I only picked up a salmon rod about 10 years ago and having bought my first rod a 14 foot Sage TCR weight 9/10, I was advised to fit a Bill Drury shooting head multi tip 9/10 salmon line. I thought this was to be a simple exercise, as after all, trout fishing rods have a simple AFTMA rating system and Salmon rods purport to follow a similar matching system [Confusingly AFTTA rated] Simple.
Armed with my new 9/10 line on my 9/10 rod, I found it virtually impossible to cast. I was utterly hopeless at casting with this salmon rod. I had relied on the advice of experts [Sage websites/ inscriptions on the rod, advice from Farlows and John Norris] but still the line and rod weren’t balanced. Was the rod wrongly AFTTA rated, possibly, but how would I know? What I did know was that I was getting increasingly pissed off. Each ‘expert’ had a different and opposing view. And my casting was getting worse. Finally after much exasperation, the answer was unearthed in the depths of an online fly fishing forum. Apparently, you should fit a salmon line shooting head that is no longer than three times the length of your rod. I mean, who knew?
So, more confident now in the advice from someone I have never met, I change the line to a Rio short head scandi shooting head set up. It works. Alleluia. The rod is balanced and the line does what I need it to do. You never know, I might even catch a fish.
Now a different set of issues. Just as I have found my way through this maze of line and rod lengths, I am introduced to a world of grams and grains. The Rio website really helps and by example, ‘a #5 single handed rod really works well with around 180 to 200 grains, whereas a #5 Switch rod needs 300 to 330 grains ‘.
Grains of what? Line weight/ Tip weight? Line and Tip weight? I don’t know what the maximum load factor is of my particular rod. I have no idea. I can’t find that information anywhere. It doesn’t say on the Sage TCR or my Sage Method Switch rod what the load factor should be or what a balanced weight needs to be to ensure optimum casting and balance. There must be a simpler way of getting this right beyond the trial and error of actually fishing with different rigs? You can’t unpack a myriad of different fly lines and try this in the fishing shop after all. It’s an expensive process of trial and error.
A plea to tackle manufacturers. Make it simple. Most fishermen I know dislike complexity and don’t want to be worrying about the balance of rod and line. They want to fish, they want to get the fly where they intend to cast it, at the right speed and the right depth and they want to try and catch a fish. The lack of a standardised and consistent approach to line and rod weights confuses those that know how to fish, deters those who are learning and wastes a lot of time and effort.
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