Slow Hands, Slow Casts & Wide Loops have their place on the Water
I own some slow fly rods, and I just love them. There are places and times for every level of rod action on the water.
I inherited a St. Croix 7 wt, that I had rebuilt for my wifes uncle. I had Bill Hinton FFF Fly Casting Instructor give it a try. He just love the St. Croix 7 wt's action and could not believe that it was almost 50 years old and fiberglass.
Then I gave him a 8wt South Bend fiberglass to cast, again he was amazed at the feel of the smooth action of the cast. This one was also about 50 years old.
Then I showed him my prize discovery, a South Bend 59 8-? ft split cane, that had spent the last 50 years in it red cardboard tube in a closet, collecting dust. All for the want of a silk fly line. Now it has a Cortland "Sylk" fly line (thank you Cortland), and it is again singing its song, as it's line is cast over the waters.
Reminds me of that old song (not so for us Older Than Dirt Folks) but "Slow down, you move to fast. You got to make the morning last, just kicking down on the cobblestones; Looking' for fun and feeling' groovy..."!
For heavy weight fly patterns that absorb weight from the water you need a slow fly rod for the wide loops.
I the old days before I was a gleam in my fathers eye, and before he was a gleam in his own fathers eyes, there was a time a place for both quick and slow action fly rods on the water. At first there were only slow fly rods because everything was a wet or weighted. Then came the dry flies, and all of a sudden slow fly rods and wet flies became looked down on by the new "Dry Fly & Up Stream" advocates. They set up so many convoluted rules of engagement of the fish that it became a test to see who could make-up new rules to make it more difficult to catch a fish.
As famous modern quote goes...."We don't need no stinking rules"!
I have slow fly rods and I love them... ~Parnelli
I even have a fly rod that has no snake guides stripping guides, reel, or reel seat, just a tip-tip for attaching the tapered leader, tippet and fly (it is call Tenkara). It is a delight go fishing with, controlling the movement of a soft-hackle wet fly in the water subsurface enticing the fish to attack the fly.
Not bad for a 1.3 MP Cell Phone...
Snapped this pic of my new glass rod almost as an afterthought at the end of an unproductive evening of fishing. With a little touching-up in Picasa, I managed to make the poor image quality work for the shot...kinda.:) At least I like how it turned out.
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As you can see, it's a Diamondglass 7' 4wt. I've got it paired up with an Orvis BBS II reel and a Cortland 444 Sylk line in WF4F. I got it about a month ago and LOVE fishing with it. I finally managed my first "real" catch on the rod this weekend (it was purchased up in Erie, and while trouting up there, I got a few of the steelhead smolt as a by-catch...but they dont count!). First fish was this pretty little brown that my optimistic mind likes to think was stream-born.:) Hit a #14 Parachute Adams.
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