I've been having trouble with my casts since last year. Being an ardent believer in the phrase, "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools." I've just been under the assumption that I just plain suck at casting. However, even though this may be the case, I think I have found part of the reason why my casting is just plain not effective.
I received a new rod under the X-mas tree this year, and my incredibly generous fiance just bought me a nice Okuma SLV 8/9 to put under it. When I brought it and my "9 wt" fly line down to my local fly shop to get some backing put on and then my line connected to it (it's just cheaper doing this) he was amazed at the line I had on there. He swore it couldn't have been anymore than a 6 wt! When I bought the line last year, the box said DT9F...and so did the little tag on the line itself! I mean, I knew I would most likely get what I paid for when I bought a cheap line at WallyWorld...but I wanted to at least actually get what I thought I was paying for! Of course, the box and recipt are long gone as I can't hold onto important receipts...only the ones for the bag of chips I had at the Irving and junk like that.....I found this out on the same day I lost 2 jobs thanx to the Canadian gov't cutting funding for student jobs AND I found out I wasn't going to be getting anymore student loans in September...so going out and buying a new line just aren't options. Then someone dropped a chair on my cell phone and it rained for the only 24 hour period I could go up to the cabin...it's been a rough week!