Line choice for beginner

Mike Connor wrote:

Short range is up to sixty feet

RW replied
Short range is up to 60 feet? Whoa!

--

What part of "up to" did you fail to understand?

Sixty feet is a long cast on most rivers, but it is a short cast on a lake,
or in the ocean. All these things are relative. Sixty feet ( or
thereabouts)was also the distance suggested by the original advocate of WF
lines.

When using some special gear, I can cast my fly up to 450 feet, or even
more. I don´t suppose you will believe that either? Not that it worries me
unduly.

Generally speaking, and in the circumstances I often fish under, 60 feet is
not only short range, it is laughable.

To be fair, and considering normal flyfishing on a river, I would usually
consider up to thirty feet "short range", up to sixty feet "medium range",
and beyond that, say up to a hundred feet or more, "long range".

Just for the sake of interest, here are some current fly-casting records;

CURRENT FLY CASTING DISTANCE RECORDS

BFCC 5 WEIGHT FLY FISHERMAN'S DISTANCE

112 feet held by Jon Allen 25/10/03.



BFCC 7 WEIGHT FLY FISHERMAN'S DISTANCE

116.58 feet held by Pete Sutton 25/10/03.



BFCC 8 WEIGHT FLY FISHERMAN'S DISTANCE

124.48 feet held by Pete Sutton 07/09/03.



SINGLE-HANDED FLY DISTANCE

238.7 feet British (BCA) Record held by Hywel Morgan (platform cast)

248 feet ICSF World Record held by Steve Rajeff (USA) (platform cast)

236 feet ACA American Record held by Steve Rajeff (cast off ground)



DOUBLE-HANDED FLY DISTANCE

299.2 feet British (BCA) Record held by Hwyel Morgan (platform cast)

320.9 feet ICSF World Record held by Thomas Maire (Germany) (platform cast)

290 feet ACA American Record held by Steve Rajeff (cast off ground)



ANGLER'S FLY DISTANCE

OPEN No previous British BCA or current BFCC record

No ICSF record as this is not an ICSF event

190 feet ACA American Record held jointly by Steve Rajeff & Rene Gillibert
(cast off ground)

Presumably you are going to tell us they all cheated? I wonder what they
would think 60 feet is? Long range? No, I think not.

You can find more info on this here;
http://uksf.sea-angler.org/bfcc/bfccrecords.html

TL
MC

In article , Mike-
says...
Mike Connor wrote:

Short range is up to sixty feet

RW replied
Short range is up to 60 feet? Whoa!


When using some special gear, I can cast my fly up to 450 feet, or even
more. I don?t suppose you will believe that either? Not that it worries me
unduly.

Not to interrupt a perfectly good ****ing match, but curiousity makes
me ask: What's the special gear? 450 feet?!?!?!?! Does it involve
gunpowder?

- Ken

schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
In article , Mike-
says...
Mike Connor wrote:

Short range is up to sixty feet

RW replied
Short range is up to 60 feet? Whoa!


When using some special gear, I can cast my fly up to 450 feet, or even
more. I don?t suppose you will believe that either? Not that it worries
me
unduly.

Not to interrupt a perfectly good ****ing match, but curiousity makes
me ask: What's the special gear? 450 feet?!?!?!?! Does it involve
gunpowder?

- Ken


No, I use special casting floats. You can find some info here;

http://www.sexyloops.com/connorsmetre/saltfly10.shtml

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconnor2.htm

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconner.htm

TL
MC

In article , Mike-
says...

schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Not to interrupt a perfectly good ****ing match, but curiousity makes
me ask: What's the special gear? 450 feet?!?!?!?! Does it involve
gunpowder?

- Ken


No, I use special casting floats. You can find some info here;

http://www.sexyloops.com/connorsmetre/saltfly10.shtml

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconnor2.htm

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconner.htm

Very cool, I've never seen anything like that before. Does anyone
know of a source in the US?

Thanks,
- Ken

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:32:33 -0700, wrote:

Very cool, I've never seen anything like that before.

I saw Mike use them in the Baltic a few years ago when he, Herman and
I went up to Denmark one evening. He definitely boomed out some casts.
--
Charlie...

Mike Connor wrote:

What part of "up to" did you fail to understand?

The "up to" presented no problem. It was the 60 feet. That's a fairly
long cast in my opinion. That is, it's a long cast in actual fishing
conditions -- not in a distance casting competition or exhibition.

