In article , Clark Reid
wrote:
I agree and I don't know that I'd want to argue the point with Hal or not 
I realize that a soft rod is great for protecting light tippets ( I have a
really soft little Winston here which is great for that purpose) but I do
worry about the time it takes to land large fish on light tippets. I am
often reluctant to drop sizes of tippet with clients for that reason. I will
sometimes drop to a 6X tippet on a large fish but if I believe the battle is
going too long to ensure the trout's survival I will break it off. I'm sure
Hal would do the same.
Of course, with the new generation of fluorocarbons 6X is now about 3lb
which gives much better margin for playing those big fish 
--
Clark Reid
"Bill Kiene" wrote in message
om...
Hi Clark,
The LE rods are very soft, slow action which makes them not suited for
many
situations.
We do sell a few LE rods to anglers that are looking for very slow, softer
rods.
We carry more rods than most shops with about 400 in stock most of the
time.
We let the customers tell us what kind of action they like and then we let
them cast some rods in that area. Once and a while we get someone who
really
prefers softer rods and they seem to be very happy with them.
I don't see that softer rods would fit many situations in New Zealand
though.
We do have some of our best fly anglers here in the US like Hal Janssen
who
prefer real soft actions because he lands very large trout on light
tippets
like 6x and 7x. I can only imagine a verbal battle between Hal and someone
peddling the fast action philosophy.
I can tell you that the LE is not doing well because they are too soft for
the main stream.
On the LE #8 rods, you can put a #7 line on them and they are better.
I think you message is a good one and can save people from buying
something
that does not have enough power to do the job, especially in NZ.
--
Bill Kiene
Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA, USA
Web site: www.kiene.com
If they're not doing well does that mean I'd have great chance to pick
up a nice soft 9' 4 weight cheap in the Jan timeframe?
Allen
(And any comments about owning a soft rod will be summarly ignored!
http://www.bullmooserepublicans.com/