Peter Charles wrote:
No joke, my 15'6" 11 wt. is easier to cast all day than my 9' - 10
wt. It's all about length, two hands, and good technique. Well, come
to think of it, there's a few things in life that this fits but it's
also true for two-handed fly rods. How would you like to cast a line
150' with less effort than it takes to double haul?

I'm presently waiting for a CND Atlantis 1111 to arrive. It's
dedicated to overhead casting in the salt. Both it and my Daiwa 11
wt. are intended for overhead use.

Peter

I have had an interesting experience in this respect. I am on my second
spey rod (spey in the generic North American sense). The first I build
on a blank from Angler's Workshop. It was nominally a 12' 7/8 wt,
advertised as a "great for summer steelhead, spey and fast action." I
took it to a casting class and had the instructor try it. He reckoned it
was a catastrophe as a rod for spey casting. Casting some of his rods, I
did reasonably well, but my rod just forgave nothing, not even when I
tried uplining it a couple of weights using lines the instructor had
available. Next rod was a St. Croix 13' 7/8 wt which was much more
satisfactory. In the mean time, I was wondering what to do with the
first rod. The other day it finally occurred to me to try it with a
head. I have a 30' LC13 head with 30lb Amnesia (Damnesia?) running line
which I normally use with a single hand 10 wt rod. I took the
combination down bayside (I live on the west side of San Francisco Bay).
I got the head out on the water and stripped off a bit of running line.
I tried a roll cast with the whole head well sunk in the water to see it
the rod would lift it all--no problem. With the 10 wt single hander I
can only roll up about 20' of LC13 with the rest inside the tip top.
Then I have to cast a time or two to get the rest of the head out the
tip top plus the right amount of overhang. Finally I can do the real
cast. With the two hander with the head on the surface, I made a
backcast out to the side, came back over the top, stopping at 12 o'clock
and let fly. Wham! the line hit the reel taking all the running line I
had stripped off. I progressivley stripped off more running line and
cast further and further as my jaw just dropped at distance I was
getting. It was so easy! Just roll the head up with a single easy roll
cast and then throw the line into the next area code. A day with the 10
wt single hander takes 800 mg of ibuprofen to minimize the effects. This
two hander will be a piece of cake.

Mike