Long Fly rods

[Maxg]

So far my experience with this thing, a Talon 10/11 FT 15' double handed fly rod tells me that you can cast as far with this as you can by belting your arm off with a 9 footer, and you do it without raising one little drop of sweat. Easy, back and go. 140 feet no problem.
But it likes big heavy heads, like 700gn plus, we tried 500gn,675 and 810 and it did better with the big head than the others. The 675 head was 45 feet long and I believe that the length was a problem. A 30' head of that weight might just be the berries.
But will all of these things there is the thing that this must be the ultimate esturay and flats outfit, absolutely a zipper, great for rocks, beaches etc. This thing is certainly a very successful experiment and no that the "lets find out" thing is over, look out the tailor. I think Bushy likes it, was very interested. I'm stoked, byby the 9 foot sticks. Cheers Max

[Stuie_02]

Hi Max

How much diffrence in your casting stroke is there. long stick and heavier heads. is a proportional thing.

Be interesting to see how you bring fish in.

Stuie

[Maxg]

Well its a 15' double hander, and ideally you roll the thing out in front, just heave it backwards, easy as pie, just push your bottom hand out, then push it back in and away it goes. Like a rocket. Length isn't a problem, very light. Landing fish either walk up the beach or get someone to gaff it or grab it. Biggest problem is line management, running lines are long, not so sure stuffed lines are the berries for this. Know mono iusn't due to stretch and hook setting. Not sure anything with stretch at long distances is the berries
just need to get better at line control.
But its certainly a few suprises, and so different from 9 foot outfits its kind of wierd getting into "Wong Wod" gear.
I think it will be totally wild off rocks, where the line management should be a little different and one can get extreme distances with the right head. Estuaries should be great but casting distances might not be that long, longer than 9 footers, due to shorter running line needs, have to use baskets. I think one may have to use diferent length running lines, not just leave a lot on the reel, to suit different situations
Still its a learning curve, but its fun
Cheers Max

[SimonM]

Sounds like interesting stuff Max.

I look forward to hearing how the system evolves.

Cheers,
Simon.

[Maxg]

Well right now I've just about come to grips with this thing, and using the right line, hard to find, you can cast a line up to and beyond 140 feet without any muscular effort. You can shoot all of a 120 foot running line, and the head. like 150 feet easy as pie.
My conclusion is that shore based fly fishing with a 9 foot rod is dead, for me, just doesn't get far enough and a 13 footer in 8/9 or 9/10 would be magic on the flats. You need long heads or long belly lines, up around 700 plus grains and you have to have a taper, otherwise things like LC13/15's dump at the end. The loops are very small and tight and does that running line go like a rocket.
Lines need to be Intermediate because of the sink time factor, casts are long and fast sinkers hit the bottom unless you strip line in super fast. A general rule is that the head, shooting or full line has to be around 3 times the rod length. There are a couple of good Rio lines, with long bellies and Loop make a very good 45 foot intermediate head.
There should be more of these things around in this country, be great off some of the rocks around the place, h High Rock and the 13 mile at Quobba, the Block at Dirk Hartog and some stunning tailor fishing around Shark Bay. The Carnarvon Jetty, miles of beaches, Kalbarri Etc.
Just magic stuff, Cheers Max