BTW, when you post a bunch of text under the "--" character string, it
shows up on my newsreader (Mozilla) as though it's a gigantic sig. Just
thought you might want to know. Or maybe not. Whatever.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
In article , Mike-
says...

schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Not to interrupt a perfectly good ****ing match, but curiousity makes
me ask: What's the special gear? 450 feet?!?!?!?! Does it involve
gunpowder?

- Ken


No, I use special casting floats. You can find some info here;

http://www.sexyloops.com/connorsmetre/saltfly10.shtml

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconnor2.htm

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/mconner.htm

Very cool, I've never seen anything like that before. Does anyone
know of a source in the US?

Thanks,
- Ken

Since I wrote those articles, I have improved my gear somewhat, and I now
use a special "Sbirulino" rod for this technique. It allows me to cast
further, and is also more sensitive. I also only use the "sidecast" reel
mentioned in the articles, in winter, when I don´t want freezing fingers.

See here; http://www.ausfish.com.au/alvey/3.htm

The one I use is not listed, I bought it in the UK. It is very similar
though. Black carbon fibre, single action. large capacity sidecast reel.

Otherwise I use a large spool Shimano Titanos "Aerlex" GT7000. See here;
http://www.angel-domaene.de/catalog/...roducts_id=223

This reel is designed for extreme distance fishing. It is chiefly carbon
fibre, and has the advantage that one may loop on a shooting head, and
easily cast this as well. This is sometimes advantageous.

The rod is a 3.9 meter( 12.8 foot) 3 piece "PHASE 1" Sbirulino rod, for 10
to 40g casting weight. These rods were built to my specifications by a
local tackle firm, which is now unfortunately defunct. The owner died, and
the assets were sold off.

I used to use light carp rods, ( 12 foot, 1.5 lb test curve) and they work
alright, but this rod is definitely much better. If you can get a 14 foot
carp rod of about 1 to 1.5 lb test curve, it will work very well though.

The main reason for the long rod, is the ability to use long leaders. The
leader hangs below the float when casting, and this makes it very difficult
to cast with a short rod.

If you want to use the sbirulinos for light lake fishing etc, then a much
lighter rod and reel is quite sufficient. Even the lighter sbirulinos can
be cast a very long way with very little effort.

I mainly use this rig in salwater, for fish up to about twenty pounds or so
( If I am lucky!!!).

TL
MC

"rw" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ink.net...
Mike Connor wrote:

What part of "up to" did you fail to understand?

The "up to" presented no problem. It was the 60 feet. That's a fairly
long cast in my opinion. That is, it's a long cast in actual fishing
conditions -- not in a distance casting competition or exhibition.

BTW, when you post a bunch of text under the "--" character string, it
shows up on my newsreader (Mozilla) as though it's a gigantic sig. Just
thought you might want to know. Or maybe not. Whatever.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Depends on the conditions, but as far as "normal" river fishing is concerned
you are quite right of course.

The "--" was part of your post, which I missed when I "snipped".

TL
MC

"Charlie Choc" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:32:33 -0700, wrote:

Very cool, I've never seen anything like that before.

I saw Mike use them in the Baltic a few years ago when he, Herman and
I went up to Denmark one evening. He definitely boomed out some casts.
--
Charlie...

I remember that evening well Charlie. I was more than somewhat disappointed
that we did not catch anything. That has always been one of my most reliable
spots in really cold conditions. One does not get a seatrout every time, but
a few cod are usually hanging around. Sometimes even a garfish.

Whatever, I was up in Denmark recently with quite a large group of people.
The same thing happened to us which jinxed the Denmark clave. The weather
changed, deteriorating rapidly, the wind direction changed, and the water
temperature in the shallows went down below 3°C. Of the twelve of us
fishing, ( a few really top class anglers as well!), only three people
caught anything, two people a small ( undersized), seatrout each, and I got
a small cod. Considering the time and effort involved, it was a disaster in
terms of fish, but we all had a great time anyway.

I was using the sbirulino rod, and if I had moved to a spot with deeper
water, I would have got a few cod, but seatrout were extremely unlikely, to
say the least. I did not want to leave the group though. They would not
have been able to reach the fish with conventional fly gear at all. This is
the greatest single advantage of such gear, one can simply cover far more
water, even under adverse conditions. This is not always a guarantee of
fish of course, but it certainly does increase the chances a very great
deal.

For stream fishing and the like, I would not advocate it, but for lakes, or
the salt, it really is a very good addition to one´s armoury.

TL
MC

Mike Connor wrote:

Otherwise I use a large spool Shimano Titanos "Aerlex" GT7000. See here;
http://www.angel-domaene.de/catalog/...roducts_id=223


You don't consider this to be fly casting do you Mike?

Willi