I am not familiar with the Dragontail Hellbender rod other than to know it exist.Originally Posted by billknepp
15 ft ( 4.5 meters) of No. 4.5 line is a heavy line, and I would think it would be easier to cast than say a No. 3 line of the same length
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5 ft (1.5m) of 5x tippet might not roll out and fully extend with to low a line speed. But from your description it's not your tippet that is piling up , it's the entire line. I think it must be a timing problem. Or a problem with the speed you are moving the rod.
I would recommend you start with the line laying straight out in front of you on the ground. Starting your back cast from there may help to load the rod for the back cast. So that the rod will flex properly to add power to the forward cast. To keep the fly hook from catching on the grass I would just replace it with a short piece of bright color yarn, not to long so it won't have any more wind resistance than a fly.
It has been stated that the power for the forward cast comes from the back cast. It is important to to think about wanting the line during the back cast to go up at about 45 degrees, not straight back. Then on the forward cast the line is thrown forward and downward at 45 degrees. At least that is how I think about it.
This 4 minute video from Daiwa might be helpful. The naration is in Japanese, but the video is of pretty good quality, you can see the line fairly well. And the graphics put on top of the video shows the casting angle of the rod you should be aiming to duplicate. It is a video showing how to get started Tenkara fishing. So the first 2 mintues just point out you need Rod, Line, Tippet aka Leader and a fly. In Japanese called a Kebari.
The casting instruction is only the last 2 minutes of the video.
The man in the video is Katayama Etsuji ( 片山悦司さん) He is a Field Tester for Daiwa, and it is my understanding that he develops the Level Line Tenkara rods for Daiwa. The Tenkara set up he recommends is shown in the first half of the video. He recommends a 3 to 4 meter rod. A level line length of Rod Lenth + 1.5 meters of No. 3 line, + about 1.8 meters of tippet. That tippet length is a little long for my taste, but that is about the same length you are using. The major difference is he is recommending a level line 1 meter longer than you are using. Oh, and you can ignore the 6 - 11 inch Yellow marker line he put on between the end of the level line and the tippet.
Now he grips the rod at the top of the grip, but that is his style. Some people prefer it. Others prefer to hold the grip in the middle or at the butt end of the grip. Try it or just hold the rod the way you prefer.
The important thing is to observe the angle of his cast. Where he stops the rod on the back cast and the forward cast. If you watch closely you can see the slight pause at the end of the back cast before starting the forward cast. You might even notice how the line tugs on the rod while the rod is held vertically before he starts the forward cast. The is the line loading the rod.
And also observe the rod angles to avoid. Not to far back, not to far forward. Stop about straight up at 12:00 for the back cast. Stop at about 2:30 on the forward cast.
The naration is in Japanese. But as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Then a moving picture is worth a million words. Try to notice the total time of the cast. The pause. And the speed he moves the rod.
http://www.daiwaweb.com/jp/fishing/f...ml#Keiryu#none
The above video and one other one - showing him fishing. Can be opened by clicking on the text box on the below webpage. The above video it the top box. The fishing video is the bottom box.
http://daiwa.globeride.jp/column/tenkara/index.html
Of course each rod or rod + line has it's own way it likes to be cast as a system. Your Hellbender rod may require a bit different timing from the Daiwa rod and line his is using. But the basics will be the same. You will just have to play around with the speed of rod movement, the length of the pause, etc to find what works with your rod and line.
Good luck.
D
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