I had to make a trip to New England and on the way home my bride suggested we stop at the Cabela’s in Wheeling WV. While there, I picked up an inexpensive 8-wt. outfit. When I got home I thought that I would like to try it out but it is cold outside and I have been fighting Bronchitis for so long I had to find an other way. Well it dawned on me that the Fellowship Hall at church is empty and plenty tall enough. So I took my new outfit over there with a small piece of black yarn so I can see it land on the light colored floor. Well the rod casts wonderfully for costing as little as it did. BUT it is noisy. Being inside a large bare room, I could hear the fly line whip through the air, and at first is was loud enough to be distracting. I wondered if all fly rods made this much noise so I went home got my 7’6" 2-wt. and my 6’ 4-wt. and took them back. I found that they also were noisy. Not as loud as the 8-wt. but noisy just the same. The 4-wt. was the quietest. I figure the shorter the rod the less the air speed of the line the quieter it is. It never occurred to me that as much line as I was whipping around it was inevitable that some sound would be generated. I will have to listen the next time I get to use them outdoors. Has anyone else ever heard the fly line sing as you cast?
JC,
Maybe I should have titled the post “Fly Lines are noisy”. It was the line that created the noise as it moving. I have never heard it before because I had never cast a flyrod indoors. I can only assume that being inside a large empty room allowed me to hear the noise that had always been there.
I am certain it was the acoustics and stillness of the room that caused you to hear more of the noise the line made as it traveled. More so than in the great outdoors.
The only time fly line sound bothers me when I’m casting is the sonic boom created as I start going the other way to soon and the fly explodes.
Indoor casting. Gotta love it. Did you ever get that dreaded “crak” sound like a bullet shot or bull whip when a cast went wrong> That is the end of the tippet breaking the sound barrier. How fast is that? Way over 55 MPH
JC is dead right on this one, if you can hear your rod going “whoooooosh” you are over powering the rod and just waving it back and forth, not casting the line with the rod. A good cast shound be dead silent unless you are feeding line or hauling and can hear it going through the guides.
I have to agree with JC and Ray here. When there are newbies at the casting club you can always tell they are not relaxed and have bad timing because their casts are noisy. “Generally, the ‘quieter’ you are casting, the more efficient you are casting” is exactly right (although correct English would be ‘efficiently’.
JC, if I hear the line rattling against the guides as it flows out, is this a sign of bad casting. (I know that I need to get together with a casting instructor, but we haven’t been able to sync up yet…<sigh> )
thanks, Ed
I never hear the rod or line when out on the pond…probably not listening for that…my senses are tuned to scanning the water and feeling the line on my thumb ans fingers…
Yep, things sure sound different indoors
than they do outside. Acoustics are a lot
better. Good idea on using the fellowship
hall for casting. Now if you can get them
to put a few stockers in the baptismal pool,
you’ll be good to go until spring.G Warm
regards, Jim
