NEW TOY, NO JOY!
When a new rod creates casting problems, you need a cure…
Cure your new rod casting problems.
C hanging rods, especially to highperformance models, creates big problems for anglers and dedicated casters alike. The most common issue that comes my way concerns distance and control. I quote from a recent email: “My distances have dropped by 30 metres since I upgraded from a cheap beachcaster to a custom rod. I rarely had backlashes, now it’s one crack-off after another.”
While there are many possible reasons, most boil down to how well or how poorly the new rod matches the way its owner casts and fishes. With casting specifically, another big factor is method and competence.
As a rough guide, a low-performance rod may well help an angler to achieve reasonable distances with a poor method, but a highperformance rod used in the same fashion immediately bites back, cutting distance, causing reels to go haywire and probably whiplashing baits into shreds. On the face of it, the cure for that one is to improve your casting.
Even if you cast well, a new rod that does suit you still needs a period of acclimatisation, during which you play around with leader drops, sinker weight, cast timing and even the style itself. A bit of trial and error will soon have you and your rod working as a team. Then come the benefits of superior equipment, including better distances.
EXPENSIVE MISTAKES
The elephant in the room is that the huge variety of rods on the market almost guarantees that some of them, regardless of price and reputation, can never suit us.
Oddly enough, the best casters tend to suffer most because their needs are so specialised. Sadly, at every level there is no certain way to answer that question before we buy. Experience is a reasonable guide, but can still lead to expensive mistakes. Try before you buy? Absolutely brilliant idea, but how many of us are in that happy position?
The late Terry Carroll, of Zziplex, said that rods should be categorised in an industry-wide format to reflect how people cast and fish. At the moment, the best we can hope for is a fairly accurate casting weight assessment and a rough description of the rod’s action. Beyond that, the available information is more likely to be marketing hype than hard, practical fact.
What a shame that there is no product classification system for beach rods as there is in, say, archery. When I want new arrows, the selection chart shows exactly which ones suit my draw length, bow poundage and the type of shooting I aim to do. Why can’t I shortlist new rods in similar fashion, to suit my preferred length, casting method, sinker weight and the type of fishing?
Quality and engineering are rarely the issue. The whole exercise stands or falls on whether the rod suits the user and what he or she wants to do with it. If you know a foolproof way to eliminate the trial and error, disappointment and expense too often involved in the changing of rods, please let me know. ■