01-23-2012, 03:13 PM
I agree Jim. I taught a class once with ages of 6 to 16. The younger ones where fantastic. Listen to every thing I said and I literally had to tell them to stop and take a break.
The older they got a little more challenging. Out of say 5 teens, I got actual progress out of three, the other two quickly lost interest.
But I have experimented with CHEAP gear, Inexpensive Gear and Top of the line. Trust me, a newbie can tell the difference. Now a days it is possible to get a great feeling inexpensive rod.
Don't forget the line. Cheap line will be stiff and have terrible memory, plus a taper not right for the rod.
I like SA's GPX line as it is 1/2 size heavier and shoots wonderful. And with only being 1/2 size larger it works well on full flex rods. Super easy to roll cast.
Reason I keep mentioning roll casting is I think that is the cast I use 90% of the time. It is the only choice to keep from getting a big old mess if you are fishing Indicators, or big dries. Also multi flies. Not to mention obsticals behind you specailly at public ponds.
It is an easy cast to learn but you do need water to practice whish is a bonus.
I had a group of newbie woman one year. They immediately started the over head cast, breaking their wrists, loosing flies in the tree and weeds behind them, snapping the line. So I showed each of them the roll cast and the flip upstream cast. No line flying over their head and they caught fish basically cause their line was now in the water more where it needs to be.
Check this out:
http://midcurrent.com/videos/joan-wulff-the-roll-cast/
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The older they got a little more challenging. Out of say 5 teens, I got actual progress out of three, the other two quickly lost interest.
But I have experimented with CHEAP gear, Inexpensive Gear and Top of the line. Trust me, a newbie can tell the difference. Now a days it is possible to get a great feeling inexpensive rod.
Don't forget the line. Cheap line will be stiff and have terrible memory, plus a taper not right for the rod.
I like SA's GPX line as it is 1/2 size heavier and shoots wonderful. And with only being 1/2 size larger it works well on full flex rods. Super easy to roll cast.
Reason I keep mentioning roll casting is I think that is the cast I use 90% of the time. It is the only choice to keep from getting a big old mess if you are fishing Indicators, or big dries. Also multi flies. Not to mention obsticals behind you specailly at public ponds.
It is an easy cast to learn but you do need water to practice whish is a bonus.
I had a group of newbie woman one year. They immediately started the over head cast, breaking their wrists, loosing flies in the tree and weeds behind them, snapping the line. So I showed each of them the roll cast and the flip upstream cast. No line flying over their head and they caught fish basically cause their line was now in the water more where it needs to be.
Check this out:
http://midcurrent.com/videos/joan-wulff-the-roll-cast/
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