When I first got into Fly Fishing I was a member of a tournament-casting club. I built my first rod and it was pretty good but not competitive enough - so I built another that would be more competitive. Then I had to build another to be even more competitive. After about five years of this I had become fairly competitive in my casting and had a closet full of junk rods that just didn?t cast that well.

One day I decided to take a few out to give them a try. WOW! To my amazement they had really learned how to cast quite well just sitting in my closet! Or maybe it wasn?t the rod but five years of casting practice that made the difference.

I once built a cheap blank to look identical to a high-end expensive model. I had access to slip it in with a number of the real model during a trade show. None of the casters trying out the rods ever noticed the rod missing the label! They would try one size and then another to eventually cast mine. They could not tell the difference. In fact a few wanted to buy mine right on the spot at full price without even noticing that the label was missing.

I could tell the difference in the rods because of the tournament casting experience I had but most casters could not. If I were to get back into tournament casting I would spend the money because there is a difference.

However I do not believe the average Fly Fisherman can tell the difference and I also believe the action of the cheaper rods while not being as conducive to casting sometimes do make better fishing rods than the expensive models. When fishing I will at times prefer the more comfortable casting for the accuracy and distance.


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Let No One Walk Alone
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Bill