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Length of the belly has nothing to do with roll casting or mending unless you're doing it at a long distance. One of the reasons that DT lines were used almost exclusively for speycasting until about a dozen years ago is the ability of that line to spey cast (just an energized roll cast) with a lot of line out. It also mended very nicely with 70' of line or more off the rod tip. If you have only twenty feet of line off the reel that twenty feet will be absolutely identical in DT and WF except on a few line models where the manufacturer has given the DT lines a long front taper. If the lines are identical they can't possibly cast any differently. In other words, if the only difference in the two lines is still spooled onto your reel, how can the lines possibly cast differently? At some point, this just because simple logic. I would agree with beadleech up to the point where most of your casting would be roll casting or you'd plan on doing a lot of mending at 40' or more. Then, I would recommend that that's where a DT would shine.
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JrS - speycasting is a different animal altogether. I asked a speycaster one time if he'd ever caught a smallie on the rod and he said "no, but I cast a 12"er one time". http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
Donald
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Agreed. However, the physics that exist in the flyline are identical. After all, a DT line is a DT line regardless of how long it is. That fact that you can speycast 90' of line and mend almost as much with a double-handed rod and DT line means the same can be done with a single-handed rod in theory. Certainly doing it at 40' or 50' is not unreasonable. In fact, some guys who know they will be casting fairly long distances while still needing to roll cast or mend at those distances will simply underline their rod by one line weight. That makes carrying 40' or so of line in the air much easier as you won't be overloading the rod.
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JrS - acually I do the same thing with the long belly WF's! I have a St Croix LU 4 wt that will really zing a 3 wt line. It's useful mainly in lake fly fishing with nymphs or streamers [small]. I can't actually see a dry at 60-70' anymore. <G> I also usually underline an 8 1/2' 5 wt I have with a soft tip. Besides - it you get a 4, 5, & 6 wt line to try on your 5 wt rod you have a perfect reason to buy two more rods!! http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
Tite lines.
Donald
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Beadleech, sorry but you are wrong, triangle tapers do have a belly.
I just spoke with a tech at wullf products.
Yes it does have a continuous taper but according to him the line still falls under the description of having a belly.
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idahoflyfisher,
I guess it's a matter of semantics, but normally what the Wulff lines have is considered a "head" but not really a "belly." The term belly, or sometimes body, usually refers to the thick, level portion of the head. The rear taper goes from the back of the belly to the running line and the front taper goes from the front of the belly to the forward tip section. Both of those tapers and the belly together would be considered the head. By those definitions the Wulff lines do not have a belly, but of course do have a head, because in essence the head on them is one long front taper.
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If you go over to the Fly Fishing 101 features area here you will find an article about DT versus WF lines. It is written by a guy who had spent 20 years designing fly lines for Scientific Anglers so he knows his stuff. It is an interesting read so, no matter how embarrasing it might be for you to go to the beginner's section of this site, I thnk you'll appreciate the article. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif
That article is what convinced me to switch over from WF to DT for my fishing. I just don't have any occasion when I need to get the fly more than 49 feet away from me (line/leader/tippet) and I'm more effective at controlling drift and catching fish a lot closer than that.
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I don't know who the "you" in your post was supposed to mean (maybe most of us,) but I agree there are some people contributing to this thread that would benefit by reading it. I printed that article out maybe two years ago and also a response the late Leon Chandler made during one of the discussions here on FAOL and both agreed with the point that several of us have been trying to make. If the front taper on a DT and WF line are the same (Leon used the 444 peach lines in his reference,) then there is no difference in the casting or handling of the line until the rear taper of the WF line is out of the rod tip. Bruce Richards infers that many of today's lines have different front tapers for DT and WF, but the truth is that's still only true with a few premium lines. One need only get a few catalogs together and do some comparisons to realize there are still more lines that have identical front tapers than not. SA has tended to go in that direction with their premium Mastery lines, and I think when Bruce wrote that he assumed it would be very common quite soon with all lines. Other companies have done the same with many of their premium lines, but it's less common with the mid- and low priced lines.
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Jr Spey, I didn't intend to offend anybody with my collective "you". For those who thnk there's a significant difference within normal freshwater fishing distances, they might find it informative. For those who don't, they'll find some authoritative reinforcement. I was surprised nobody had mentioned that article yet.
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I think we can all more or less agree with the last coupla posts - ie. that at "normal" freshwater fishing distances WF and DT will handle about the same.
One additional variable are those of us that use wet flies in lakes. Even if you use floating line/weighted fly you have the sink time for the fly. A 60' cast with 1X sink time compared to two 30' [or 40', or whatever] casts with 2X sink time will result in the longer cast being more efficent. Your fly is simply "fishing" longer.
So why are WF's used more? I know that when we had a fly shop locally they had a full selection of WF lines but only 1 or 2 DT's. It was often necessary to special order the DT line. Of course, catalogue and internet sources may not have that problem.
Second, of course, is the marketing hype that the WF is the "modern" flyline.
The often touted "advantage" of the DT - that you can reverse the line and, therefore, get "2 lines for the price of one" does not really prove out IMO. By the time the first end is worn out and you reverse the line the back taper has been wound tightly in a small diameter too long and is kinked badly - often so much that the back end never works well. One way to get around this is to cut the line into two 45' sections. You still have your backing if you hook moby dick and you can usually use a smaller reel [a DT often requires you up-size the reel as it is much bulkier than the WF].
So if we accept the above why don't more of us buy DT's and cut them in half and buy lines only every 5 or 6 years? That would mean we'd only turn thru the catalogues or hang around the fly shop in the winter half as much. Much less chance to buy "stuff" and tell lies [in the case of the fly shop]. Maybe that's the real reason.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
My opinions, of course.
Donald