Beulah vs Echo?

[fatbillybob]

Another question for those of you who cast a 2H-OH rod.
I'm playing with a variety of integrated lines....for the most part proper grain weight with heavy heads. In order to propel the line for maximum distance it would seem I still have to initiate the cast with a fair amount of line off the rod.
Granted I'm still trying to get a feel for the mechanics, and our still cold weather is reeking havoc with lines being stiff.
The crux of it is I'm experimenting with this rod for freshwater applications( lakes) and obviously retrieving the line in pretty far after each cast.
Just curious if integrated lines are more difficult to cast because of friction/ resistance versus a running line?

The fatter the line the shorter it casts but superior line control and easier faster stripping. But some lines have different coatings and surface treatment to combat the fatness to a degree. The longest casting shooting lines are the thin mono shooting lines. They have strength and thinness to shoot far. But thinner means they can increase in tangling and where ever that head lands you live with it. Everything is a tradeoff. I have missed fish trying to strip and strip set because the line is so thin in my hand. Arthritis! There is also oval shaped mono shooting line sort of a hybrid between thin mono running line and round fat shooting line made more like a flyline with core and coating. They are the compromise best of both worlds but negatives of both too. The oval line tangles less, put more line on the reel than round but less than mono, but does not shoot as far as mono because thicker but outperforms round core and coating lines. The oval stuff is darn good but I have not used it in very cold water so I do not know about it's stiffness. Core and coating lines are nice and limp in cold water.

I fish cold water (steelheading) and beaches and I'm lazy. I'm old, have arthritic fingers and they don't work as well in the cold like when I was 30. So I use old school thicker core and coating shooting/running lines because I can grip them well and to a degree mend them. Thicker lines mean superior line control in water. The 2 hand rod gives me all the casting distance I need. Everyone has a favorite so think about your personal application.

 

[fatbillybob]

The biggest problem I had with applying the 2H rod to some of my freshwater was dealing with a 30' head. Typically the retrieve needs to bring the fly closer to the rod, which then requires a few false casts to get the cast initiated. This prompted me to try a shorter head.
The 280 grain intermediate works great.

You can strip in past the head and the cast out problem is caused by not having enough weight of line out. Do the perry poke cast or modification of it. Say 11ft rod, 6ft leader with streamer, 5ft of head out that 11ft in the water. Now just pull up and that 11ft will water load the line and now you got 11+11=22ft out. You perry poke that to dump the 22 + another 10ft and you are at the head to running line point and perry poke out a full cast or snake roll out a cast etc. Once you start using a 2H rod even if primarily overhead casting learning some basic spey techniques snap C, double spey, snake roll, perry poke, can dramatically open up your ease of fishing. Just youtube it. The OBS line is not optimized for spey but you can spey with anything including a 5wt singlehand rod with double taper line.

 

[Hem]

Thank you for the explanation and link.i understand what you are suggesting. I think I will try to incorporate some of these techniques.