - I fish on
different islands and don't like carrying a two-piece 12' rod on
airplanes).


While talking about rod length, I've recently had a 'road to Damascus'
(if that isn't politically inflammatory suggestion at the moment on
roff) conversion away from the 9' rod.

I've often argued for 8' to 9' rods, even on small streams, for the dry
fly - again, line control. My Sage 3-8-9 is still probably my
favorite.

But a week or so ago I went to the Itchen, an English chalk stream
(something like a spring creek), with a little cane 6' 3" cane rod
that was made for me maybe 20 years ago by Lance Nicholson (long dead)
of Dulverton on Exmoor in England.

When I first bought the rod I didn't like it - it didn't seem to do
anything I wanted- and it's been sitting in storage for years. But I'd
tried it out on the street outside my flat in one of the most
disadvantaged parts of london (Brixton - the unfashionable (peckham)
end) and it seemed sweet, and was easy to strap onto my bike, so I took
it.

I loved it, and it caught me several fine fish, including my biggest
ever grayling (two and a half pounds, with a big strong deep back,
which is very big for these English waters) with no problems at all. It
will be my rod of first choice in future.

I suppose what's happened is that my casting has got less ambitious,
more relaxed (& therefore better!) in the intervening years.

My advice to learners, and more often to myself, when casting is going
wrong, is not to try harder, but to try *less* hard. *I*, at least,
have found it very useful advice.

Lazarus